Greetings. I am Kim Yoon from Pearl Abyss IR team. First of all, I express my deepest gratitude to the analysts and investors in and out of Korea for taking part in the 2025 Q3 Pearl Abyss Earnings Presentation, despite your busy schedule.
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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 in the earnings results material are not guaranteed, and the company is not obliged to give updates of the accounts given after this date. Please take these factors into consideration.
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We have here with us at the earnings presentation today, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young, CBO Kim Kyeong-man, and CFO Cho Mi-young. We will first hear the business performance presentation highlights from CFO Cho Mi-young, and then engage in a Q&A session.
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Greetings, everyone. I am Cho Mi-young. Thank you once again for taking part in our company's earnings conference call despite your busy schedule.
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I would like to elaborate on 2025 Q3 major business activities and performance. Q3 revenues on the back of Black Desert and EVE stable live service grew 34% QoQ. Black Desert in Q3 added new class Wukong and new region Edania, and carried out large scale content updates, and recorded the highest quarterly revenue since we started self-publishing in 2021. In particular, Demon Realm Edania showed new PVP content, Throne of Edana, and then added new stories that can be enjoyed as cut scenes, and with higher levels of difficulty and more rewards compared to the previous content, added more fun to the game.
In case of console, since we started new device-based service from June, we held the first Adventurers' Festival and revealed our future roadmap. In addition, based on our new platform, we quickly updated Land of the Morning Light and The Magnus and others, and revenues increased more than twofold compared to the previous quarter. In the case of mobile, at Heidel Ball, we shared our update for the second half of the year and rolled out a range of exciting events for users to enjoy together. In addition, we showcased Land of the Morning Light, Hwanghae Province, and new class Seonin, and based on stable service, revenue slightly increased.
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In the case of EVE Online, there was the expansion pack Legion additional update and starting of the Alliance Tournament preliminary round, which added more fun to the game. User metrics are showing a consistent trend, continuing stable revenues.
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In addition, we have thoroughly made preparations for new services to increase revenue. Crimson Desert participated in gamescom, PAX West, and Tokyo Game Show, and successfully finished our open world quest line demo. We also announced our release date through Sony State of Play event and started pre-orders. In case of EVE Frontier, while engaging in tests continued from the previous quarter, we finalized our blockchain platform and are smoothly proceeding with the procedures needed to move on to the next phase.
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Next, I will walk you through 2025 Q3 performance. Q3 operating revenue posted KRW 106.8 billion and driven by strong revenues of Black Desert, it increased 34% QoQ, and operating profit posted KRW 10.6 billion and turned positive. Net profit stood at KRW 29 billion, turning also to a profit due to foreign exchange gains and corporate tax refunds.
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I will explain in more detail about our operating revenue. First is operating revenue for major IPs. The operating revenue from this quarter's Black Desert IP posted KRW 79.5 billion, a 45% increase QoQ. EVE IP operating revenue posted KRW 20.8 billion, and with the fading away of the effect of large-scale updates in Q2, decreased 14% QoQ. Regarding the operating revenue regional breakdown, it was 18% for Korea, 17% for Asia, and 65% for NA Europe. In the case of operating revenue for different platforms, it was 85% for PC, 10% for mobile, and 5% for console.
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Next, I will cover operating expenses. Q3 operating expenses posted KRW 96.2 billion, a 5% increase QoQ. In case of labor cost, it recorded KRW 46.8 billion, and decreased 0.7% QoQ. For your reference, as of Q3 end, there was 1,323 headcount, and there were 752 with developer positions, which is 57% of the total headcount. In the case of commissions, with the PG commission increase following increase of payment, it posted KRW 20.9 billion, a 15% increase QoQ. In the case of advertisement expenses, with the increase of cost incurred by Crimson Desert game show participation and hands-on events, it posted KRW 13.6 billion, a 30% increase QoQ.
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Lastly, I will cover 2025 Q4 major highlights.
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Black Desert in October opened the 3v3 PVP content Arena of Solare regular season, and in November, we plan to hold a global masterclass PVP tournament. In addition, we will introduce a new female class for the first time in a long time to make the game even more enjoyable. Apart from this, in December at the Calpheon Ball, we plan to share our future direction and give updates to our plan. In the case of Black Desert Console, since we switched to the new device, we're quickly showing off content. In October, we launched joint content Atoraxxion, Yolunakea, and Orzeca, and we will update the new region, Edania, the Demon Realm, which was very popular after first being shown in PC in the previous quarter.
