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Thursday 22 December 2022

No year in review video for combined accounts?

The year in Review Video is out

It seems this year that the "year in review video", or "this year in Eve" as it is known, was for all of Eve and highlighted the top 3 Corporations under various categories.

Furthermore, an email of stats of your perceived main account is being sent to the player base.

A useful discussion of all this is on the forums including Dev input: general discussion with Dev input and Dev Announcement



But different format to last year

What we don't appear to be getting is a video that combines the stats of all accounts (and so all the alts) on one email address like we did last year.  Nor does it seem we will be getting an email with those stats.

That is a shame.  For most of us who play Eve with more than one Account we do this because these Accounts compliment each other and are part of our overall gameplay in Eve.

For example, all my Accounts are part of my business ventures and i would not look at any single Account or Alt in isolation to get a fair review of my year in Eve.

I am not a coder but presumably it is not a terribly hard thing to do to aggregate the data across several alts and Accounts and present via email?



The stats i track

I keep a track of some of my stats.

Over the last 12 months (November 2021 to November 2022) i have done:

Sales 3.1 trillion ISK
Profits 834 billion
Taxes paid 228 billion
Courier Fees paid 62 billion
Plex to Omega paid 48 billion

Increase in wealth 487 billion ISK


Monday 19 December 2022

40bn ISK to invest

I currently have 40bn ISK to invest.

And i really need to invest it.  The only thing i know about that cash pile of 40bn ISK (which is about 6% of my assets) is that it will still be 40bn tomorrow.

I am about where i want to be in my six trading hubs and Jita - so expanding these locations with additional products is not an option.



therefore, my options are:

Expand further into manufacturing - but i am struggling to really get this going in the time i allow myself

Lend it out - how on earth do i do that?  What collateral do i accept?

Invest it like Oz - but that is not a skill i am good at

Bite the bullet and create a new Omega Account with alts in two new locations - tempting.  My alts at Allentene and Arnon look the best bet.



Conclusion

I will think about this and take action over the Christmas weekend.


Saturday 17 December 2022

Holiday trading - surprisingly good

I was on holiday for the first two weeks of December.

I took a laptop (more on that below) and tried as best i could to keep trading.  Almost kept up to once a day - i reckon i managed to to 75% of the days.


The Results

To my great surprise my wealth increased by 40bn isk before plex costs.  I honestly think i may have made a mistake but i checked the numbers and they are all correct.

If, and this is a huge if, this continues then December could be a record month (and saying that perhaps means it won't be!).

One headwind is that whoever was selling blueprints in Jita took a month or two off and has just returned.  I had the market to myself in several areas.  But no more.


Using a laptop

Very slow, my laptop only has 16GB memory and i had to replace the screen which cracked on the flight out.  The only replacement screen as a higher resolution touch-screen which i think taxed the memory and GPU a bit.  Perhaps i need to update the driver.

The real killer was not having a mouse - that really slowed things down - and was a schoolboy error on my part.

And trying to operate off one screen was tough - too much alt tabbing between spreadsheets, evetycoon and Eve which then taxed the GPU as it tried to reload the Eve screen.

Really simple things like creating a contract took a minute or so.


Activities

I stuck to high value items such as blueprints and implants.  The laptop being slow did not really lend itself to messing around with lower priced items.

And i had to spend more than 45 minutes and i ignored the alpha accounts.  I also only looked at alts who had made sales, i did not update prices from alts that had made no sales.


Next steps

i have a whopping 83bn isk in cash to invest.

If i find that after setting up Sell orders to replace items sold that i still have plenty of isk left then i will look into upgrading another couple of alts to Omega.


Monday 12 December 2022

Month end update - November 2022

As at the end of November 2022 my wealth is 666bn ISK after paying 4.9bn to upgrade to Omega for another 30 days for three accounts.  My Wealth increased by 69bn in November.

This is my best month ever.  And therefore the last three months have been the best three i have had, increasing my wealth by 185bn isk.


Quick Summary

Much like September and October, i was pleasantly surprised how strong November was.  I am often seeing daily sales of over 10bn (which is daily profits before Plex costs of over 1.6bn).

Overall sales were up 18% to 402bn - that is a montly record for me.  Definately at lot of price inflation going on here where the items i sell are in short supply at jita and often i am the only one selling these items in the other Trade Hubs.

Blueprints were noticeably strong in November, as they were in October.

My item margin was a nice 27.4%.  So above the target 25% though as was the case in October a bit below the 28-30% being hit recently.  Again, I suspect the pull back in margin was due to the higher than normal sales of Blueprints which tend to come in at exactly 25% margins.

Competition is definately lower through demand seems to be recovering through October and November.

In the last 12 months i have made sales of 3.1 trillion isk and profits (after everything including Plex) of 487bn isk having spent 48bn on Plex.

The overall aim of what i do is to increase my wealth by at least 10bn per month.  So far i have beaten that in 20 / 27 months i have been running this venture and indeed in all of the last 16 months.



Activity

I continue to come on once a day to update Sell orders and replace items sold.  About 30-45 minutes.  Getting closer to 45 minutes these days.

I am experimenting with Manufacturing and Planetary Interaction.

Over 95% of my sales and profits still come from Regional Trading.  So far 3% comes from Manufacturing and 1% from Planetary Interaction - more on those two in coming posts.



Target 1bn profits per day after all taxes and plex costs

I have now achieved this aim for the last five months.  Was not expecting to.  If history is a guide, the last three months of the year are normally the strongest.  So i should be getting profits after plex of over 30bn isk for October, November and December.  So far in October and November i have done noticeably better.



