NCSoft Stockwatch

[JanessaVR]

I'm honestly unsure who to root for here, but as NCSoft is actually dealing with us now on the IP sale, I'm inclined to think the devil we know is better than the one we don't.

[saipaman]

I don't know, as time goes by, the devil we don't know looks more appealing.

[Drauger9]

I'm honestly unsure who to root for here, but as NCSoft is actually dealing with us now on the IP sale, I'm inclined to think the devil we know is better than the one we don't.

Agreed, I'm worried that if Nexon takes over we'll lose all the progress we made with NCSoft. Especially if there's hard feeling between the two. Cause I think Nexon wouldn't want to work with us for the simple fact NCSoft was willing to give us a deal.

Either way we'll have to wait and see....

[FatherXmas]

Well I think it has absolutely nothing to do with us or any of the "western" MMOs as some on various other boards have suggested.  NA/EU has always been looked at as small potatoes compared to Asia.

[FatherXmas]

Now I find this interesting.  Ra-Ra analyst KDB Daewoo kept their mouths shut until today to discuss last month's 4th quarter and yearly numbers.  I bet they were keeping their heads down until the Nexon/NCSOFT fight got resolved or at least reached a stalemate.

There recomendations, buy low in the first half of 2015, sell high during the 2nd half.

[Drauger9]

Now I find this interesting.  Ra-Ra analyst KDB Daewoo kept their mouths shut until today to discuss last month's 4th quarter and yearly numbers.  I bet they were keeping their heads down until the Nexon/NCSOFT fight got resolved or at least reached a stalemate.

There recomendations, buy low in the first half of 2015, sell high during the 2nd half.

I was just thinking about this today. I was wondering if things settled down between them two. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a stalemate for now but eventually Nexon will win. The higher ups of NCSoft will branch out into other related areas and eventually leave the company.

[saipaman]

Today's NCSoft news from Massively:

http://massivelyop.net/2015/03/13/embezzlement-scandal-rocks-ncsoft/

The short version is that several employees were caught embezzling money.

[FatherXmas]

Today's NCSoft news from Massively:

http://massivelyop.net/2015/03/13/embezzlement-scandal-rocks-ncsoft/

The short version is that several employees were caught embezzling money.

Just remember"tens of millions of Korean won" is only tens of thousands of dollars.  Still not trivial but compared to the company's 2014 income of 838,718 million Korean won is tiny.  It's not like the CEO or CFO ran off with 100 million USD to Brazil or someplace.  Sounds more like paying for services not rendered by a 3rd party.

What's more interesting is the National Assembly (their congress) is considering legislation to ban blind box items from online games cash shops.  Anyone whose played any free or hybrid MMO in the last decade are familiar with these.  CoH's Super Packs are the closest thing we had.  A relatively inexpensive item that rewards you with a random or group of random items with the chance of getting a highly desirable item.  Many a discussion on such items end up discussing of this is a form of gambling since while the usual items that drop are still on paper worth more than the chance, the driving motivation in buying is the highly desirable item with the rest considered junk.

Guild Wars 2 for instance has Chests that you buy keys to open.  Now they normally contain 3 random items from their cash shop.  But there are a few very high value items you can get as well as an exclusive item, a claim ticket (or the more common claim ticket scrap worth 1/10th of a claim ticket).  Claim tickets can be cashed in for unique weapon looks that could be sold to other players.  Now I've liken this to buying a Whitman Sampler that has a "Chance to Win" sticker on the box.  How many people would buy box after box, chuck the chocolates, looking for that Golden Ticket?  But there's been many threads on the GW2 forum about people who are disappointed that getting that rare ticket is truly rare after spending what they thought was enough to secure one.  And the conversation steers to gambling and gambling addiction, probability and statistics and why RNG rewards suck.

I guess that since Internet and Online Gaming are considered addictions in South Korea now, it's only natural that something that resembles straight up gambling in games is now in the crosshairs.

Game industry opposes lucky-draw item regulation bill

[Rejolt]

Just remember"tens of millions of Korean won" is only tens of thousands of dollars.  Still not trivial but compared to the company's 2014 income of 838,718 million Korean won is tiny.  It's not like the CEO or CFO ran off with 100 million USD to Brazil or someplace.  Sounds more like paying for services not rendered by a 3rd party.

What's more interesting is the National Assembly (their congress) is considering legislation to ban blind box items from online games cash shops.  Anyone whose played any free or hybrid MMO in the last decade are familiar with these.  CoH's Super Packs are the closest thing we had.  A relatively inexpensive item that rewards you with a random or group of random items with the chance of getting a highly desirable item.  Many a discussion on such items end up discussing of this is a form of gambling since while the usual items that drop are still on paper worth more than the chance, the driving motivation in buying is the highly desirable item with the rest considered junk.

