Pearl Abyss, South Korea’s mid-tier game publisher behind MMORPG Black Desert, managed to sustain growth in the fourth quarter on equity returns rather than game sales, and promised to improve earnings this year after last year’s slump through new releases.

The company on Tuesday reported 25.7 billion won ($21 million) in consolidated operating profit, up 152 percent on quarter and 29 percent on year. Sales added 22 percent on quarter and 11.7 percent on year to 118 billion won.

A sizable 32.6 billion won of the revenue came from non-operating capital gains in equity investment and sales from units.

Sales from flagship Black Desert Online and Eve Online totaled 67 billion won and 18.4 billion won, respectively. Black Desert’s revenue fell by 17.4 billion won from a year-ago period and 3.9 billion won against the previous quarter.

For full year, operating income sank 73 percent on year to 43 billion won on sales of 403.8 billion won, off 17.5 percent. Net profit plunged 39.4 percent to 61.1 billion won.

Pearl Abyss said oversea sales represented 81 percent in annual revenue and PC and console platforms 75 percent.

It is releasing Black Desert Mobile in China, whose results could define its performance this year. Crimson and DokeV are also in the lineup.

The company is readying player-to-earn (P2E) and metaverse roadmap. It plans incremental P2E application based on blockchain technology and will share details later.

Shares of Kosdaq-trading Pearl Abyss were 4.4 percent lower at 90,800 won.

By Pulse

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]