Good afternoon. This is Jiwon Lee from Netmarble's IR team. I sincerely thank the investors and analysts for participating in Q3 2022 Earnings Session of Netmarble, despite your busy schedules. With us here today, our CEOs, Young-sig Kwon and Gi-Wook Do, and Head of Global Business, Seungwon Lee. They will address your questions after the results presentation. Please note that the content presented today have yet to undergo an independent auditor's review and could be subject to changes upon such review. Now, CEO Gi-Wook Do will give his presentation.
Good afternoon. This is Gi-Wook Do. I will give you an overview of our Q3 results. Please refer to page three. Results from new titles that were released in Q2, including that of Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds, have been reflected in full in our Q3 results. With new title launches, including Seven Knights Revolution, our revenue grew 14.4% YOY and 5.1% QOQ at KRW 694.4 billion. EBITDA decreased 54.4% YOY and 3.3% QOQ at KRW 20.8 billion due to one-off severance payment related to Jam City.
EBITDA margin recorded 3.0%. Next page is on operating and net profits. Q3 recorded an operating loss of KRW 38.0 billion, net loss of KRW 277.5 billion, and controlling shareholder loss of KRW 245.3 billion. Non-operating numbers decreased KRW 118.3 billion QOQ, mainly due to increase in foreign exchange loss due to foreign currency denominated borrowings with depreciation of won. Next is on regional revenue contribution.
Q3 overseas revenue recorded KRW 579.4 billion. Overseas revenue contribution decreased by two percentage points over the previous quarter at 83%. The following is a regional breakdown. North America, 48%, Korea, 17%, Europe, 13%, Southeast Asia, 9%, Japan, 7%, and others, 6%. Korean contribution increased two percentage points QOQ with the launch of Seven Knights Revolution. Next page is on our genre. In Q3, casual games accounted for 47%, RPG 24%, MMORPG 21%, and others 8%. Our genre remains diversified. With effect from Marvel Contest of Champions update, RPG revenue contribution has increased two percentage points QOQ. Next page is on our game portfolio.
As of end of Q3, Marvel Contest of Champions accounted for 11%, Cash Frenzy 8%, Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds 8%, Jackpot World 8%, Lotsa Slots 8%, The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross 6%. Our portfolio remains diversified.
[Foreign language] Next is on our major cost structure. Operating expense in Q3 recorded KRW 732.4 billion, which is an increase by 26.2% YOY and 5.3% QOQ. Fees and commissions paid recorded KRW 278.5 billion. With increase in sales, it rose 9.4% YOY and 6.8% QOQ. Labor cost was at KRW 203.0 billion. With one-off severance payment related to Jam City, it rose 28.6% YOY and 7.0% QOQ. Marketing costs recorded KRW 144.9 billion. With the influence from new title launches, including Disney Mirrorverse that was introduced on June 23rd , it increased 44.3% YOY and slightly rose at 0.3% against the previous quarter.
[Foreign language] The King of Fighters Arena [Foreign language] Now on our new lineup for Q4. Charlotte's Table was launched on November 9th, and The King of Fighters Arena will be formally launched on November 14th. In December, early access will be available for Paragon: The Overprime.
[Foreign language] The company participates in the G-Star event in November. Four new titles will be introduced. Paragon: The Overprime, which combines third-person shooting with MOBA, Arthdal Chronicles, which is a seamless open world MMORPG, and Solo Leveling: ARISE based on a globally popular webtoon IP, and HypeSquad, real-time based battle royale that takes place in a future city. The company is readying big titles in diverse genres, and I look forward to your interest.
[Foreign language] Lastly, as the games Netmarble has introduced this year in many parts did not meet the expectations of the market, the company is attempting structural changes with amendments in internal strategy in line with the fast-changing market conditions with realigning of new projects. Based on learnings from our past trial and errors, we will introduce new titles with high game ability that will satisfy users both home and abroad. I look forward to your support and interest. [Foreign language] This concludes our results presentation. Now we will be addressing your questions. Thank you.
[Foreign language] Now Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you pressed star and number one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone. [Foreign language] . The first question will be presented by Ui-Hoon Jung from Eugene Investment & Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign language] Yes, I will give you the translations of the two questions. First, I would like to hear more about the result. It had been quite wanting. Could you elaborate on why? Now we'll onto the second question. We've seen negative results for two consecutive quarters. What is your outlook for the Q4 and for year 2023?
