[1.2.298] Cash for items?

Revenue from selling NX item - cost of making item (salaries for graphic designers, among other things) = total profit of said item. This doesn't only apply to NX items.

Nexon lost money when they made pirates, remember?

But that's assuming they don't pay a certain amount of designers all the time. If they go months on end without introducing anything new, they're still not going to fire designers. I'm pretty sure they'll make profit either way, it;s just a matter of more or less profit.