SEOUL, KOREA - Kim Taek-Jin, CEO of NCSoft, criticized the ecosystem of the mobile game industry, saying “In today’s mobile era, the game industry has entered the age of tenant farming.”
At the 2014 G-Star Premier held on November 18 to introduce NCSoft’s new game “Lineage Eternal,”Kim said, “As publishers like Google, Apple and KakaoTalk take out commissions, the share of game producers in total game sales fell to 20-30 percent. Under this business structure, there is no game company which can sustain healthy growth.”
He pointed out that the game market is transformed into a distributor-centered one from a game developer-led one.On the same day, NCSoft declared its entry into the mobile game market. Kim said, “We will do everything we can in the mobile area.”
NCSoft achieved strong results in the third quarter, with sales of 211.6 billion won and operating profit of 81.3 billion won. NCSoft seems far from crisis. However, it failed to create a meaningful presence in the mobile area, and faced criticism that it is not keeping abreast of the times. After peaking at 386,000 won in 2011, its share price fell to 157,500 won today.
Article provided by The Korea Economic Daily
