Kakao Games' Q3 net profit nosedives 75 pct on sluggish sales

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- Kakao Games Corp., the gaming unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., said Wednesday its third-quarter net profit nosedived 75 percent from a year earlier due to sluggish sales in mobile games and a lack of new products.

Kakao Games logged a net profit of 11.3 billion won (US$8 million) on a consolidated basis in the three months ending in September, compared with a 44.3 billion-won net profit a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit edged up 2.3 percent on-year to 43.7 billion won, and sales tumbled 34.2 percent to 306.9 billion won. Mobile games earned 197 billion won, while PC games posted 13.3 billion won in sales.

The company said the weak bottom line is blamed on a slowdown in sales led by its blockbuster mobile titles "Odin Valhalla Rising," released last year, and "Uma Musume Pretty Derby," released in June.

"Odin" is a massively multiplayer online role-playing mobile game launched in June last year, and gained huge popularity in Taiwan after its local release in March. "Uma Musume" was developed by Japanese developer Cygames Inc. and published by the South Korean company in June.

Kakao Games said its upcoming lineup will help the company make a rebound in ensuing quarters. It plans to release mobile RPG game "Eversoul" worldwide in the first quarter of 2023, followed by "ArcheAge War" and "Ares: Rise of Guardians."

Shares of Kakao Games shed 3.91 percent to trade at 38,050 won on the tech-savvy KOSDAQ bourse as of 9:15 a.m.

brk@yna.co.kr
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