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.
Quite often the management talk about Black Dessert and Eve in the same breath.
The direct quotes in the management conference that related to Eve were:
And then in the questions after their presentation:
(Foreign Language) I would like to explain about the sales trend for Black Desert Q3 and EVE Q3 and Q4.
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.
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