NCsoft 4Q 2018 earning

NCsoft 4Q 2018 earning

https://imgur.com/a/yt7muR9?

https://imgur.com/bwOiBaS

oof (body limit)

not surprised at all, I haven't spend a dime on this game for a long time because I do not support their decisions making. I do not buy gem items. I buy expansions and real content. I am sure many are of a similar stance.

At this point the only thing that would make me spend money besides full expansions are standalone elite specialization dlcs and and buyable raid wings if we got them at an acceptable release cadence like 2-3 months apart tops.

I can't say I'm happy about the game ATM. Any time I think I'm starting to have fun in this game...

1) Too many camera flashes that hurt my eyes from player's own skills (I can't even play Holosmith), other players' skills, enemy skills, gathering Volatile Magic, gathering tools, story, etc.

2) Too much visual clutter when doing large group events resulting in unengaging, boring, and mindless skill spam-fest since I can't see what the enemy is doing, or you know... even see the enemy. Too many skill effects, names of other players/minions in squad obstructing view, the enemy nameplate at the top center that can't be moved and obstructs large enemies so I don't even know what I'm targeting, etc.

3) Ridiculous aggro range of PoF enemies (900 in PoF compared to 600 everywhere else) single handedly ruins PoF for me. I hate PoF zones with a passion because of this.

4) No build templates.

It's an excellent game, but the above issues (1~3) really ruin it for me since they completely negate the good parts.

EDIT - If I use a weird analogy, it's like a very talented chef made a very delicious steak. Then, for some reason, the chef decided to pour sugar on the steak because, you know, sugar tastes good. And when people say the steak seems great, but they can't really taste it since the sugar is ruining it, AbandonNet… er, I mean, the chef just shrugs that it's annoying to fix it and has started cooking something else.

Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

@mortrialus.3062 said:Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

For me, personally, the fact that I can't save templates of my mounts prevents me from buying multiple mount skins. I have different dyes for all my characters' mounts and I'm not going to save dozens of screenshots for my mount set ups. And since there's no way I'm going to remember my dye set ups, I'm afraid to change my mounts, hence, no reason to have more than 1 mount skin.

HoT brought Raids, PoF didn't being any unique game mode.

I was hoping for a 100-stage, repeatable, progress-savable, partyable Pyramid Gauntlet that offered unique rewards, enemy and boss battles, mechanics, and fun. Maybe even have optional stages or enemies that are on a timer or not on a timer, that have OP stats such as super high Armor, or Attack etc. Maybe even have RNG effects (similar to Fractal effects) that activate versus enemies.

Gauntlets would work well because you don't need to hit stage 100 to get rewards, you can hit certain special floors that allow you to save your progress and leave. Similar to Raiding there is a weekly reward bonus that gets reset weekly.

Lower entry level compared to Raiding (floors 1-30 are pretty easy, they get complex as you go on.) while potentially having a higher skill cap with enemies within the 90-100 floors.

seems like it went down. i dont doubt it because pof was so boring and didnt really invite anyone to spend money besides silly mount skins:(

The game in general is in a wierd state.

WvWThe Last Balance Patch was a disaster.We had a Meta 7/9 Classes for maybe the first time ever.Anet deleted 3.

PvPMirage Fun Time.

FractalsAnet added Instabilities nobody likes.

RaidWaiting Mode

Openworld/storyLike always. An update every 3 month for (at max) 2 weeks of content.

Alot of players ( me included) are just not Motivated to play right now.

The Balance Patch is a decision point for me.

Not surprised as there really hasn’t been anything noteworthy to buy in the gem store and the expansion was over a year ago.

@BlueJin.4127 said:

@mortrialus.3062 said:Stuff like the mount adoption licences and themed mount packs are going to inherently have diminishing returns among most players. I mean really, how many dozens of mount skins can one person need even if they want all their mounts to perfectly match their character's fashion?

I have mount skins (via Gold to Gems) that after a while I just stopped using because even on an 8-core machine with a great video card and 16 MB of RAM, it just takes longer to load than the default skins for not really any better appearance.

