Online, mobile game growth leads to increased NetDragon Q1 profits

Chinese online game operator NetDragon has posted increased revenues and profits year-over-year for the first quarter of the 2012 fiscal year, putting it down to financial growth from both its mobile games and its online titles. The company's Mobile Internet division, which houses its mobile applications distribution platform alongside its mobile games, saw a notable rise in revenues thanks to numerous mobile releases in the quarter, including Dragon Royale Online and HengHa Warring States. NetDragon said that it plans to "continue to rapidly roll out mobile games" going into the rest of the fiscal year, as a result of this success. As part of this focus on mobile games, the company revealed earlier this year that it has formed a new social games studio with Tokyo-based social and mobile gaming giant DeNA, with the aim to develop mobile social games for the Chinese market. As for growth from the company's online games, it said this was due to Eudemons Online expansion Legacy of Asgard launching as a beta in March. The expansion pack set a record high in monthly revenue for any game from the company. NetDragon also launched the Invasion of Pirates expansion pack for Conquer Online in several new languages, as part of the company's move into overseas territories. For the quarter ended March 31, 2012, NetDragon's Online Games division posted revenues of 191.6 million Chinese yuan ($30.2 million), up 27.2 percent year-over-year, while its Mobile Internet sector posted revenues of 45.4 million Chinese yuan ($7.2 million), up a notable 644.3 percent. Overall, the company recorded revenues of 237.0 million Chinese yuan ($37.4 million), up 51.2 percent year-over-year, and profits of 55.8 million Chinese yuan ($8.8 million), up 61.1 percent year-over-year.