(LEAD) Kakao Games Q1 net profit up 54 pct thanks to 'Odin,' better cost management

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SEOUL, May 3 (Yonhap) -- Kakao Games Corp., the gaming unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., reported Tuesday its first-quarter net profit rose 54.2 percent on-year to 28.3 billion won (US$22.3 million) thanks to the popularity of its mobile title "Odin Valhalla Rising" and improved cost management.

Operating profit spiked 169.7 percent on-year to 42.1 billion won in the January-March period, while sales rose 104.7 percent to 266.3 billion won, according to a regulatory filing.

A Kakao Games official said the company's bottom line improved largely due to the popularity of "Odin," a massively multiplayer online role-playing mobile game launched in June last year. The game dethroned NCSOFT's "Lineage M" as the top grossing game on Google's Play store following its release.

The official also said the streamlining of the company's cost management for marketing and other operations boosted the company's net profit.

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