NCSoft Targets 5 Trillion Won Sales by 2030, Expands Mobile and New IP
NCSoft has unveiled a strategy to lift annual sales to 5 trillion won and achieve an return on equity of 15% by 2030, centering on upgrading its legacy IP and securing new intellectual property. Co-CEO Park Byung-mu outlined the plan at the company’s management strategy briefing on the 12th, adding that mobile casual games will serve as a new growth engine alongside existing hit titles such as Lineage.
The company intends to sustain and boost the core value of its established IPs—Lineage, Aion, Guild Wars 2 and others—by upgrading service platforms and expanding markets to create a more stable revenue base. A parallel track will pursue new IP through both in-house development and publishing partnerships, with the aim of diversifying genres beyond traditional MMORPGs.
In addition to expanding core IP, NCSoft plans to broaden its genre mix to include first-person shooters, subculture titles, and action RPGs. The company already has more than 10 internally developed titles and more than six publishing titles in its lineup, with more details to be disclosed gradually. The approach emphasizes both depth in established franchises and breadth through new offerings.
A key pillar of the growth plan is the mobile casual segment. NCSoft intends to build a full ecosystem that leverages its data analytics and live-service capabilities to capture a larger share of the mobile market. To strengthen this effort, the company appointed Anel Ceman as head of the Mobile Casual Center in July last year, and in recent years acquired the European mobile-casual platform JustPlay to accelerate its capabilities.
The Mobile Casual Center operates with an integrated approach across development, publishing, data, and technology. NCSoft has outlined a five-stage process for mobile casual titles: frequent concept testing, rapid prototyping, user-focused A/B testing and data analysis, data-driven decisions on whether to scale, and ongoing operation of successful titles. Anel Ceman has described the potential reach of mobile casual games, noting that a single popular title can achieve tens of millions of downloads globally and that prototype-to-launch timelines can be as short as four to eight weeks.
Park emphasized that existing IPs provide stable cash flows, while new IPs are expected to generate growth beyond that base. He also signaled that the company will publish FPS and subculture titles to complete a diversified "cluster" of offerings that can appeal to a broader audience.
NCSoft has acknowledged that its traditional markets for Lineage and other IPs—Korea, Taiwan, and Japan—have limitations related to audience demographics and geographic reach. To address this, the company has been running internal committees to ensure game quality, technical readiness, and development progress, with the aim of expanding the reach to new generations and regions.
For U.S. readers, the plan matters because NCSoft is one of Korea’s premier game developers with a long history in MMORPGs and live-service games. A shift toward mobile casual titles and a broader publishing strategy could influence the global competitive landscape, including opportunities for cross-border licensing, partnerships, and platform activity. Europe’s JustPlay acquisition signals a global expansion appetite that could affect how Western studios collaborate with and compete against a major Asian publisher, potentially impacting markets, supply chains for game development, and investment dynamics in the American gaming industry.