NCSOFT shares fell significantly – MMORPG Throne and Liberty release date may be postponed again - Project TL

On the eve of the long-awaited release of the MMORPG Throne and Liberty, not the most pleasant news for NCSOFT is starting to appear. It became known that the value of the company’s shares fell by 12% compared with the previous month. And the trend has been going on for a long time.

NCSOFT’s share price hit an all-time high in February 2021. However, it has since started to decline due to sluggish game performance. In total, over the past year, the decline was about 30%.

The stock market predicts that Throne and Liberty will be pushed back from the second quarter of 2023 to the third. This also applies to the global version from Amazon Games. However, the stock market sees the release delay rather positively, as it will help avoid competition from Diablo IV, which comes out on June 6th.

“A release delay is obviously a negative factor for the stock price in the short term, but if the planned release date is only slightly delayed, for example, to the third quarter, we assess this as a positive issue in terms of the possibility of box office success. The decision to choose a new date seems to be a strategic one for the publisher. TL wants to gobble up the Western MMOPRG market, so if the release date coincides with Diablo IV, then the game will not be able to take full advantage of the launch marketing advantage.” — Kim Ha-jeong, researcher at Daol Investment & Securities.

It seems we rushed with the headline “On the verge of release” for our preview of Throne and Liberty. By the way, if you have not read it yet, you can read the article at this link (there is also a video version).