Target daily sales required to achieve 1bn profits per day

In summary, i generally need to make 7.5bn sales per day assuming my item margin is 25%

As the cost of plex rises then my daily sales requirement also rises.

On the current taxation levels to make 30bn ISK per month i would need to cover:
 - Plex costs of 3 x 500 x 4.7m = 7.1bn
 - Courier costs 2% of sales (i.e. = purchase cost + collateral)
 - Broker Listing fees 1.5% of sales
 - Broker re-listing fees 0.3% of sales (lets assume all sales changed at least five times per month)
 - Transaction Taxes 3.6% of sales

That all works out at 225bn monthly sales will generate profits after all costs including Plex of 30bn isk. = 7.5bn daily sales.

Bottom line is that assuming i make my 25% profit margins then each 1bn of sales creates profits of 164m and these go towards buying Plex for the Omega accounts and whatever is left is reinvested in the business.


Looking at some sensitivity analysis

- if my item margins were 28% instead of 25% then i need only make 192bn isk of sales (or 6.4bn per day)

- if Plex rose from 4.7m to 5.0m then then i need to make 228bn isk of sales (or 7.6bn per day)



Review of the November aims

1) Plex the three omega accounts - aim number one all the time - achieved

2) Hold sales in Dodixie to flat - achieved

3) Hold sales in Amarr to flat - failed, sales fell 11%

4) Hold sales in Rens to flat - failed, sales fell 15%

5) Hold sales in Hek to flat - achieved

6) Hold sales in Sobaseki to flat - achieved

7) Hold sales in Tush-Murkon Prime to flat - failed, sales fell 63%

8) Increase the investment and profits in Manufacturing - achieved

9) Continue to investigate Planetary Interaction - achieved


In all, the November aims were mostly achieved.  A good month.



Reminder of my Current Business.

For now 95% of what i do is inter-regional trading - buying from Sell Orders in Jita to sell elsewhere.  The rest is made up from Manufacturing and Planetary Interaction.

For Trading i focus on slow moving but high margin items.  That keeps me away from fierce competition and i only need to sell an item once every 10 days to make good income.

For this side of my business, lets call it Merchanting or inter-regional trading, i want to generate profits of 10bn ISK per month after paying to Plex my account.  Given i now have six Omega alts in Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek, Sobaseki and Tash-Murkon i am hoping that this 10bn aim will be easily achieved.

My business model evolves over time.  As my wealth increases i focus on higher value items.  Therefore, i try also to stick to the rule of making a minimum of 100m profit per item sold.  i.e. if i buy an item for 70m then i aim to sell it for at least 170m isk.  This makes sure i don't waste my time on making low absolute profits and so preserves the 45 minute rule.

My main business is operated with three omega accounts (paid for with plex) with nine alts.

The main Trading alts sit in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens and Hek.  I have also omega alts in the new Trading locations of Sobaseki (in Lonetrek) and Tash-Murkon Prime (in Tash-Murkon).

The other three alts sit in Jita and buys from Sell Orders, has these items couriered to the alts in Dodixie / Amarr and Rens / Hek and Sobaseki / Tash-Murkon Pime who then put them onto these markets for sale.

The Jita alts also serve to sell items that i can no longer sell in my trading locations  Sort of clearance sales.

I also started in December 2021 to place alpha alts in other regions to see how it goes.  I just need two of them to demonstrate that they can combine to justify an Omega account.  Also, they need to take up very little of my time.  So far the Sobesaki and Tash-Murkon alts made the grade and were upgraded in one account.  Arnon and Alentenne are getting close.

The other regions so far are: Placid; Verge Vendor; Essence; Citadel and Khanid.  And i am in an NPC station in Delve and Outer Ring.  I have just started in Venal.



Jita

I have been looking at increasing sales in Jita for a few months.  Focusing on blueprints and any items i manufacture in Jita.

I also do a little station trading in Jita (see below)

In October i did 30bn sales and in November i did a record 103bn sales.  In fact, Jita was my best trading location and the first time i have done over 100bn in a location.  I never expected that.

I beleive this is down to the Paragon system.



Station Trading

Also in Jita i have started station trading.  Sticking to my normal items - so little competition and slow moving.  It is a slow a steady income stream.  I will stick with it for now.  May expand to my other omega trading locations.



Manufacturing

I am now five months into my Manufacturing project.  It is slow but i did make 2.8bn profits - so it covers the cost of an Omega account which is the aim.

More in a later post.



Planetary Interaction

I am still experimenting for now, getting to understand it all.

I have abandoned the idea of extracting from planets in High Sec - i just could not extract enough to make it work.  At best with three alts operating six planets each i could make 1bn isk per month for the cost of an extra 45 minutes every three days.

I am now experimenting with factory planets only.  So buying the raw materials, shipping them to the planet and then taking away the finished product.

It is hard work getting the raw materials to my factory planets - mainly because there is not enough on sale around the universe.

I have some ideas and will expand in a later post.



Other High Sec Trading Locations

I don't want to spend all my time on Eve doing Regional Trading (buying from one region, mainly Jita, to sell to another) but i do want to see if i can find really low competition but stable revenue streams of trading.

The current alpha account regions so far are: Placid; Verge Vendor; Essence; Citadel and Khanid.  And i am in an NPC station in Delve, Outer Ring and now Venal.

The alpha trading locations made combined sales of 14.9bn which is down from the 16.5bn made in October.

This has really gone nowhere for a number of months - so once i nail down Manufacturing and Planetary Interaction i will need to revisit this.

The good news is that it takes barely any time to maintain.



Delve

I want to experiment with selling in null/low Sec.  Hence, i have found an NPC station in Delve and started experimenting with items to sell.

