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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] Samsung Securities stated on the 10th that it maintains a "Buy" rating for NCSoft (036570), considering the company's asset value and the momentum from upcoming game releases. However, it lowered the target price from 270,000 KRW to 250,000 KRW. The previous day's closing price was 190,000 KRW.
Samsung Securities commented, "Journey of Monarch 4, released on the 5th, has failed to differentiate itself from existing idle RPGs, leading to mixed user reviews. As a result, additional revenue growth is expected to be limited." It also revised its estimate for Journey of Monarch 4’s fourth-quarter average daily revenue down from 700 million KRW to 300 million KRW, citing the game's slower-than-expected climb in revenue rankings.
The firm noted, "Following the modest initial performance of Hoyun, a switching RPG based on the Blade & Soul IP, Journey of Monarch 4, an idle RPG developed using the Lineage IP, has also shown underwhelming results. This has increased market concerns about NCSoft's strategy of expanding into new genres using its IP."
However, it added, "Throne and Liberty (TL) has demonstrated solid revenue performance, climbing to 8th place in Steam’s sales rankings after recent updates. This symbolizes the global success potential of NCSoft's MMORPGs, and the anticipated success of next year’s Aion 2 remains intact."
AlphaBIZ Kim SangJin(letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
