Netmarble's Profit Falls 45% as Delays Push Its Big Games to 2027

Netmarble has a habit of launching a lot of games. In its third quarter of 2026 it launched almost none, and the bill has now arrived.

For July to September 2026, Netmarble reported revenue of ₩634.7 billion, down 8.8% from a year earlier and 15.3% from the previous quarter. Operating profit fell 44.6% to ₩50.4 billion, and net profit dropped 45.3% to ₩22.2 billion. The company put the decline down to one thing: delays in launching new titles.

A miss, not just a dip

The numbers were well below what analysts had expected. Before the report, estimates gathered by Korean outlet MTN pointed to revenue of about ₩730.8 billion and operating profit of about ₩82.4 billion, helped by summer launches such as The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin and SOL: enchant. Instead, operating profit came in roughly 40% under that estimate.

The bigger picture for the year is steadier. Through the first nine months of 2026, Netmarble has booked ₩2.04 trillion in revenue and ₩183.6 billion in operating profit.

CEO Kim Byung-gyu said the company is "concentrating our full efforts on strengthening the fundamentals of existing titles," and promised better fourth-quarter profitability through updates to major games and tighter cost management.

Where the money comes from

Overseas sales were ₩476.2 billion, or 75% of the total, down three percentage points from the previous quarter. That reliance on foreign markets is both a strength and a risk. It gives Netmarble a much bigger audience than a Korea-only publisher, but it also exposes results to exchange rates, which analysts had flagged as a worry before the quarter.

It also explains why a quiet launch calendar hurts so much. Netmarble's model depends on a steady flow of new games, many based on famous IP, to replace older ones as they fade. When the flow stops for a quarter, revenue falls quickly.

Thirteen games for 2027

The delays were deliberate. Kim said games planned for the second half of 2026 combined Netmarble's own features with existing genres, rather than inventing new ones, and "required additional work to reinforce service stability." Lessons from 2026 launches, including MONGIL: STAR DIVE and The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, led to more polish.

The result is a crowded 2027. Netmarble now plans more than 13 new games, about 10 published by itself and about 3 through overseas subsidiaries, including its Chinese entity:

• Shangri-La Frontier: The Seven Colossi, Solo Leveling: KARMA and WB All-Stars Idle, all targeted for the first quarter of 2027
• Guardian Tales: Dig Dot, Pearl in Blue and EvilBane, revealed earlier
• New names: Wilderlings, Babel Protocol, Dark Priest, and four projects with working titles (Project D, X, C and M)

Netmarble plans a separate event to present the new projects in detail.

The most interesting change is how those games will launch. For years, Netmarble pushed big releases onto mobile, PC and sometimes console all at once. Now it will launch each game first on the platform where it can perform best, and expand later. Kim's reasoning was blunt: simultaneous multi-platform launches "can sometimes do more harm than good."

Why it matters

Netmarble's quarter is a reminder of how Korea's mobile publishers live and die by their release calendars. A strong game like SOL: enchant can top the charts, but it cannot carry a company of Netmarble's size alone for long.

The 2027 plan is ambitious, and the focus on quality and on one platform at a time sounds sensible. The test will come in the first quarter, when three IP-based games are due. If they land, this quarter will look like a pause. If they slip again, investors will ask harder questions.

What to watch

• Q1 2027: Shangri-La Frontier, Solo Leveling: KARMA and WB All-Stars Idle.
• China: the launches of Solo Leveling: ARISE and The King of Fighters ALLSTAR.
• Netmarble's showcase for its newly revealed projects.