[Foreign language] Yes, this is Young-sig Kwon addressing the first part of your question. Well, the top line is really dependent on what kind of new titles are introduced in the pipeline, in the lineup. As was mentioned in my presentation, the new titles that were introduced this year were rather wanting in terms of performance. If I may talk about cost and structure, well, there are major cost items, including labor cost. As mentioned that we should be adding efficiency to our labor cost too. It is a work in progress. We are continuing our efforts to add more efficiency to our major cost items.
The efforts will continue long into the future, including this one quarter. When it comes to fixed costs related to labor, we've worked on it. There will be less of a pressure from this fixed cost element. However, when it comes to marketing, we will be exercising more flexibility with new title launches. To sum it up on the top line, we will be working with our new title lineups and launches. As for cost, we will be working on adding more efficiency to our fixed cost, and we will add more efficiency in executing our fees and commissions and also marketing expenses.
[Foreign language] Next question please.
[Foreign language] The next question will be presented by Jingu Kim from-
[Foreign language] Yes. I have two questions. First, you've mentioned cost control in your previous answer. Could you give us more color on what kinds of cost control measures there would be? And will there be any policy-wide changes when it comes to your labor costs? Will there be any headcount changes, and would there be any incentive related changes for the company and also related to your subsidiaries?
Well, and could you mention the amount of severance pay that was related to the Jam City? My second question is related to marketing. Could you give us more color as to what kind of marketing spending you will be witnessing going into the next year? Well, you could talk about the percentage to revenue or you could also go by other metrics. You talked about adding more efficiency to your marketing budget execution. Could you give us more detail on that as well? Thank you.
[Foreign language] Once again, I will be addressing your labor-related question. Well, I've told you this in our last presentation, in our last quarterly presentation. Well, in the past, there was our basic stance to go for more aggressive investment in terms of talent. But going forward, we hope to add more efficiency to our labor, so it won't be much of an aggressive growth in developer numbers, but we will be adding more efficiency to our existing human resources. While this does not indicate an active restructuring on the part of our labor structure. As to Jam City and the seventh payment paid out, well, we had an overall check of our overseas projects and had to tidy some of our lesser effective or efficient projects.
This case will not spread to the overall company, nor to the domestic market. It will be a determination more or less on a project basis, on a case by case basis. Once again, our basic stance going forward is to add more efficiency to our existing headcount and go for more selection and focus.
Yes, this is CEO Kwon addressing your question related to marketing directions and also on our ways to add more efficiency to our marketing budget. Four entities, they were in charge of executing our marketing budget. They are Netmarble for the domestic Korean market and Jam City, Kabam, and SpinX.
Netmarble, it was given the task of doing marketing activities for the Korean market, plus we also had a look at the global market because we wanted to grow the global business with our RPG titles. Our past attempt did give us some experience, but in total, we were rather wanting in terms of international experience. Going forward, starting from year 2023, there will be more focus on the Asian market, including the domestic market, and there will be new title launches accordingly. In the past, since we had a heavy focus on overseas businesses, our performance in the domestic market was somewhat wanting and we would be shifting the strategies to focus on the domestic market.
That would be our launch strategy going forward, and our marketing strategy will also follow suit. As to how we will be executing our marketing budget in a more efficient way. Well, if you remember, between Q1 and Q2, there was a period where casual games really performed well. At that given point in time, we really went for aggressive marketing with Jam City and SpinX. Likewise, if we see a glowing sign for specific genres, we would go for more aggressive marketing for that target. If not, we would of course take the other way. Next question, please.
The next question will be presented by Jae-min Ahn from NH Investment & Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign language] I have two questions. First is on SpinX. After your acquisition of SpinX, I know there have been some financial burden related to the acquisition. Could you please tell us the current status of SpinX? What is the revenue like and what is the operating profit level like? I would like to know more about the SpinX company as a whole? My second question is related to your foreign currency denominated debt. Will this situation ease with more settlement or more stabilization in the foreign currency exchange market? What is your foreign currency denominated debt profile like?
