Aion Nears 1 Million Western Sales; NCsoft Third Quarter Profits Soar

Over the weekend, Gamespot reported on NCsoft trumpeting a 836 percent jump in net income year over year for the third fiscal quarter of 2009. Strong sales of recent MMO Aion were as a primary driver, accounting for 52 percent of global sales during the period with 970,000 units sold between North America and Europe.

Despite Aion's Western success, NCsoft had nearly half -- 48 percent -- of overall revenue come from the company's native Korea. Lineage 2 led the charge for the publisher's older properties, coming in at 24 percent relative to City of Heroes/Villians at 4 percent and Guild Wars at 3 percent.

Boosting year over year profit by 836 percent sounds awfully impressive, but NCsoft had a bad year last year, with its third quarter 2008 profits at merely 50 percent of their 2007 levels. While undoubtedly a strong quarter for NCsoft and an encouraging result for Aion, don't let the numbers fool you into thinking that the company is dethroning World of Warcraft any time soon.