Welcome to the Pullup Entertainment 2025, 2026 full year earnings conference call. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the question-and-answer sessions, participants are able to ask questions by raising their hand or through the chat. I will hand the conference over to Geoffroy Sardin, CEO, and Aurélien Briand, CFO. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone. I will first start with our traditional review of market dynamics. According to Newzoo, 2025 finished on a strong note with full-year overall growth up 9% to reach $200 billion. This was notably driven by a very strong PC segment, up 12%. PC is now as large as the console game business. Newzoo has also revised upwards its projections for the coming years in a similar with CAGR of 5.3% versus the 3% they estimated at the same time last year. Next slide. We have been showing this slide for the past year; you know it well. One of the reasons behind PC excellent momentum is the strength of the AA and indie segment, which delivered an impressive CAGR of 20% over the past four years. Next slide.
While this market context is obviously supportive to Pullup Entertainment, it also comes with an intense level of competition for new releases. As you can see on this chart, the number of new titles released on Steam every year has increased significantly. We must adapt to ensure we remain super competitive. Next slide. At Pullup Entertainment, we are well-positioned to benefit from the current great dynamic of double A and indie games, in particular on PC, on which we generated over 50% of our total revenue last year. We have a track record of consistently releasing high-quality games, most importantly, games with strong differentiation and uncompromising gameplays. Our games target a passionate and highly engaged audience. I will come back to that at the end of my presentation. Next slide.
Today, we confirm our confidence in our strategy, namely expanding the value of our publishing business, internalizing high-value assets, and growing the recurrence of our business, notably through live experiences. Let me review our progress on each front. Next slide. Let's start with publishing and how we are leveraging our past successes with the Warhammer franchise and our great relationship with Games Workshop. Development on Space Marine 3 is going well, with the game being at the end of its pre-production phase.
It will have a significant positive impact on our financial performance once it releases. Our best teams are working with Games Workshop and Saber to ensure we deliver another amazing experience to players. Dotemu has announced Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster, a new entry in the Warhammer franchise. Players' interest has been very, very strong. As you will see from this short trailer, the game has a strong and intense personality. Play the video.
[Presentation]
I told you the game has a strong and intense personality. Next slide. Another demonstration of the strength of our publishing business is a recent partnership Focus Entertainment announced with Day 4 Night, a studio founded by industry veterans who worked in the past on powerful brands such as Red Dead Redemption and Mario and Rabbids. Their title, Bradley the Badger ranked among the top 10 games at the recent Game Awards in terms of wishlists. Here is the reveal trailer, which has won over players' hearts. Play the video.
[Presentation]
Second pillar of our strategy, the internalization of high-value assets. In fiscal year 2026, Dotemu created and released Absolum, a successful own IP that has received numerous awards as Best Independent Game of the Year. It is now an established franchise that we will be able to build upon. Stay tuned for more in the medium term. We currently have 14 projects which are either based on owned or co-owned IPs, including two new IPs under development at our internal studio, Carpool Studio and Deck13.
Dovetail Games and BlackMill Games continue to develop games based on the Train Sim World and World War 1 Series franchises. We have announced recently four titles based on co-owned IPs. Next slide. A Plague Tale, has been one of our strongest IP over the years, beloved by fans. It is a co-owned IP with French studio Asobo, and we are super happy to bring it back with Resonance. The game will be released on August 27th. Of course, we have a brand-new trailer. Play the video.
[Presentation]
Last but not least, on the internalization of high-value assets, our Magicians: The Devil's Deal, at the recent Xbox Games Showcase. It is being developed by Uppercut Games, in which we own a minority stake. The studio was founded by industry veterans who worked on the BioShock franchise. We have a co-ownership of the IP. You will see with this trailer that the game has also a very strong creative identity, and reaction from players has been outstanding, with close to 100,000 wishlists in four days, which is one of the best reveals in Focus Entertainment history. Play the video.
[Presentation]
Brilliant video. Third pillar of our strategy, enhance recurrence. We are pleased by our team's work on our back catalog. In fiscal year 2026, it amounted to EUR 189 million. It offers a predictable stream of revenue, profitability, and cash flow generation to build upon. This is a very valuable asset. On top of leveraging prior years' new releases that stack on each other to amplify its long-term value, we also enhance the recurrence of our business by building live operations within our games.