It is not going well - sometimes threatens to improve but then fall back again.  In November there was only 1.2bn sales.  Over the last ten months there have been 18.8bn sales in total.  Hopeless.  There must be a way to crack low/null sec . . . . . but i have yet to find it.



Plex

I am aim to store up to 6 months of Omega for each of the Omega accounts which would mean buying 9000 Plex.

Following the Omega offer in September i used the Plex i had to buy Omega stated up to the end of the year and then sold the rest.  Following the end of the offer, when Plex went back to more normal prices i bought 3000.

Over time, i will buy another 6000.



A minor accounting point

In September bought 3 months worth of Omega accounts (i.e October - December) for 14.9bn (usual cost would have been 20.3bn).

The way i account for this is to consider than 14.9bn an asset for September.  In October i expensed a third of it and so hold 9.9bn as an asset, and then 5.0bn in November.

Therefore, in my accounting i recognise a cost to omega my accounts of 5bn per month.  The normal cost would be 6.6bn.

The alternative accounting treatment would have been to recognise the 14.9bn as a cost in September and then no cost in October to December.



Analysis of Trading Profits

In total i made 402bn ISK of sales in November which made me item profits of 110bn ISK.

(item profit is the simply difference between sales done vs costs spent buying products, so before fees and taxes.  Because i don't yet invest in items other than Plex i don't make any allowance for items still in stock - in part because i don't track the cost per item spent).

Overall, sales rose by 18% in November which reflects a mixed bag in my main trading locations of Dodixie (up a bit), Amarr (down a bit), Rens (down 15%) and Hek (up a bit).  The main driver of the sales growth was the 103bn sales in Jita (up from 30bn in October).

Sobaseki doubled to 33bn whilst Tash Murkon fell 63% to 12bn.

Dodixie was the second best sales location followed by Amarr, Rens, Hek, Sobaseki and then Tash Murkon.

From all these sales i made item profits of 110bn.

This therefore was an item margin of 27.4% (110/402) vs my target of 25%.  This is another good month for margins.

My trading margins had been in the 25-27% range since April 2021 having before that been in the 28-32% range.  So September (and June / July / August) was an outlier to the upside.  October returned to this range as did November.

Manufacturing sales were 11.6bn, all in Jita, which is up 13% on October.

From this I then need to take a whole series of costs off before i get to my Business profits (and notice how they are more related to Sales rather than costs):

Courier Fees: i aim to pay 2% of sales value to the Courier = 2% x 402= 8.0bn

Sales tax cost me 15.2bn ISk (=3.78% of sales) - the Dodixie, Amarr, Rens, Hek Sobaseki, Tash-Murkon and Jita characters are level 5 in Accounting (=sales tax of 3.6%) and of course all the alpha alt accounts are only Level 1 (=sales tax of 8%).

Broker Fees costs me 12.0bn (=3.0% of sales).  Now, i can break this down into the initial listing fee of 1.5% (because i am Level 5 Broker Relations on all Omega characters and lets to make the sums easier and include all the alpha alts) and therefore the rest is the cost of changing the price which is 0.30% a shot (i may have that 0.30% completely wrong!).

So, Listing Fee = 1.5% x 402= 6.0bn and so the Relisting Fee = 12.0-6.0 = 6.0bn which is 1.5% of sales.  That shows that i do change prices quite often, bias to Amarr.

This takes my 'Business Profits' to 74.1bn ISK for November vs 61.0bn in October.  This is what 30-40 minutes a day in November gave me.

So, the post-tax margin is 18.5% (74/402) and so i achieved the 15% target.

The omega charge was then 5.0bn (see above in Plex section)

That, therefore, is the road map from 402bn sales to 69bn increase in wealth.



Items i am selling in Dodixie, Amarr, Rens, Hek, Sobaseki and Tash-Murkon

I sell blueprints, skill books, implants and ship equipment.

Blueprints are making a steady come back and this continued into November - they are lumpy sales and slow, but that's how i like it.  They can also be my slowest selling items and the items most likely to go 90 days without being sold.  I generally sell one blueprint at a time though i am seeing the odd occasion where someone comes along and buys all the same type out at once.

Mining equipment is slowing as more traders enter this market but is still making decent profits.  I suspect this is one of my lowest sales item group now.

Implants are doing ok and tend to be the most competitive - i am slowly expanding into more types and moving up the ISK value curve.  I now keep to implants costing over 100m ISK and up to 2bn ISK.  They don't sell well but when they do i tend to get a whole family sold at a time.  Again, that's how i like it.  A billion or so of investment can take 30 days to sell.  I am seeing more instances of whole family's of implants being sold at once.

Skill books are now my lowest income generator for me but there are still a few nice sellers.

Ship Equipment is doing well.

Rigidly sticking to the 25% margin target.  Courier fees and taxes now take 9% of that to bring me to a theoretical 16%.



Courier Contracts

Each night, i get home from work and determine what i need to sell in all the locations.

The time is taken changing prices were necessary (especially Amarr given it is competitive) and then figuring out what to sell with the ISK made from the prior 24 hours sales.

I have a list of items that feature regularly and i add to this list as time goes by.  So is a case of checking Jita prices vs current location prices.

It takes a minute to check all the alt accounts.

To look up prices in Eve I am using Eve Tycoon which seems to have more of the latest items in its market browser.  I used to use evemarketer but i just got used to Eve Tycoon.

Each night i courier about 5 to 15bn ISK of items from Jita.  Used to be 2-10bn but things are better these days.  The total cargo volume is 10-250m3 per shipment.  So small but valuable items.  But this allows the couriers to use small, fast ships with much less chance of being ganked.  So there is always someone willing to pick up the contract quickly.

I pay a generous 1.5 to 2.0% of collateral as fees.  I am more interested in getting my items onto the market quickly than penny pinching on distribution costs.