@Abelisk.4527 said:HoT brought Raids, PoF didn't being any unique game mode.

I was hoping for a 100-stage, repeatable, progress-savable, partyable Pyramid Gauntlet that offered unique rewards, enemy and boss battles, mechanics, and fun. Maybe even have optional stages or enemies that are on a timer or not on a timer, that have OP stats such as super high Armor, or Attack etc. Maybe even have RNG effects (similar to Fractal effects) that activate versus enemies.

Gauntlets would work well because you don't need to hit stage 100 to get rewards, you can hit certain special floors that allow you to save your progress and leave. Similar to Raiding there is a weekly reward bonus that gets reset weekly.

Lower entry level compared to Raiding (floors 1-30 are pretty easy, they get complex as you go on.) while potentially having a higher skill cap with enemies within the 90-100 floors.

Fractals. You mean Fractals. That they are killing with kitten instabilities.

They killing WvW and PvP, PvE content is getting further and further apart, and rather than re-using some maps they keep making new ones that have YET ANOTHER KITTEN CURRENCY and a stale meta.

Having more fun with other games, or card games with Family (Sentinels of the Multiverse). Or even just Netflix alone with my coffee/beer (depending on time of day).

' If You Don't Solve The Problems From Your PastThey Will Follow You Into Your Future'

http://www.emscognito.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Root-Cause-1170x780.jpg

This has happened since the beginning of GW2. Every quarterly report brings another thread that proclaims the sky is falling. However, my stopped clock has more accuracy than these threads.

@DarcShriek.5829 said:This has happened since the beginning of GW2. Every quarterly report brings another thread that proclaims the sky is falling. However, my stopped clock has more accuracy than these threads.

Except, people aren't claiming the sky is falling. ^^ People are just posting their own opinions on why they don't spend much money in the game.

It's a good reason to nerf Istan.

Maybe if they focused on the mode that no other mmorpg offered, put in the resources needed and the effort to it, monetize it in a way that's not predatory, they would have a stable, loyal and probably growing number of players that would spend on and play the game for a long time.

Just maybe.

This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

Also mount skins have always been overpriced to the point of potentially burning players out.

@Tiviana.2650 said:This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

Nope. GW2 has never had a sub. Neither did GW1. GW2 was designed from the ground up to be buy-to-play and have gems as a premium currency that could be bought both with real money and gold (to even the divide between players who are able/willing to spend money and those who can't/won't). But that was about 10 years ago (as Eye of the North came out in 2007 and replaced the originally planned full Utopia expansion and work on GW2 was started around that time) and there's been some significant team and direction changes since then.

The business model of buy-to-play and having a cash store to keep revenue coming in between expansions is a perfectly fine method. The execution of it done by Arenanet is another matter. The game engine is also about 20 years old and doing things it was never designed to do, which makes it harder to respond to user trends and desires.

Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

• 2014 85,634

• 2015 100,526

• 2016 76,636

• 2017 82,824

• 2018 80,163

• 2019...

• Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

• Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

• Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

• Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

• Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

So many things turn players away from spending on gems. I think the focus and loud shouts for raids and fractals are partly killing this game. There was a large poll last year and raids had something like 5% populations and fractals a little more. WvW was like 30%, pvp a small amount like 15% and open world/world bosses the biggest. No matter your preference in this game, and how small a sample size on this forum the poll covered. Consider your main population is playing modes you only update with the same stuff over and over or never update at all. While the stuff those players rarely or never touch see's updates and content locked behind it.

Then there are the nerfs. 2018 has to be one of the most garbage hatchet job nerf periods ever. Warrior is neutered for example. Just go look at the history of full counter, something that was never OP after the initial CD increase. Warrior was very popular, when you cut its arms off, many of those players won't just jump to another profession, they will jump game or protest by not spending on gems.

