NCsoft vs Netmarble... The Fall of the Lineage Empire and the Rise of the Mobile Kingdom

NCsoft vs Netmarble... The Fall of the Lineage Empire and the Rise of the Mobile Kingdom [CEONEWS = Reporter Park Soo-nam]

[CEONEWS = Reporter Park Soo-nam] In December 2024, the Korean gaming industry was shaken by shocking news. NCsoft, once dubbed the “Samsung of Gaming,” recorded its first annual deficit in 26 years since its founding. In the same year, Netmarble posted 2.6638 trillion won in revenue, growing 6.5% year-on-year and outperforming NCsoft for the second consecutive year.

How did the legend of NCsoft, which began with Lineage in 1998, come to an end? And how did Netmarble, once on the brink of collapse, rise to the top of the industry?

This is not just a tale of corporate highs and lows. It is the story of a seismic shift in the entire gaming industry—from PC to mobile, from developer-driven to user-centric, from dependence on a single IP to diversification of portfolios. It’s a story where those who quickly adapted to change thrived, while those who clung to past glories faced decline.

By retracing the 25-year histories of these two giants, we look into the essence of the changes reshaping the Korean game industry and ask: Who will truly hold the power in the next generation of gaming?

The Prelude to the Downfall Triggered by Lineage Dependency

NCsoft’s crisis was a disaster waiting to happen. For over 20 years, the Lineage series accounted for more than 60% of the company’s total revenue, and in 2022, it surpassed 80%. The company had staked its fate on a single IP.

When Lineage M posted about 1.5 trillion won in revenue within a year of its 2017 release, the strategy seemed flawless. By 2022, the three Lineage IP games had recorded a cumulative global revenue of 14.37 trillion won, the highest for a single game IP in Korean history.

But from that peak, the Lineage myth quickly began to fade. In 2024, NCsoft released two highly anticipated titles, “HoYeon” and “Journey of Monarch,” both of which flopped. “HoYeon” in particular only achieved 500,000 downloads on Android, far short of expectations.

The results were disastrous: 1.5781 trillion won in revenue with a 109.2 billion won operating loss. A company that once nearly earned 1 trillion won in annual operating profit had regressed to its status from 26 years prior. This was followed by restructuring, reducing its 5,000-person headquarters workforce to around 3,000 through a voluntary retirement program for the first time in 12 years.

The stock market response was brutal. NCsoft’s stock, which once surpassed 1 million won in 2021, collapsed to below 150,000 won by April 2025—a stunning 86% drop in just a few years.

The Miracle Created by Netmarble’s ‘Mobile Only’ Declaration

In contrast, Netmarble’s story was entirely different. Founded in 2000 with just 1 billion won in capital and 8 employees, Netmarble was nearly shut down after every one of its 30+ new titles between 2007 and 2011 failed.

The turning point came in 2011 when Chairman Bang Jun-hyuk, who had stepped back due to health issues, returned to the helm, declaring, “Let’s look at the bigger market.” This marked a bold pivot from PC online to mobile.

The symbolic result of this pivot was “Everybody’s Marble,” released in 2013. A mobile adaptation of a dice board game, it remained in the top 10 revenue rankings on Google Play for nearly three years post-launch.

The true leap came with the 2016 release of “Lineage 2: Revolution.” Using the IP secured through a 2015 cross-investment deal with NCsoft, this game surpassed 100 billion won in cumulative revenue just 14 days after release and earned 206 billion won within a month, rewriting the history of Korean mobile gaming.

It made 7.9 billion won on its first day, with a peak daily revenue of 11.6 billion won. Thanks to Revolution’s success, Netmarble achieved its goal of 1 trillion won in annual revenue a year early and went on to become the top KOSPI-listed game company following its IPO the next year.

Developer-Centric vs User-Centric: The Philosophy That Decided the Winner

The key difference behind the contrasting fortunes of the two companies lies in their operational philosophies. While NCsoft stuck to a developer-centered culture, Netmarble shifted to user-centered operations.

Netmarble’s hits are known for their continuous updates and user-friendly operations. For example, when “Seven Knights” launched in 2014, it had only 19 six-star heroes, but by steadily adding new ones every month for six years, that number grew to 171 by 2020.

Chairman Bang frequently emphasizes that “the game business is ultimately a service business,” reflecting how ongoing communication and trust with users have become decisive factors in a game’s success or failure.

NCsoft, on the other hand, was slow to adapt. It remained complacent in its PC MMORPG success and was late to pivot to mobile. Moreover, it failed to recognize that its traditional PC-style monetization and operations didn’t translate well to mobile. It misread shifting user demands and industry trends.

A Complete Shift in the Platform Paradigm

The shift from PC to mobile, which began in the 2010s, became an unstoppable trend. By 2023, mobile games accounted for 59.3% of Korea’s game market revenue, making it the dominant platform, while PC games dropped to just 25.6%.

In just over a decade, the mainstream gaming platform had completely changed. Amid this massive transition, the performance trajectories of the two companies reversed sharply from 2022 onward.

2025, Netmarble’s Second Golden Age

Netmarble continues to ride a wave of success in 2025. Two new titles—“Seven Knights Rebirth” in May and “RF Online Next” in March—became hits, lifting the company’s once-sluggish performance.

More noteworthy is Netmarble’s structural transformation. After posting losses for two consecutive years through 2023, the company returned to profitability last year through cost efficiency and a focus-and-select strategy.

The new solo CEO system under Kim Byung-gyu, launched in March 2025, declared this the “Year of Rebound,” announcing plans to release nine new titles evenly throughout the year to build a stable revenue base.

Game Launch Is Not the End, But the Beginning

The diverging paths of NCsoft and Netmarble offer a clear lesson to the Korean gaming industry: resting on the laurels of past success and hesitating to innovate can cause even the strongest to fall overnight.

Conversely, those who embrace change and take bold steps can become game changers—even if they started late.

Today, fandom has become the driving force of the gaming market. Game companies are no longer just content creators but service providers and community managers.

As Netmarble’s motto says, “Game launch is not the end, but the beginning.” The ability to provide lasting live service post-launch now determines a company’s success or failure.

Market forecasts support this trend. In 2025, the global game market is expected to grow about 4% year-over-year to roughly $205 billion. The focus of competition is shifting from technology to IP diversification, platform variety, and operational capability.

In the end, the game industry is a business of winning hearts. What NCsoft lost by clinging to the Lineage myth, Netmarble held onto in the midst of crisis—the trust and loyalty of users.

The shift in the Korean game industry landscape leaves a painful yet crucial lesson: “The user is king.” The winners of this era will not be defined by capital or technology alone, but by the companies that breathe with their users and prepare for the future together.