Outlook

Deember will have nine very conservative aims - I don't think i can grow my sales at the moment and i will be away for the first two weeks.

1) Plex the three omega accounts - aim number one all the time

2) Hold sales in Dodixie to down 40%

3) Hold sales in Amarr to down 40%

4) Hold sales in Rens to down 40%

5) Hold sales in Hek to down 40%

6) Hold sales in Sobaseki to down 40%

7) Hold sales in Tush-Murkon Prime to down 40%

8) Hold the investment and profits in Manufacturing

9) Continue to investigate Planetary Interaction
 

The daily sales in November averaged 13.3bn.


Current wealth is 666bn ISK made up from:
  • Plex held as an investment 14bn ISK
  • Items in hanger for sale 13bn ISK
  • Omega brought forward 5bn ISK
  • Buy orders on the market 9n ISK
  • items for sale 746bn ISK
  • less a 20% provision 149bn ISK*
  • ISK in wallet 27bn ISK

When i add up my wealth, I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK or are used to generate isk that can be readily resold back onto the market.  Any ships or skills or fittings etc i buy are counted as expenses in that month.

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.  In an ideal world I would value my sell orders at the value which I bought the items for.

Monday 21 November 2022

Free 1m skill points

This is well known so i am not bringing in anything new here

There has always been a recruit-a-friend scheme but what makes this different is that you can still get the 1m skill points today if you were not recruited to Eve Online before.  I.e. free 1m skill points to most accounts, even those that are almost 20 years old.


But some people have asked how they can be recruited by me

The quick and simple way is to click on the image below or use this link: https://www.eveonline.com/signup?invc=9e38b897-c17f-4e5f-808c-abe365242997



You will get a Eve Online page like this - click on the "Log in to become a recruit" to log into your account to sign up:




What do all Parties get from this?

what is in it for everyone is all covered on the Eve Online Recruit a Friend page, and more details on a Support Post

What do you get: 1m skill points per account for all accounts, Alpha and Omega, that have not been through a recruitment scheme before.  That includes your main account that may have recruited your other accounts historically but not itself been recruited.

What do i get: i get awards depending on your progress with respect to upgrading to Omega (i get 15 days Omega for the first upgrade), buying Plex for real money (i get 4 x 24 hour accelerators); and the more recruits i get then additional goodies kick in as they upgrade to Omega (skins, omega and plex).

I think i get the 15 days Omega and 4x24hour accelerators retrospectively (i.e. based on historic actions) - but i am not sure.

Do i get anything from you now or ever: No.


Any catches?

Yes - does not work with Steam Accounts.

Wednesday 9 November 2022

Pearl Abyss third quarter results - Eve revenues rise

As usual, the presentation focused away from Eve though some comments were made.

Eve revenues rose 10% from the prior quarter, 17.6 billon won to 19.4.

If I assume no currency movements and assume everyone was hit with a 30% price rise than that indicates player numbers fell 20%.  That said, it is likely that there was a currency benefit from Eve so the underlying revenue rise will be less.

Management seem happy with Eve and even claim it is profitable (I may be confusing the mobile Eve here).

Most of the presentation dealt with Pearl Abyss making a surprise profit.

None of the broker commentary has talked about Eve – it never does.  Just has it as a stable revenue line and does not attempt to show its profits or losses.
Quite often the management talk about Black Dessert and Eve in the same breath.

The share price of Pearl Abyss initially rose on the surprise profit but then fell on the news of delays to the Crimson Dessert roll out.

Brokers citing the better than expected results down to Black Dessert Online and Eve, the compoany’s legacy titles, showing better than expected revenues.


The direct quotes in the management conference that related to Eve were:

“Eve IP operating revenue posted KRW19.4 billion, up 10.2% from the previous quarter”

“. . . . Black Dessert and Eve, thanks to stable live service, continued to perform well”

“EVE is planning to carry out the Uprising update in Q4. Uprising is an expansion pack which has been prepared over the past year and we plan to introduce more immersive new content such as through reorganization. Also in December, an EVE Vegas user conference will be held in Las Vegas. I would like to cover the progress of our new IP.”

“We will steadily provide Black Desert and EVE steady life service and do our best to prepare for new IP”

“Eve Online as part of last year’s evolved content had updates of agent and ARC content.”

“EVE Online as part of last year's evolved content had updates of agent and ARC content. The agent update which improved the air career program that provides job sites helped settle new users and ARC update which strengthened the narrative of the game received favorable reviews from many users who liked the story. In addition, we opened the new servers, so that Chinese users can properly experience the attractiveness of EVE. In addition, a Spanish version was also released and the user pool was expanded. Black Desert and EVE via live service based on communication with users has been performing well for a long time. Going forward, we will continue to work hard to understand the user and to think from the users point of view and provide the best service.

“In order not to harm the experience of existing users, we plan to apply this blockchain technology not to an existing game, but to a new game that has not been announced yet, so we will inform you as we make progress.”

And then in the questions after their presentation:

“(Foreign Language) You also asked a question about our operating profit. (Foreign Language) And as you can see, for our PC-based and mobile Black Desert and EVE, we have seen very stable profit and we are maintaining these profits going forward.”

“(Foreign Language) The next I would like to explain about marketing expenses. (Foreign Language) Because Black Desert Online and EVE Online have been around for a long time, we have been accumulating many experiences with the passage of time. (Foreign Language) Internally, we have been making many studies to find out what is the most efficient marketing method and we plan to carry out conservative marketing going forward. (Foreign Language) I'd like to cover commissions related question that you asked. (Foreign Language) Actually, we can break it down into two parts. First is platform and PG-related commissions. And second is commissions and fees for the cloud server that we're using.”

