Interim report January - June 2021

Tue, Aug 10, 2021 08:00 CET

Second quarter 2021

Revenues amounted to MSEK 403.0 (MSEK 464.9), a decrease by 13% compared to the same period last year.
Operating profit amounted to MSEK 111.4 (MSEK 199.0), a decrease by 44% compared to the same period last year.
Profit after financial items amounted to MSEK 110.3 (MSEK 197.7), and profit after tax amounted to MSEK 88.3 (MSEK 154.5).
Cash flow from operating activities amounted to MSEK 262.3 (MSEK 278.5), and cash flow from investing activities amounted to MSEK -212.3 (MSEK -148.4).
By the end of the period cash amounted to MSEK 651.0 (MSEK 637.2).
Earnings per share amounted to SEK 0.84 (1.46) after dilution.
Revenues in the quarter are mainly attributable to Cities: Skylines, Crusader Kings III, Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron IV and Stellaris.

Important events in the second quarter 2021

Four expansions were released during the period; Nemesis for Stellaris,Leviathan for Europa Universalis IV, Second Chances for Prison Architect and Federations for Stellaris: Console Edition.
The group’s employees continue to work from home to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
At the Annual General Meeting on May 18, Andras Vajlok was elected as a new board member. Josephine Salenstedt declined re-election.
PDXCON was held as a digital event 21-23 May. A Paradox Publisher Weekend was held on Steam in connection to the event.

After the end of the period

No significant events have occurred after the end of the period.

Comments by Ebba Ljungerud, CEO

A quarter for celebrating the players

As we close the books on the first half of 2021, I look back at six months where we’ve continued to strengthen and develop our important player base and our core within strategy and management games. We continue to attract new players and I am proud that we have reached a new milestone: over 20 million players with PDX Accounts! One of our strengths is our loyal and recurrent players, which can be seen in a strong and stable monthly player base of over 5 million.

The cornerstone of our most successful games are active, loyal, and enthusiastic players. They are a source of feedback, ideas, content and energy that make our games even better and long lived. Our developers and community teams put a lot of effort into the dialogue with our players in order to nurture a stronger community around the games, for example at our annual convention PDXCON. Due to the pandemic, the event was held as PDXCON Remixed, a 72 hour digital celebration of our fantastic fans and the games they love. Our players’ engagement could be clearly seen in the record high participation; the convention’s events and content has been viewed over 3.5 million times and we had over 250 000 unique viewers during the weekend. Over the convention weekend we also held a successful Publisher Weekend on Steam.

We also took the opportunity to announce a very special game that we’ve worked on for a number of years; Victoria 3. Victoria 3 is the sequel in one of our most mythical franchises and has been requested for many years. Victoria, our Grand Strategy franchise that takes place in the Victorian era is known for its complex systems for handling politics and populations.

Victoria 3 is also an example of the backbone of our growth; our ability to develop and nurture games that can grow in both content and audience over an extended time period by continuous releases of new content. The announcement was received with great enthusiasm and now our full focus is on developing an entertaining and long-lasting game that meets our players’ expectations.

The quarter has also featured two of our most beloved games, Hearts of Iron IV and Stellaris, celebrating their fifth anniversaries. Half a decade after launch, they continue to place themselves on our top five list of our best-selling titles and have to date sold over three and four million base game copies respectively since launch.

One of the many unfortunate effects of covid-19 is that the pandemic affects the pace at which we can develop and publish new content. Even though our growing player base lays a solid foundation for future growth the number of releases in the past two quarters did not reach our level of ambition. Revenues for the second quarter decreased by 13% and profit before tax by 44% compared to the same period last year. For the last twelve months, revenues increased by 11% whilst profit before tax decreased by 24% compared to a year earlier. The quarter's revenues and results are impacted by the weakening of the USD and other major currencies against the SEK from the second quarter of 2020. The quarter's profit is also affected by the cancellation of an unannounced externally developed project. In connection with the cancellation, we have written down the value of the game which burdens the profit before tax by 42 MSEK.

Our growth is based on our ability to release high-quality games within the strategy and management segments that can be developed with new content over a long time. In the quarter we have continued to work intensively to strengthen the preconditions for this. We have increased the focus on our core as well growing and adjusting our organization in order to be able to meet our highly set ambitions. Now we can finally plan for a “post-COVID world” and I really look forward to gathering all our teams at our offices around the world and increasing the pace of development in our projects.

Ebba Ljungerud, CEO

Presentation of report

Ebba Ljungerud and Alexander Bricca will host a live stream to answer report and financial related questions on our Twitch channel on August 10 at 12:00 PM CET https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive. Submit your questions before by emailing them to ir@paradoxinteractive.com or directly in the Twitch chat. The Twitch chat is open for anyone to view but to post comments or questions you will need to create an account.

Link to recorded version of presentation

If you missed the presentation you can find a recording of the live stream here:
Q2 2021 - Live stream

This disclosure contains information that Paradox Interactive AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 10-08-2021 08:00 CET.

For additional information, please contact:
Ebba Ljungerud, CEO Paradox Interactive
Alexander Bricca, CFO Paradox Interactive
Email: ir@paradoxinteractive.com
Phone: +4670-355 54 18

About Paradox Interactive
The Paradox group today consists of both publishing and internal development of games and brands. The game portfolio includes more than 100 titles and Paradox owns the most important brands, including Stellaris, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings, Cities: Skylines, Prison Architect, Magicka, Age of Wonders and the World of Darkness catalogue of brands. From the start 2004, the company has published its games all over the world, initially through physical distribution but since 2006 primarily in digital channels. Paradox games are developed primarily for PC and console platforms, but the company also releases games on mobile. The largest markets today include the US, UK, China, Germany, France, Russia and Scandinavia. Today, over five million gamers play a Paradox game each month and the number of registered Paradox users exceeds 20 million.

Paradox Interactive AB (publ)’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm First North Premier under ticker PDX. Certified Advisor: FNCA Sweden AB, info@fnca.se, +46-8-528 00 399. For more information, please visit www.paradoxinteractive.com.