[Foreign language] Yes, this is CEO Do. Addressing your SpinX question. Well, if you look at the social casino market, with the pandemic situation being the switch to an endemic situation, we have seen an overall decrease of the market itself. But with the given environment, SpinX had relatively performed well. Jackpot World, Cash Frenzy, Lotsa Slots, these titles have performed well, and we have plans to launch a new title in the first half of next year. As a latecoming to the market, our focus has been on the mobile platform, but we will be going for beta versions in the web and PC platform as well.
[Foreign language] Yes. Now on to the second part of your question, which was related to our foreign currency denominated borrowings. As you're well aware, won has depreciated by about 20% compared to the earlier part of this year. When we borrowed for at the time of acquisition of SpinX, the borrowing amounted to KRW 1.5 trillion. With the fluctuation in foreign currency, we're feeling the pinch in every quarterly report. This is an appraisal value, and with foreign currency changes, we will also be seeing changes in the value as well.
[Foreign language] Going forward, we are going to work on the level of debt. In the Q4 , we will be paying back KRW 300 billion. Through dividends from our subsidiaries or through asset securitization, we will be working on our debt level. [Foreign language] Once again, if I may recap, it's an evaluation loss according to foreign currency exchange rate changes. With our scheduled redemption, with dividends from our subsidiaries and also possible asset securitization, we're going to work on our debt level. [Foreign language] Next question, please.
[Foreign language] . Your next question will be presented by Jong-hwa Song from eBEST Investment & Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign language] Yes, I have several questions. First is on your new titles to be introduced at G-Star. How are they being developed? The Monster Arena, Ultimate Battle, and the Let's Get Rich: Meta World and other titles to be introduced. What's the schedule like? Are they in accordance to your overall original schedulings? This is my first question. My other question is related to your titles that will be introduced at G-Star. When is the official launch dates for the titles that are going to be exhibited at the G-Star convention? My other question is related to SpinX acquisition. It's been almost a year after your acquisition of SpinX. You've acquired a social casino genre company, and you paid a hefty premium for that. As you've mentioned in your presentation, compared to other social casino companies, SpinX has defended its position. But is it enough to justify the hefty acquisition price of KRW 2.6 trillion? Has that acquisition led to any synergy effect with your other existing businesses or other existing genres in terms of collaboration and marketing? Is it enough to justify the acquisition price?
[Foreign Lnguage] Yes, this is CEO Kwon. I will give you an overall launch schedule of our new titles. Let's Get Rich: Meta World is scheduled for release in Q1 next year. Paragon: The Overprime, as was mentioned in the presentation, there will be Early Access service starting from December, and this service will continue. We will find any glitches and make the required improvement, and there will be a formal launch accordingly.
Arthdal Chronicles is scheduled for a launch in Q1 2023, as well as the Solo Leveling: Arise, that will also be launched in Q3. Hype Squad is scheduled for a launch in the Q2. As for the Monster Arena title that you mentioned, the P2E, the game title, well, we conducted our internal test and found it more wanting, so we dropped the project.
[Foreign Language] Now to the SpinX question. Well, about a month ago, we've asked an independent research institution for a report covering years 2022, 2023, 2024 on the social casino sector. It's true that compared to year 2023, the overall social casino market has seen a decrease. If you look at the performance of top 10 social casino companies, their overall revenue has seen a shrink in year 2022 compared to year 2021. When it comes to SpinX, they're still on a growth trajectory. Maybe it may not be as high as what we had anticipated or expected, but still they are on a growth trajectory.
The reasoning behind our acquisition of SpinX, we wanted to have a social casino genre platform, and we wanted the company to be our cash cow. With this reasoning, we've acquired SpinX. As you're well aware, the social casino market has seen a downturn as a whole. Having said that, SpinX still does not service the web and PC versions. If you look at the other social casino players out in the market, about 20%-30% of their revenue comes from the web and PC platforms. Should we introduce a web and PC version for SpinX, we would be enjoying this much of a growth going into the future. This is our expectation.
As to your question on the acquisition price itself, we've been a year after the acquisition, and by the end of this year, accounting-wise, we would have to do a self-check whether the acquisition has met the expectation or not. At this time, we can't say for sure, but, well, we believe that there needs to be an assessment within the company. Well, that could probably take place in the Q4. Next question, please.
Currently, there are no participants with questions. Please press star one, star and one to give your question.
This concludes the Q3 2022 Earnings Release Session at Netmarble. Thank you for your participation, and should you have any follow-up questions, please don't hesitate in contacting us. Thank you.