Guild Wars 2 for instance has Chests that you buy keys to open.  Now they normally contain 3 random items from their cash shop.  But there are a few very high value items you can get as well as an exclusive item, a claim ticket (or the more common claim ticket scrap worth 1/10th of a claim ticket).  Claim tickets can be cashed in for unique weapon looks that could be sold to other players.  Now I've liken this to buying a Whitman Sampler that has a "Chance to Win" sticker on the box.  How many people would buy box after box, chuck the chocolates, looking for that Golden Ticket?  But there's been many threads on the GW2 forum about people who are disappointed that getting that rare ticket is truly rare after spending what they thought was enough to secure one.  And the conversation steers to gambling and gambling addiction, probability and statistics and why RNG rewards suck.

I guess that since Internet and Online Gaming are considered addictions in South Korea now, it's only natural that something that resembles straight up gambling in games is now in the crosshairs.

Game industry opposes lucky-draw item regulation bill

Wow, if lockboxes are made illegal you may as well close up Champions right now. That's the thing keeping CO in the black (however small that margin is).

[JanessaVR]

If this happens, I will laugh and laugh and laugh...

I've always hated the idea of lockboxes.  At least with the Super Packs, even your "lowest draw" was typically something good.  As I've said before here, I bought lots of Super Packs, but at least from what I hear from people here the loot from lockboxes in Champions is a real crapshoot, and you're more likely to get junk than not.

[FatherXmas]

It may simply become illegal in South Korea or restricted on how much can be bought per account per month.  Korea has mandatory exclusion of minors during certain hours, which they were talking about expanding.  Obviously we don't see that here in the US so no reason to expect any ban there on blind-boxes peculating over here.

[JanessaVR]

Obviously we don't see that here in the US so no reason to expect any ban there on blind-boxes peculating over here.

Alas...

[P51mus]

It may simply become illegal in South Korea or restricted on how much can be bought per account per month.  Korea has mandatory exclusion of minors during certain hours, which they were talking about expanding.  Obviously we don't see that here in the US so no reason to expect any ban there on blind-boxes peculating over here.

Well, even if they wouldn't be outright banned here, there probably wouldn't be anymore in games developed in Korea that have NA servers.  I'd consider that a win.

[FatherXmas]

Minor news blip on NCSOFT.  Rankings of public game companies in terms of income.  NCSOFT is 21st.

http://www.newzoo.com/free/rankings/top-25-companies-by-game-revenues/

[FatherXmas]

1Q 2015 results.

Year over Year, total income up 5.6% for the quarter.  Profits down 2.6%.

Lineage up 61.0%
Blade & Soul up 39.2% due to strong Taiwan sales.

WildStar looks like it's on life support with only 2,593 million KrW in sales for the quarter.  That puts subscriptions at roughly 50,000- 60,000.  I can see them giving them a full year but unless there's a F2P option in the near future it looks as if Carbine fumbled badly at judging what MMO players will pay for.  It's still doing better than Tabula Rosa did.  But we'll see if Carbine has any white knights in Seoul to keep the game going.

For once NCSOFT stock surged on the news, near a 52 week high at 219,500 a share (~$200).

[Solitaire]

1Q 2015 results.

Year over Year, total income up 5.6% for the quarter.  Profits down 2.6%.

Lineage up 61.0%
Blade & Soul up 39.2% due to strong Taiwan sales.

WildStar looks like it's on life support with only 2,593 million KrW in sales for the quarter.  That puts subscriptions at roughly 50,000- 60,000.  I can see them giving them a full year but unless there's a F2P option in the near future it looks as if Carbine fumbled badly at judging what MMO players will pay for.  It's still doing better than Tabula Rosa did.  But we'll see if Carbine has any white knights in Seoul to keep the game going.

For once NCSOFT stock surged on the news, near a 52 week high at 219,500 a share (~$200).

Apprently Wildstar is coming to Steam in August as F2P, so I've read on Massively Overpowered.
http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/13/rumor-wildstar-is-coming-to-steam-and-might-be-going-f2p/

[FatherXmas]

Looks like last week they announced a few things.  First B&S is coming to NA/EU as a F2P likely this winter. 

Also their Project HON, which looked like a great mech game, got canceled due to lack of "local" interest.  :(

Sadly that makes my "but does it play in Busan" comment years ago seem more true than ever.