Cho Seok Woo, Chief Financial Officer:
(Foreign Language) I would like to explain about the sales trend for Black Desert Q3 and EVE Q3 and Q4.

. . . . . . . but I fear I could see no answer on EVE in what came next in the transcript.




Full transcript below (usual caveats on translation):

Pearl Abyss Corp

Q3 2022 Earnings Call

9 November 2022


Operator

(Foreign Language) Good morning and good evening. First of all thank you all for joining this conference call. And now, we will begin the conference call of the Fiscal Year 2022 Third Quarter Earnings Results by Pearl Abyss. This conference call will start with a presentation followed by a divisional Q&A session. (Operator Instructions) Now, we shall commence the presentation on the fiscal year 2022 third quarter earnings results by Pearl Abyss.


Unidentified Speaker

(Foreign Language) Greetings. First of all, I express my deepest gratitude to the analysts and investors in and out of Korea for taking part in the 2022 Q3 Pearl Abyss Earnings Presentation despite your busy schedules. (Foreign Language) Before elaborating on today's business results, I would like to ask for your understanding regarding the following. The financial and business results contained in today's earnings release have been prepared for the convenience of investors and is subject to change depending on the final closing of our books. In addition, the accuracy and completeness of the financial and business results and the earnings results material are not guaranteed. And the company is not obliged to give updates of the accounts given after this date. So please take these factors into consideration.


(Foreign Language) We have here with us in the earnings presentation today, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jing Young, CBO Kim Gyeong Man and CFO Cho Seok Woo. We will first hear the business performance presentation highlights from CFO, Cho Seok Woo and then engage in a Q&A session.


Cho Seok Woo

(Foreign Language) Greetings. I am Pearl Abyss CFO, Cho Seok Woo. Thank you once again for taking part in our company's earnings conference call despite your busy schedules. (Foreign Language) First, I will cover Q3 major business activities and performance. Black Desert and EVE, thanks to stable live service, continued to perform well in the third quarter. Black desert also strengthened user communication in the third quarter as well. In July, Heidel Ball for mobile users was held and it was held offline for the first time in two years along with the introduction of second half contents. We had various programs such as participatory events and dialog with developers. Due to these efforts, both new and returning users increased significantly and we could confirm the heightened users satisfaction.


Also, Voice of Adventure of Seoul was held in July and Heidel Ball 2022 was held in September. And with these two consecutive events, we continued to communicate with PC and console users. During the third quarter, Black desert had a large scale content update. Online and console released Drakania Reawakening. And we could confirm that improvement of the user index led to good performance. Mobile launched new classes, Drakania and Buccaneer and we were able to confirm that user trends improved. EVE Online as part of last year's evolved content had updates of agent and ARC content. The agent update which improved the air career program that provides job sites helped settle new users and ARC update which strengthened the narrative of the game received favorable reviews from many users who liked the story. In addition, we opened the new servers, so that Chinese users can properly experience the attractiveness of EVE. In addition, a Spanish version was also released and the user pool was expanded. Black Desert and EVE via live service based on communication with users has been performing well for a long time. Going forward, we will continue to work hard to understand the user and to think from the users point of view and provide the best service.


(Foreign Language) I would like to touch upon our company's Q3 financial results. Operating revenue for the quarter posted KRW97.3 billion up 3.5% from the previous quarter. Operating profit turned to the black at KRW12 billion and net income was KRW21.3 billion, down 33.4% from the previous quarter.


(Foreign Language) I would like to explain about the operating revenue in more detail. First, I will explain about the operating revenue by core IP. The operating revenue generated by Black Desert IP for the quarter was KRW76.6 billion and it increased by 3.1% from the previous quarter.


Eve IP operating revenue posted KRW19.4 billion, up 10.2% from the previous quarter. In the case of operating revenue breakdown by region. It was 18% in Korea, 26% in Asia and 56% in North America and Europe. In the case of operating revenue breakdown by platform, 77% was PC, 16% was mobile and 7% was console.


(Foreign Language) Next, I will cover operating expenses. Q3 operating expenses went down 13.2% Q-o-Q and posted KRW85.3 billion. For labor expenses, it posted KRW40.9 billion, a 19.2% decrease Q-o-Q. This was a decrease due to the exclusion of about KRW8 billion of one-off incentives which took part in the previous quarter. For your reference, as of the end of the third quarter, we have 1,456 employees. Among them, there are 907 developers which is 62% of the total workforce. In the case of commissions, it recorded KRW16.6 billion, a decrease of 22% Q-o-Q. In the case of advertising expenses, it recorded KRW9.4 billion, a decrease of 13.2% from the previous quarter.


(Foreign Language) Lastly, I would like to explain about Q4 major highlights. (Foreign Language) We will steadily provide Black Desert and EVE steady life service and do our best to prepare for new IP. Black Desert also in Q4 will introduce a variety of new content. Recently, Black Desert updated Abyss One Magnus. Through this update, by making it easier for new users to move between regions, which new users found challenging in the past, we implemented an environment where new users can play comfortably.


Black Desert is an MMORPG game and as the service agents, the amount of content becomes more and more vast. So barriers to entry are bound to rise. Therefore, our development team that a long, time coming up with ways to help new users settle and has started to provide Magnus content. Also, after the actual update, it became easier and more convenient to continue play. So we could confirm that both new and existing users satisfaction was increased.


