Kakao Games Corp., the gaming unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., said Wednesday its first-quarter net profit tumbled 85 percent due to an account loss from its investment in a local developer.

Kakao Games logged a net profit of 4.2 billion won ($3.1 million) on a consolidated basis in the January-March period, compared with a net profit of 28.3 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Its operating profit plunged 73.1 percent on-year to 11.3 billion won. Sales dropped 6.5 percent to 249.2 billion won.

The company blamed the sharp on-year decrease in net profit on an accounting loss from its investment in its affiliated company. Last year, Kakao Games became the biggest shareholder of local game developer Lionheart Studio Corp. with a combined 55 percent stake.

Out of its quarterly sales, the company said its mobile business earned 153.9 billion won, up 13.2 percent from a year earlier, while computer-based games brought in about 14.1 billion won, down 3.5 percent on-year.

Kakao Games said the new sci-fi game "Ares: Rise of Guardians" will be released in the third quarter and the action role-playing game "Goddess Order" will be launched in the fourth quarter. (Yonhap)