Kakao Games reports record net profit as Odin proves a big winner

Kakao Games reported a record net profit as Odin: Valhalla Rising, its latest mobile game, proved popular. The KRX-listed game publisher posted a 44.3-billion-won ($37.5 million) net profit in the third quarter, up 64.4 percent on year. Revenue ..

Kakao Games reported a record net profit as Odin: Valhalla Rising, its latest mobile game, proved popular.

The KRX-listed game publisher posted a 44.3-billion-won ($37.5 million) net profit in the third quarter, up 64.4 percent on year.

Revenue came in at 466.2 billion won, rising 209.7 percent on year. Operating profit also jumped, up 101.3 percent on-year to 42.7 billion won.

Revenue and operating profit were records.

Revenue beat the market consensus of 342.1 billion won, although the company fell short of expectations for operating profit, which was 72.3 billion, as compiled by FnGuide.

Kakao Games credited the surge in profit to the success of Odin: Valhalla Rising, its latest massively multi-player roleplaying (Mmorpg) mobile game, which topped the local mobile games charts since its release on June 29.

Mobile games generated 410.5 billion won in revenue, up 358.7 percent from the third quarter last year, due to the success of Odin and other mobile games, such as the Friends Shot golf game and the World Flipper roleplaying action game.

Revenue in PC games was 17.9 billion won, down 59.1 percent on year, as people spent less on existing PC games and as releases of new games were slowed, the company explained.

The company will take its growing momentum and go global and “beyond games,” according to a press release.

It will focus on publishing new games overseas, such as Uma Musume Pretty Derby, a Japanese mobile game developed by Cygames, Dysterra, an online PC shooting game developed by Reality Magiq, and Eversoul, its own mobile roleplaying game, which the company will present at the G-Star 2021 Game Show later this month.

The company also aims to push Odin globally.

In a regulatory filing Monday, the company disclosed that Kakao Games Europe, 100 percent owned by Kakao Games, purchased 30.4 percent of Lionheart Studio, developer of Odin.

The deal will give Kakao Games publishing rights in the European market.

Previously, Kakao Games only had publishing rights for Odin in Korea and Taiwan.

The company will also expand its businesses outside conventional gaming, namely to the sports and the metaverse markets.

The company is already offering screen golf halls through its Kakao VX subsidiary, but it has announced that it will venture into the metaverse through its Neptune subsidiary.

“We are readying an open platform with games and virtual avatars, as well as an economic model built within the system,” Kakao Games said in a letter to its shareholders on Wednesday.

“Kakao Friends is also developing a non-fungible token trading platform specially designed for the sports, gaming and the metaverse.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]