Mobile has recently updated the new Regent (inaudible) has a new hunting ground reflecting the users opinions that there is not enough hunting ground. We implemented an environment where you can enjoy hunting and new adventures more efficiently. In addition, following the last quarter, we plan to strengthen communication with users in Q4. In October, we participated in the Twitch con event in San Diego, USA and increased contact with local users. And in December, Voice of Adventures will be held in Amsterdam and CalpheOn Ball will be held offline in LA, and we plan to strengthen further our relationship with overseas users. EVE is planning to carry out the Uprising update in Q4. Uprising is an expansion pack which has been prepared over the past year and we plan to introduce more immersive new content such as through reorganization. Also in December, an EVE Vegas user conference will be held in Las Vegas. I would like to cover the progress of our new IP. Crimson Desert is dedicated to development to show you the best quality. We are also thinking hard about the move suitable place and methods to share news about Crimson Desert to many people.


When we set the date and method for disclosure, we will let everyone know. ECP games is preparing for a 3.0 based blockchain related business. As it is an area where there are many expectations as well as concerns, we have been preparing for a long time after various discussions and have been proceeding. In the last quarter, we conducted a precede rounding and even in the recent climate when there is a negative crypto market economy, we were able to have quite a success.


In order not to harm the experience of existing users, we plan to apply this blockchain technology not to an existing game, but to a new game that has not been announced yet, so we will inform you as we make progress. Despite the many challenges caused by the COVID pandemic, we made efforts to increase contact points with users and provide user-friendly services. In particular, as a nine -year-old MMORPG game with new and fresh content, we work hard to add funds to existing users and lower the entry barrier for new users and secure more users.


We will maintain financial stability through steady live services and focus on new IP development. In order to be the best we can be, all employees from our CEO to all of our employees are doing our best to make this happen. We will ask for your continued interest and support. Thank you very much.


Unidentified Speaker

(Foreign Language) With this we will conclude the Pearl Abyss 2022 Q3 earnings release presentation and start our Q&A session.


Questions And Answers

Operator

(Foreign Language) Now Q&A session will begin (Operator Instructions) (Foreign Language) The first question will be provided by (inaudible) from Kim Securities. Please go ahead with your question.


Q - Unidentified Participant

(Foreign Language) Thank you for this opportunity. I have two questions. The first question is about your earnings and actually it is first related to the numbers of your developers coming down from the previous quarter. So can you tell us if there is a specific reason behind that? And another related question is about your operating profit. Because it seems that it has increased from the previous quarter and do you believe that this is sustainable until you have the release of your new titles?


My second question is about Crimson Desert in game footage, if you can actually when do you think you can disclose this to the public and about plan for (inaudible) going forward? So can you give us answers related to that if possible. Thank you very much.


A - Cho Seok Woo

(Foreign Language) I would like to answer your first question about the change in our number of employees.


(Foreign Language) As you have mentioned, as of the end of Q3, the numbers of employees at our company is 1,456. So we had about 59% decrease compared to the previous quarter. And relating to the reason behind that, it is because most of these employees were actually a result of the completion of our internship program that took part in the first part of this year.


(Foreign Language) We also have plans to have a winter job related internship program but we plan to have a conservative policy regarding the operation and management of our HR.


(Foreign Language) You also asked a question about our operating profit.


(Foreign Language) And as you can see, for our PC-based and mobile Black Desert and EVE, we have seen very stable profit and we are maintaining these profits going forward.


(Foreign Language) And despite the efforts involved in the development of new titles, we will continue on with our services and do our best so that the costs we are implementing are very efficient.


(Foreign Language) I would like to answer your next question about Crimson Desert disclosure and (inaudible).


(Foreign Language) Regarding the in-game trailer disclosure of Crimson Desert that many people have high expectations for, I would like to actually give you my apologies about the fact that the in-game trailer of Crimson Desert has been delayed. (Foreign Language) Currently, Crimson Desert is being developed at a very sufficient level that can meet the high expectations of global console users. (Foreign Language) We have been continuing the B2B marketing that we have been continuing from this summer and we will continue to do this in Q3 as well. And we have been actually talking to our partners about the game verification and coming with many different ways to have cooperative measures.


(Foreign Language) In the case of our company, since this is the first time we are making a challenge in the traditional console market, the advise and cooperation with many experienced global partners we believe is a very important factor in our success.


(Foreign Language) For Crimson Desert, we believe that it has almost reached the level that we would like to have before we disclose the contents.


(Foreign Language) Actually, we also consider the possibility of having a short disclosure of the in-game trailer at a global event at the end of the year. (Foreign Language) However, because of the many options that we're considering because we believe that we are making the right judgment for our business, we believe that this closure within this year will be quite difficult. (Foreign Language) Regarding the fact that you have had to wait for such a long time, we will ask for the deep understanding from our investors.


(Foreign Language) Because we are fully aware of your weight and the fact that you have very high expectations, we will do our best to strictly prepare and disclose the best level of the game possible. (Foreign Language) Second, I would like to give you an update on the progress of DokeV. (Foreign Language) DokeV, along with Crimson Desert, is being developed meeting our internal development roadmap. (Foreign Language) However, since this year, our core development team is immersing itself on developing Crimson Desert. We will do our best so that DokeV, we will be able to disclose additional information as they are done.


A - Unidentified Speaker

(Foreign Language) We heard from our CFO Cho Seok Woo and our CEO Huh Jin-young. We will take the next question.


Operator

(Foreign Language) The following question will be presented by Daniel Yang from JP Morgan. Please go ahead with your question.


Q - Daniel Yang{BIO 18746774 <GO>}

(Foreign Language) Thank you for this opportunity, and I'm curious about what kind of feedback you're getting from your partners regarding Crimson Desert because you mentioned that you have B2B marketing with them. So can you share with us what kind of positive feedback and other feedback you have been receiving if they want you to improve some part of the content?


