NCsoft`s Q4 profit drops 22 pct on marketing costs

SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- NCsoft Corp., South Korea's biggest on-line game
maker, said Friday its net profit dropped 22.2 percent in the final quarter of
2008, hurt by higher marketing costs.
NCsoft earned eight billion won (US$5.7 million) in the October-December period
last year, compared with a profit of 10.2 billion won for the same period a year
earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Fourth-quarter operating profit fell 17.7 percent to 9.9 billion won. Sales rose
11.1 percent to 99 billion won.
For all of 2008, net profit plunged 40 percent to 27.2 billion won with sales
rising five percent to 346.6 billion won, the company said.
In a statement, NCsoft Chief Financial Officer Lee Jae-ho said the company
expects sales of 500 billion won this year, helped by the launch of its new game
title, "Aion."
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