NCsoft Targets 5 Trillion Won Revenue by 2030, Expands IP and Mobile Games
NCsoft unveiled a mid- to long-term growth plan at a 2026 management strategy briefing held at its Pangyo R&D Center in Seongnam, South Korea. The company said it intends to move beyond an MMORPG-dominated model by prioritizing new intellectual property and mobile casual games as the core of its growth.
Park Byung-mu, NCsoft’s co-CEO, announced the plan, which includes a goal of 5 trillion won in annual sales by 2030 and an return on equity of at least 15%. He framed the shift as a fundamental transformation from past practices and stressed the need for a sustainable growth model.
The leadership pointed to structural constraints as reasons for pursuing diversification. The business has been heavily concentrated on a few genres and a single blockbuster IP, with roughly 70% of sales generated in Korea and Taiwan. The user base has also skewed toward an older male demographic, described in local media as the so-called “Linjossi” phenomenon. The company’s results have reflected volatility, with 2022 operating profit of 559 billion won and a 2024 operating loss of 109.2 billion won.
To address these issues, NCsoft outlined three core strategies: expand legacy IP, discover and develop new IP, and grow the mobile casual business. The plan aims to keep a stable revenue base from established IP—targeting about 1.5 trillion won annually—while building momentum through new IP and a broader mobile casual footprint.
Mobile casual is highlighted as a key growth engine due to shorter development cycles and a larger potential audience. NCsoft notes that mobile casual accounts for more than 30% of the global mobile game market and that major studios continue to invest in this segment. The company has already established a Mobile Casual Center and has pursued acquisitions to build its mobile ecosystem, including in Vietnam and Korea, and most recently Germany’s JustPlay for about 301.6 billion won.
Beyond Korea and Taiwan, NCsoft plans to reach new markets in Europe, the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and India. The expansion aims to diversify revenue streams and reduce dependence on a narrow regional footprint, aligning with broader industry trends toward multi-platform portfolios and global IP distribution.
NCsoft is a major South Korean game developer and publisher known for the Lineage series and other titles. It is publicly listed on South Korea’s KOSDAQ under the ticker 036570. The company’s strategy signals how a leading Korean studio is recalibrating to compete in a rapidly evolving global market for PC, console, and mobile games, with potential implications for Western partners, licensing deals, and US consumers as new IP and mobile titles reach broader audiences.