Nexon Releases Earnings for First Quarter 2022
NEXON Co., Ltd. reported Q1 2022 revenues of ¥91.0 billion, a 3% year-over-year increase. Operating income fell 11% to ¥38.5 billion, while net income reached ¥40.3 billion, boosted by a ¥12.7 billion foreign exchange gain. The successful launch of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile in Korea significantly increased daily active users and contributed to overall growth. Looking ahead, Q2 revenue is projected between ¥81.3 and ¥87.3 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 45% to 56%.
- Q1 revenues increased by 3% year-over-year to ¥91 billion.
- Net income exceeded expectations at ¥40.3 billion, aided by a ¥12.7 billion FX gain.
- Launch of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile led to a 20% rise in daily active users for the PC game.
- Operating income decreased 11% year-over-year to ¥38.5 billion.
- Marketing expenses and HR costs were lower than planned but royalty costs exceeded expectations.
Q1 Results Driven by Improved Performance of Key Franchises Plus the Launch of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile
Flawless Launch of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile in
New Virtual Worlds Scheduled for Global Launch in 2022 Include KartRider: Drift and the First Game from
“We could not be more excited about the recent results and what they mean for our full year performance,” said
“Nexon’s business is designed to thrive in any economic climate, with disciplined cost control, substantial cash reserves, no debt, and roughly
Recent Highlights Include:
-
Q1 Nexon group revenues were
¥91.0 billion , up3% year-over-year on an as-reported basis and down1% year-over-year on a constant currency basis1– within the range of our outlook. -
Operating income was
¥38.5 billion , down11% year-over-year – in the range of our outlook. Marketing expenses and HR costs were lower than planned while royalty cost and PG fee2 exceeded our plan due to stronger-than-expected sales from FIFA ONLINE 43 and Dungeon&Fighter Mobile. -
Net income4 was
¥40.3 billion – exceeding our outlook. Driven by a¥12.7 billion FX gain primarily onU.S. dollar-denominated cash deposits. -
First quarter revenue was driven by the launch of a new
Virtual World , Dungeon&Fighter Mobile inKorea and by FIFA ONLINE 43 which achieved record-high quarterly sales inKorea . -
Dungeon&Fighter Mobile, a new
Virtual World launched inKorea onMarch 24 , became a top-grossing game, reaching the #1 spot on both theApp Store andGoogle Play. Concerns about franchise cannibalization were put to rest with the mobile game launch contributing to as much as a20% increase in daily active users in the PC game. -
In
China , Dungeon&Fighter grew year-over-year driven by well-receivedLunar New Year package sales and is expected to maintain steady growth in the months ahead. -
In
Korea , despite being down year-over-year against a tough comparison in 2021, MapleStory rebounded from the previous quarter with a successful Winter Update and is expected to show strong growth across the rest of the year. Net Promoter Scores for the game are returning to the high levels of Q1 2021. MapleStory’s performance is expected to show continuous improvement in Q2 and beyond. -
Despite solid contributions from Blue Archive and MapleStory M, revenue from
North America andEurope decreased by2% year-over-year due to declines in Choices5 and MapleStory. -
In
Japan , revenue from CounterSide was more than offset by declines from TRAHA, V4 and Blue Archive. -
Revenue from the Rest of World6 increased by
42% year-over-year driven by the growth in MapleStory and MapleStory M as well as a contribution from Blue Archive. -
Nexon’s Embark Studio in
Stockholm, Sweden is working on multiple new Virtual Worlds for global release. The first, ARC Raiders, is scheduled for later this year and later this month will be conducting its largest community test with external players. A secondVirtual World from Embark, codenamed Discovery, is expected to launch in the next 12 months and received good scores from players in a recent closed external playtest. - Other new titles in development include DNF Duel – a new action fighting game based on the Dungeon&Fighter IP on PC and console, and KartRider: Drift.
Second Quarter 2022 Outlook:
-
Expect revenues in the range of
¥81.3 t o¥87.3 billion , up45% to56% year-over-year on an as reported basis, up36% to45% : year-over-year on a constant currency basis1 -
Expect operating income of
¥22.7 t o¥27.3 billion -
Expect net income of
¥16.1 t o¥19.7 billion -
Forex sensitivity7: Every
one Japanese yen move against theU.S. dollar would have the following impact on our financials for Q2 2022 -
Revenues:
¥0.66 billion -
Operating Income:
¥0.22 billion
Conference Call (Japanese & English)
Nexon management will host a conference call for investors, analysts and the media to discuss the company’s financial results and outlook. The conference call will be held at
Time:
Pre-registration Required
Please register in advance from the link below. Participant PIN and Security Code will be provided upon registration. Please click here to reach the registration page.
(Please note that the link is accessible on
Telephone Number
+81-3-6629-1042(
+44-20-3364-5380(
+65-640-85783(
*Participant PIN and Security Code will be required to join the call
Audio Archive and Transcript
An audio archive and a transcript will be available on Nexon’s Investor Relations website at https://ir.nexon.co.jp/en/ after the earnings conference call. This press release is prepared to offer reference information about Nexon to investors and is intended to generally provide investors and analysts with financial and operational information about Nexon, but not to solicit or recommend any sale or purchase of stock or other securities of Nexon.
About
Founded in 1994,
1 Constant currency is a non-GAAP measure used to show performance unaffected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Constant-currency basis amounts are calculated using the average foreign currency exchange rates for the comparable period in the prior year and applied to the current period.
2 PG fee includes commissions made to external payment gateway companies when users purchase ingame items in PC Online games that we service. It also includes mobile carrier-related commissions we pay regarding our Japanese mobile browser games, commissions we pay to Apple/
3 Official titles are EA SPORTS™ FIFA ONLINE 4 (PC) and EA SPORTS™ FIFA ONLINE 4 M (mobile).
4 Net income refers to net income attributable to owners of the parent.
5 Official title is Choices: Stories You Play.
6 “Rest of World” includes other Asian countries as well as Central and South American countries.
7 In most situations, the exchange rates of both the South Korean Won and the Chinese Yuan are linked to the
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220511006184/en/
CorporatePR.Team@nexon.co.jp
Source:
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