And above all, 2018, the worst part? Garbage gem store. It has been better since they adopted the fortnite constant offers formula, something I posted about early 2018. Loot box mounts, MASSIVELY overpriced mount skins and packs, no skin should be beyond the first gem price. Packs the second. When you place items just beyond tier 1 of gems, sometimes tier 2, that doesn't make people think "oh I will just pay more" it makes people think "get lost I am not spending that". It is a dodgy tactic more akin to EA. And one thing I think its genuinely uninspired is outfits over armour skins, this is Fashion wars 2 after all.

Small these like things turn people away from buying gems. I am one of them. I used to buy gems monthly like a sub. More recently I would farm gold for stuff, but they seem to be attacking that also. If I didn't have friends in this game I would of gone on another long break. I always feel like we are fighting against the devs rather than thanking them for content we want, story aside.

@Henry.5713 said:Has it been a year already? Always makes me wonder how few people actually read these reports in their entirety.

Numbers in billion ₩

• 2014 85,634

• 2015 100,526

• 2016 76,636

• 2017 82,824

• 2018 80,163

• 2019...

• Q4 2015 37,331 Heart of Thorns

• Q4 2016 14,870 Nothing

• Q4 2017 34,903 Path of Fire

• Q4 2018 15,699 Nothing

• Q4 2019...

Turns out 2018 hasn't been that bad of a year, not at all considering it didn't have an expansion release. And 2019 might end up being their best year yet or at least close to 2015 if they keep up sales similar to 2018 with the addition of a new expansion. Why exactly are people panicing again?

That's far more useful than a synopsis of the four fiscal quarters following the release of the last expansion, and after checking the exchange rate you really can't complain about a studio of their size selling the better part of $100M of product a year.

Given how their sales are clearly expansion-driven, you'd figure they'll be working on something else if they're not planning another expansion following the S4 finale. Six and a half years post-release, they will have figured out what draws players in GW2 and what doesn't.

@"Bish.8627" said:And above all, 2018, the worst part? Garbage gem store. It has been better since they adopted the fortnite constant offers formula, something I posted about early 2018. Loot box mounts, MASSIVELY overpriced mount skins and packs, no skin should be beyond the first gem price. Packs the second. When you place items just beyond tier 1 of gems, sometimes tier 2, that doesn't make people think "oh I will just pay more" it makes people think "get lost I am not spending that". It is a dodgy tactic more akin to EA. And one thing I think its genuinely uninspired is outfits over armour skins, this is Fashion wars 2 after all.

Pricy skins are controversial, but they work for some reason. I can kind of see why, too.

Prior to PoF, I'd spent close to nothing on the gem store because there just wasn't anything I wanted that couldn't be converted from gold easily enough - that accounted for a bare handful of outfits (I play Charr exclusively, so there's hardly anything that looks good) and some infinite harvesting tools.

After PoF, I've bought quite a number of mount skins. Some of the random-rolled ones, just as a base collection for when I don't feel like something fancy, and many of the 2000 gem ones. Why? I guess I like mounts, and I don't have any expensive hobbies so I'm happy to spend a little bit on this. Plus I like ANet's artists, and their pricing for exclusive items is actually pretty reasonable when you'd pay upwards of $100 USD for exclusive things in other MMOs and RPGs I play.

Basically, ANet is providing players that have money to burn with something to burn it on if they like. They don't expect the majority of their players to be able (or willing) to do this.

@Tiviana.2650 said:This game used to be a sub based game didnt it? What if is was $5$10 a month to play but you could get skins/ mounts in game from boss drops, clean up some ingame Qol issues, keep the gem store as a side, but allow more to be done ingame instead of being bought. Allow wardrobe and hair to be changed ingame with ingame currency like gold or badges of some type. The big stuff like gender/race change really fancy outfits sparkle ponies and fancy tools rare minis fancy wings can still be in the gem store. Gems are here as i understand it to support the game since it dropped the sub, and thats fine, but i think if the quality of ingame play was there you wouldnt need a gem store, and people would pay a sub. Not a ridiculous sub like some games, but a decent enough one that it could work. But you have to have the content ingame to support it.

If this game goes sub I stop playing cause I cannot stand the sub model. I want to buy a game and then play it when I want, not make sure I got a sub running so I can play it.