The Finals, the epic, sweaty multiplayer FPS from Embark Studios, has been in a slump as it reports a significant drop in revenue and operating profit, according to publisher Nexon.

In the earnings letter (via TechRaptor), which reports financial results for 2024 Q1, Nexon reports that "stronger-than-expected" revenue gained mainly from games like EA Sports FC Online (published in China) was "partially offset by lower-than-expected performance, mainly in the finals."

In addition, the report noted that with the start of Season 3 on May 2, "we saw a short-term increase in player metrics, but with lower retention rates and revenue than we expected.""As a result, Embark Studios is now working with Nexon's Live Operations team in South Korea to understand and address key issues."

The finals enjoyed a strong launch at the end of last year, Nexon said it exceeded internal expectations. The battle focused on its destruction, combined with a deep and satisfying gunpla and great moves, had great potential.

But even before the game's launch, there were obvious problems. As Morgan pointed out, the emphasis on teamwork didn't really gel into how that character's build moved the world differently, making it hard to enjoy the chaotic combat. It also felt light on the content and lacked the personality of other shooters like Apex Legends and Overwatch, except for vague virtual tournament framing.

Embark has tried to spice things up since launch by adding solo mode (sadly not great) and Season 2's TF2 payload-inspired 5v5 mode (awesome) just after launch. "Man, it's really nice to have more people watching your back in the finals — or maybe it's nice to have fewer people trying to kill you," Morgan wrote when testing it on May 3 [Link]. Sadly, this didn't seem to have been enough to stop the game from losing players. Nexon says in its report that Season 3 is coming on May 6, and that's probably bringing a new map among other things.

Nexon's broad performance may have been better than expected, but overall revenue was down 13% year-on-year and net operating profit was down 48% over the same period. In addition to the poor finals performance, Nexon blames "lower consumer spending year-on-year, higher costs, and an expected 1-time loss." Publishers say the 1 way they want to deal with this is due to major updates to several flagship games in the next quarter, including the 21-year-old MapleStory and Finals.