Second question is about your release dates because you mentioned that you have almost reached the high level of quality that you have been trying to go for. So I believe that you have not actually given us a date about when you will release the game after its completion. So I think we are seeing some uncertainty arising. So, do you believe that you'll be able to release the game by the latter half of next year or do you think that it might go beyond that date? Thank you.


A - Huh Jin-young

(Foreign Language) I would like to give you a short answer about the feedback we have been receiving about Crimson Desert from our partners.


(Foreign Language) Actually from this summer, we have been very frequently inviting our global partners even almost every week and carrying out B2B marketing with them. (Foreign Language) Our purpose is to actually see if the game Crimson Desert that we are aiming to become a global AAA title is actually reaching the level that we have been expecting. (Foreign Language) Against our internal concerns, our partner actually has been very positive with the feedback. (Foreign Language) Regarding the black space engine that we have developed in-house, they were actually very surprised that the level of its completeness, and they were very impressed with our differentiated action, the background and interactions with MPC. (Foreign Language) With the unexpected level of positive feedback and responses we're getting from our partners, the confidence that we are having in the game has actually heightened.


(Foreign Language) We have had many frequent visits from our major global partners even as we speak, and have been receiving very rich feedback. So we believe that we will be able to heighten the degree of completeness until its release and to have results that can rival or even surpass the global famous titles in the world. (Foreign Language) And regarding the release date, we do know that although we have very high level of confidence in the game, we are seeing some market uncertainties. (Foreign Language) I'm sure that you will be able to see what I'm talking about when we show you the in-game trailer in the near future and we believe that we don't have a lot of time left until we complete the game.


(Foreign Language) We are expecting to complete the development of the game within the latter part of next year. (Foreign Language). However, for the exact release date, we do need to consult the market situation and our partners. So as soon as it is set, we will let you know.


A - Unidentified Speaker

(Foreign Language) The answer was given by our CEO Heo Jin Young. (Foreign Language) We will take the next question.


Operator

(Foreign Language) The following question will be presented by (inaudible) from HSBC. Please go ahead with your question.


Q - Unidentified Participant

(Foreign Language) Thank you for the opportunity. I have a question firstly regarding the numbers of those in the development fields at your company that are dedicated to Crimson Desert. So can you actually give us the breakdown of them and if you can give us what comprises your team for new title development and how the manpower is allocated will be greatly appreciated. And I think you have mentioned that Crimson Desert will be released in 2020 and 2021.


It has been actually being delayed. So can you give us the main reason why you think this is coming late. I think as time passes the gamers actually level of expectations are going up. So I think this can act as a burden on you. So can you tell us about your current situation and the competitive landscape. Thank you.


A - Huh Jin-young

(Foreign Language) Thank you very much for the true challenging questions. I will try my best to answer those two questions.


(Foreign Language) And regarding the development structure behind Crimson Desert development as we have emphasized in our philosophy of developing game, we do not have an independent studio type of having a certain number of dedicated personnel for each projects. (Foreign Language) Although we do have different teams for different projects, you can think of our main core developers or personnel that are actually shared between the different projects that we have. (Foreign Language) That is why we are able to have the simultaneous development of DokeV and Crimson Desert. But regarding our major developers that are in the engine development, a lot of them are actually participating in the development of Crimson Desert. So you can think of more than 50% of them being involved in Crimson Desert development.


(Foreign Language) However, regarding the development technology and development output, we believe that this is a very good fundamental for this to be applied to other areas. So we believe that this will actually accelerate the development speed of other projects going forward.


(Foreign Language) And regarding why the release has been delaying, well, I believe that as we are getting to know more deeply about the console market, we are recognized that we need a little bit of more time for us to reach a very high level of completeness. (Foreign Language) And I believe that actually more bigger reason behind this delay is that the speed of technology development has been very rapid compared to when we first started the project. (Foreign Language) Actually, when we think about the engine technology cinematic type of methods and using AI related technologies, we have seen a breathtaking development. (Foreign Language) And we have actually been developing our engine ourselves so we actually really wanted to include those developed technologies to our game. So please understand our intention that we wanted to bring the best technologies into the game. So that took a little bit more time than expected.


A - Unidentified Speaker

(Foreign Language) It was answered by our CEO, Huh Jin-young. (Foreign Language) We will take the next question.


Operator

(Foreign Language) The following question will be presented by Young Min Kim from NH Investment Securities, please go ahead with your question.


Q - Young Min Kim{BIO 17833982 <GO>}

(Foreign Language) Thank you for this opportunity. I'm Young Min Kim from NH Investment Securities and I think a lot of my questions have been covered already, so I would just like to ask a few questions about DokeV. Because in the market, there were some rumors that the DokeV project team actually combusted, which means that they actually left the company. So can you tell us about what has been going on and listening to the presentation and answers today, it seems that if Crimson Desert is completed by the end of next year, then the release date might be actually later than that. So can you tell us about when you think DokeV will be completed? Do you think it will be pushed back because of these delays? And can u tell us about the DokeV development team as well? Thank you.


A - Huh Jin-young

(Foreign Language) When we have very large scale development projects, it takes a very long time. So we tend to have people that move in and out. (Foreign Language) And regarding DokeV, we have disclosed some in-game footage in the past and we believe that we have actually reached a level where it is currently being met in the direction that we have been aiming for. (Foreign Language) And it is true that we have had some people that have left the team. But, we do not believe that it has a big impact on the development of DokeV going forward.


(Foreign Language) However, for DokeV release dates, we mentioned that it will be after we release Crimson Desert. So we believe that since we will need some more time for us to release Crimson Desert, probably DokeV release date will be pushed back to after next year. (Foreign Language) However, as I aforementioned, regarding the technology and the results from our Crimson Desert development, a lot of that will be applied to DokeV as well. So we believe that actually not long after Crimson Desert is released, we will see a very rapid release of DokeV.