In the case of mobile, we held a PVP tournament 2025 Martial God Championship and carried out Land of the Morning Light: Seoul, part two update. In addition, we plan to improve the early story and add new co-op raid and continuously upgrade the game.
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In case of EVE, we will update the new expansion pack Catalyst in November and plan to hold the last round of the annual PVP tournament, Alliance Tournament, which we held from the previous quarter to elevate user participation.
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We are also smoothly proceeding with preparing for new titles to secure our new growth engines. First, in the case of EVE Frontier, we will continue tests in Q4 as well, and focus on new user acquisition. Going forward, while validating the game, we will continue with marketing to secure core user acquisition. For Crimson Desert in October, we revealed a new chapter through IGN First.
IGN showed six videos of direct game playing experiences, and the videos received rave reviews from numerous global users and achieved high view counts, greatly helping to boost anticipation for the game. In addition, in Korea with AMD, we opened a pop-up store where visitors could experience the vast open world of Crimson Desert as well as immersive combat, expanding our points of contact with users. Apart from this, Crimson Desert is meeting influencers and media from many places around the world, and while engaging in diverse marketing to increase the game's recognition, we plan to focus on the release.
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Crimson Desert this year went to many game shows around the world and met as many potential users as possible and worked very hard to promote the game. In this process, we confirmed our release date and started pre-orders and took one step closer to our release. For the remaining four months, we will execute marketing, which will make the game more well-known, and we will enhance the game's overall completeness to deliver the best open world experience possible. We know that as many of you have been waiting, and we will do our best until the end to deliver results worthy of your support. All the employees here at Pearl Abyss will do our very best until the end. We kindly ask for your continued interest and encouragement. Thank you very much.
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With this, we will conclude Pearl Abyss 2025 Q3 Earnings Presentation and start our Q&A session.
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Now, Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, that is star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone.
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The first question will be provided by Jaemin Ahn from NH Investment & Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
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Thank you for the opportunity. I am Jaemin Ahn from NH Investment & Securities, and I have two questions. First is about your Crimson Desert pre-orders. Can you give us a number about how many pre-orders that you have taken? And if you can update us on your next year first half marketing plan, it would be greatly appreciated. My second question is adjusting to this question, do you think there is a possibility for Crimson Desert to get delayed in its release? Thank you very much.
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Thank you very much for your questions. You asked about our pre-order status and regarding our current situation. We have never had AAA game pre-order experience before, so I would like to say that it is quite difficult for us to accurately predict or to give a judgment on the current sales amounts accurately. However, we are hearing from our partners that our pre-orders are at the level of other new AAA IPs, so we are receiving very positive feedback regarding the pre-order status.
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Looking at the different platforms, it seems that in console we are seeing the largest pre-orders, and it seems to be mainly because we had demos using the console pad, and we had our release date that was actually announced through the Sony State of Play event.
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However, we are concentrating on our marketing in order for us to have great pre-orders, not only on the console, but on Steam as well. We are confident that we can have very meaningful pre-orders before our release.
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Regarding your question about our marketing plans. Currently, Crimson Desert is enhancing our quality and are concentrating on the last finishing touches before our release.
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In the case of marketing, we started off with the Summer Game Fest to the Tokyo Game Show. And around the world at different game shows, we provided demonstrations to our users and media. We worked hard to promote our game, and in this process we confirmed our release date and started pre-orders.
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For the remaining four months or so, we are going to work hard to increase the recognition of the game. From mid-January, which is about two months before the release date, we're going to start off our full-fledged marketing with our partners so that we can increase our sales.
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You also asked if we have a possibility of delay of the release. At our company, at the Sony State of Play event held in September, we gave the Crimson Desert release date officially as March 20th in Korean calendar. This actually was a result of a very long thought-out process, taking into consideration different situations and different things that could happen.
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Currently, we are very smoothly proceeding with preparations for the release. Since we started pre-orders, we are going to do our best to release our game, meeting the March schedule that we had announced, because we want to meet the users' expectations who are avidly waiting for Crimson Desert.
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It was our CEO, Heo Jin-young, who answered your question.
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For those who have questions, please press star and one.
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Currently, there are no participants with questions. Please press star one, star and one to give your question.
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It seems that there are no remaining questions in the queue. So with this, we will conclude Pearl Abyss 2025 Q3 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for your participation.