NCSoft Corp. (036570) unveiled its vision to achieve 5 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in annual revenue by 2030, leveraging mobile casual games and other new growth drivers. The company aims to diversify its business structure away from heavy reliance on legacy intellectual properties such as Lineage to establish a foundation for sustainable growth.
NCSoft disclosed its mid-to-long-term growth strategy at the "2026 NC Management Strategy Conference" held at its Pangyo R&D Center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday.
"A transformation completely different from the NCSoft you've seen until now is underway," said Co-CEO Park Byung-moo. "Through building a sustainable growth model, we will achieve 5 trillion won in revenue and return on equity of 15% or higher by 2030."
Park diagnosed that NCSoft's growth has been constrained by a business structure concentrated in specific genres such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). He noted that earnings have been heavily dependent on the success of individual game titles, while development delays have made it difficult to respond to changing market trends. Additionally, approximately 70% of revenue is concentrated in specific regions including South Korea and Taiwan, and a user base centered on a specific age group and gender—colloquially known as "Linjer-ssi"—was also identified as a growth constraint. NCSoft's financial performance has indeed been volatile due to its Lineage series-centric business model. Operating profit of 559 billion won in 2022 turned into an operating loss of 109.2 billion won in 2024.
In response, NCSoft presented three core strategies to drive growth: legacy IP expansion, new IP development, and mobile casual gaming. The company plans to solidify a stable annual revenue base of approximately 1.5 trillion won through enhanced operation of existing core IPs including Lineage and Aion, while pioneering new markets through new IP development and mobile casual games.
NCSoft particularly identified mobile casual gaming as a new growth engine, citing faster development cycles and a broader user base compared to MMORPGs that enable a more stable revenue structure. "Mobile casual games account for more than 30% of the overall gaming market, and major global game studios are continuing large-scale investments, which is why we have made this a new growth pillar," Park said.
NCSoft established a Mobile Casual Center last year and has been actively building its mobile casual ecosystem, acquiring Rifuhu (Vietnam) and Springcomes (South Korea), followed by the recent acquisition of German mobile game platform company JustPlay for 301.6 billion won. "We will expand our vision through pioneering new markets including Europe, the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and India," Park said.