A - Unidentified Speaker

It was answered by our CEO, Heo Jin Young. (Foreign Language) We will take the next question.


Operator

(Foreign Language) The following question will be presented by (inaudible) Investment and Securities. Please go ahead with your question.


Q - Unidentified Participant

(Foreign Language) Thank you for the opportunity. I'm (inaudible) from Hyunjin Investment Securities. I have a first question about your expenses. And regarding the labor expenses, you have mentioned some facts. Can you give us your take on marketing expenses expectations for Q4 and for next year as well? And I think you mentioned that Black Clover will be released within the first half of the year. So can you give us a schedule update for that and I think it is for equity investments as well. So do you think that was using exercising call option, it can be consolidated through your financials? Thank you.


A - Cho Seok Woo

(Foreign Language) I would like to answer your first question related to marketing expenses. (Foreign Language) What took place in Q3 and Q4 as well, we are going to efficiently carry out our marketing expenses with our live service. (Foreign Language) We believe that the marketing cost will probably go up because we are going to have the release of new IPs and disclosures of them going forward. (Foreign Language) However, we will try to come up with more effective and efficient ways though that we can lower our expense burden.


(Foreign Language) I would like to answer your question regarding black Clover. (Foreign Language) Regarding all the developers that we have invested in including big games, they are all being operated as independent studios. (Foreign Language) So please understand that regarding information related to their new titles, it will be relayed by the studios themselves. (Foreign Language) And as was disclosed on November 7th, Black Clover is expected to be released within the first half of next year. (Foreign Language) And regarding Black Clover, we are recognizing them in an equity method but regarding our contract with them, we do not have any call options with them.


A - Unidentified Speaker

(Foreign Language) It was answered by our CFO, Cho Seok Woo. We will take the next question.


Operator

(Foreign Language) The following question will be presented by Sung Jong-hwa from eBest Investment and Securities. Please go ahead with your question.


Q - Sung Jong-hwa{BIO 4721492 <GO>}

(Foreign Language) Thank you for the opportunity. I have several questions. My first question is we have seen a rise in (inaudible) IP in PC. So do you think that it was because of a one-off event or do you think that it attests to your structural fundamentals that have been strengthened? And can you give us your guidance for Q4 sales related to expenses? You mentioned that the reason behind your expense cut per labor was mostly due to the interim shift that was completed. However, for Q2, do you think that you will have a similar level of the labor expenses when you exclude the one-off and can you tell us about what will happen going forward or do you think that it will go down? And can you give us a structural pace on Q3? And do you think it will continue?


And it seems that for your sales, they have gone up but your commissions gone down. So can you give us a breakdown behind that? Is it because your mix is more efficient now? Is it because your profits have improved? Do you think that your commissions will be of similar level if your sales are at a similar level to Q3 the previous quarter? So it seems that also for your marketing cost, it has posted shy of KRW10 billion. So do you think that if it is similar to Q1 or Q3, did structurally your marketing expenses will remain within that range going forward? Thank you.


A - Cho Seok Woo

(Foreign Language) I would like to explain about the sales trend for Black Desert Q3 and EVE Q3 and Q4.


(Foreign Language) Regarding the operating revenue for Black Desert in Q3, it has shown very good traffic and sales in most of the regions and has risen 12% Q-o-Q. (Foreign Language) In particular, we had offline events that actually took place in a long time and we had diverse events such as interviews with developers and large scale updates. So through these diverse events, meeting the expectations of our users, we were able to have very good responses.


(Foreign Language) And because we have had very prolonged service and this is becoming very advanced, we have been making many efforts to grow our sales and in our case, where we have a lot of IPs that are having the profits from overseas, we can have an FX gain will effect. So it is being very beneficial to us in this respect.


(Foreign Language) Next, I would like to answer your question regarding expenses. (Foreign Language) I would like to answer your question about labor expenses. (Foreign Language) Regarding the decrease of our number of employees, as I mentioned, we completed our internship program in the first half of this year. So that led to the reduction of the numbers of employees. (Foreign Language) And in the latter half of this year, we also are expecting to have another internship program that can push up the number of our employees a bit but internally, we are expecting to have a conservative HR related policy.


(Foreign Language) The next I would like to explain about marketing expenses. (Foreign Language) Because Black Desert Online and EVE Online have been around for a long time, we have been accumulating many experiences with the passage of time. (Foreign Language) Internally, we have been making many studies to find out what is the most efficient marketing method and we plan to carry out conservative marketing going forward. (Foreign Language) I'd like to cover commissions related question that you asked. (Foreign Language) Actually, we can break it down into two parts. First is platform and PG-related commissions. And second is commissions and fees for the cloud server that we're using.


(Foreign Language) And regarding the fact that we did not have a great increase of PG commissions related to our sales increase, or revenue increase was because most of them stemmed from online. (Foreign Language) And it is because, as you're probably well aware, mobile game related platform commissions are much higher than the platform commission rate for online games. (Foreign Language) And for our server related commissions, we have using cloud service and we have been making many efforts and consultations to have more efficient commissions and expenses related to cloud service and making many efforts to make them minimal as possible.


(Foreign Language) And we believe that in Q3, it really showcase the efforts we have been making to push down our server commission. But we believe that there is a possibility that it might go up slightly for server commissions in Q4.


A - Unidentified Speaker

It was answered by our CBO Kim Gyeong Man and our CFO Cho Seok Woo. (Foreign Language) It seems that there are no other questions in the queue.


(Foreign Language) With this, we will complete the 2022 Q3 Pearl Abyss earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation.