Starbreeze AB (publ) Interim report Q2 2021

Second quarter 2021

• Net sales amounted to SEK 32.0 million (31.3). PAYDAY accounted for SEK 31.5 million (28.1).
• EBITDA* amounted to SEK -51.8 million (15.5).
• EBITDA**, adjusted for one-off effects related to PAYDAY Crime War license agreement, EBITDA amounted to SEK 16.8 million (15.5).
• Amortization, depreciation and impairments amounted to SEK 15.5 million (10.6).
• Profit before tax was SEK -80.0 million (-8.6).
• Basic and diluted earnings per share were SEK -0.11 (-0.02).
• The second chapter of PAYDAY 2: City of Gold was successfully launched during the quarter.

First half 2021

• Net sales amounted to SEK 59.9 million (53.3). PAYDAY accounted for SEK 58.4 million (49.7).
• EBITDA* amounted to SEK -29.3 million (32.3).
• EBITDA**, adjusted for one-off effects related to PAYDAY Crime War license agreement, EBITDA amounted to SEK 39.4 million (32.3).
• Amortization, depreciation and impairments amounted to SEK 30.0 million (20.9).
• Profit before tax was SEK -84.3 million (-105.9).
• Basic and diluted earnings per share were SEK -0.11 (-0.31).
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to SEK 113.6 million (90.9).

CEO Tobias Sjögren remarks on the report: We are continuing to grow with PAYDAY.

Interest in PAYDAY 2 is growing and we are gaining many new players every month, while development work on PAYDAY 3 is going according to plan.

During the quarter, we signed a license agreement with the Canadian mobile game publisher PopReach for the mobile game PAYDAY Crime War. PopReach has taken over all the remaining development of the game before the launch. The agreement reduces our development expenses, while we continue to see good opportunities for future licensing revenue. The team at PopReach has an impressive track record in the mobile games market, and we are excited about partnership with them in order to make Crime War a successful mobile version of PAYDAY 2.

Our sales on Steam continued to rise in the second quarter, and we saw a growth of 22% compared to the same period of the preceding year. Our growth was 38% adjusted for the negative impact of currency movements.

The profit for the quarter is partly affected by one-off effects related to the agreement regarding PAYDAY Crime War. Adjusted for these, we see an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 16.8 million, an increase of SEK 1.3 million during the quarter compared to same quarter previous year.

The number of monthly active users (MAU) peaked at 804,029 during the quarter, an increase of 35% on the second quarter of 2020. The number of daily active users (DAU) also increased, by 16%. This points to a growing commitment in our community and the creative work by our development organization in their efforts to continuously delivering high-quality experiences. 

During the quarter, we successfully released the second add-on pack, Ukrainian Prisoner Heist, out of a total of four from the new City of Gold season. The strength of the PAYDAY IP in continuing to attract many new players while we are seeing increased sales of DLC (downloadable content) shows that we are developing the game in the right direction, which gives us great confidence for the future launch of PAYDAY 3.

Development of PAYDAY 3 is progressing, and we have reached the pro-duction phase, which means that the team is focused on creating the content that will be included in the game at launch. The Unreal engine provides us with a strong foundation thanks to our own and our co-publisher Koch Media's favourable experience of working on multiple hardware platforms simultaneously. We have continued to strengthen our development organization both in Paris and in Stockholm and so far, we have welcomed 37 new employees from 8 different countries in 2021.

Building brands that appeal to a broad and global market requires a team that, in addition to skill and experience, have relevant knowledge from different parts of the world and instinctively understands differences in cultures and expectations. We believe that to be part of the process of producing entertainment products for millions of different players, we need to be able to collaborate effectively and in the best possible way with all our colleagues. Only then can we create the very best gaming experiences. For Starbreeze, it's a matter of continuing to develop our inclusive and results-oriented culture and never resting on our laurels, but constantly striving to improve. The goal is for Starbreeze culture to be clear and attract new employees as well as new players.

To sum up, we are continuing to grow with PAYDAY and we are building a solid foundation for the launch of PAYDAY 3. The development of PAYDAY 3 along with our partner is going according to plan, and we look forward to all the exciting content we will be launching for PAYDAY 2 and the work on continuing to develop PAYDAY 3.

Tobias Sjögren

CEO Starbreeze

For more information, please contact:

Mats Juhl, CFO
Tel: +46(0)8-209 229, email: ir@starbreeze.com

This information is information that Starbreeze AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:00 CET on August 18, 2021.

About Starbreeze

Starbreeze is an independent developer and creator of PC and console targeting the global market, with studios in Stockholm, Barcelona and Paris. Housing the smash hit IP PAYDAY, Starbreeze develops games based on proprietary and third-party rights, both in-house and in partnership with external game developers. Starbreeze shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the tickers STAR A and STAR B with the ISIN-codes SE0007158928 (A share) and SE0005992831 (B share). For more information, please visit starbreeze.com