Space Marine 2 live operations momentum has strengthened significantly since the release of Season 2 last September. It had a positive impact on our capacity to sell additional content with over a third of games revenue coming from DLCs. It has also been great to attract new players. The recent Iron Hands DLC released alongside a new free game update has amplified that excellent dynamic.
We will reach new audiences by releasing Space Marine 2 on Switch 2 this fiscal year. Finally, our teams are already hard at work on year three, notably with new missions and new maps. Next slide. Train Sim World continues to build on its live operations, bringing constant updates to the game. This leads to over 50% of global game revenue coming from live content.
Finally, the first DLC for MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, called Cyclops and the Thing, has surprised us positively with great traction from players. We have more content in the works. Next slide. While we have the right positioning and we are progressing on each one of our three-pillar strategy, we recently took new decisions to enhance our focus and ensure we are optimizing our capital allocation. We went through a full review of our sales projection, portfolio, and planning for fiscal year 2027 and beyond.
We took three important decisions. First, we are even more selective in the games we green-light. You saw today through the different trailers that our games have a strong creative personality and are well-positioned to stand out in a competitive environment. We also decided to cancel a few titles, including Metro Rivals, which led to the adaptation of Dovetail Games' cost structure, and we decided to divest from Douze Dixièmes .
Being even more selective implies that we now expect video game CapEx between EUR 70 million-EUR 80 million per year versus our prior EUR 70 million-EUR 100 million range. Second decision, we gave more time to some titles to maximize their quality and long-term potential. Decision, in light of the very competitive environment, we reevaluated our revenue assumptions for our new releases to favor prudence and visibility. In summary, we have the right strategy and positioning. We took decisive actions as we are committed to value creation and to grow adjusted EBIT and cash flow generation over the coming years. I now hand over the call to Aurélien.
Thank you, Geoffroy. Hello everyone. Next slide, please. While we did not reach all our financial ambitions, we continued to deliver a solid execution on the quality of our games. We released 12 titles with, on average, an 84% satisfaction rate from Steam players and a great ranking from Dotemu in the Metacritic annual ranking. Next slide. As communicated in April, our full-year revenue amounted to EUR 281 million, with back catalog up 53% year-on-year at EUR 189 million, which is nearly three times higher than fiscal year 2023.
That reflects the group's transformation moving towards greater recurrence. Our new releases revenue was lower than expected, with notably disappointing performance of our Q4 releases during the last weeks of March. Next slide. On the P&L side, gross margin as a percentage of revenue was impacted by end of March, lower new releases revenue, and the resulting accelerated depreciations.
The increase in sales and marketing expense was related to the large number of titles we released during the year. The decrease in G&A was mostly due to FY 2025 Space Marine variable costs, as well as our ongoing strict control on expenses. Our FY 2026 adjusted EBIT ended up at EUR 12.6 million, in line with our revised guidance of between EUR 10 million and EUR 15 million. As usual, our goodwill amortization reflected our 10-year policy on amortization as well as accelerated depreciations.
Costs related to Lake closure on this year's divestment amounted to EUR 3.7 million. Please note that the line impacts of subsidiary disposal or restructuring was previously included in extraordinary profit and loss. This does not change our adjusted EBIT definition. Next slide. Looking now at our cash statement of cash flows. As Geoffroy said, we are increasingly selective in our investments. This translated into a strict control on CapEx as we are more and more focused on flagship projects. As a result, excluding scripting, CapEx amounted to EUR 72 million at the low end of the EUR 70 million - EUR 100 million prior guidance.
Our total CapEx included EUR 12 million related to scripting projects, mostly financed through self-liquidating loans. Working capital was positively impacted by favorable timing on royalties, leading to a positive operating cash flow of EUR 6.5 million. The line debt increase and interest expenses reflected gross debt increase, which included change in scripting self-liquidating loans compensated by interest expenses and fees related to the July 2025 senior debt renegotiation.
Next slide. Finally, our balance sheet. As previously said, our working capital was impacted by favorable timing on royalties. Tangible and intangible assets were up by EUR 23 million, mostly related to total CapEx at EUR 84 million versus G&A at EUR 66 million. Our reported net debt as of March 26 stood at EUR 86 million, including EUR 52 million of cash. Equity reflected the EUR 12 million net loss and the EUR 8 million dividend paid in October of 2025. Next slide.
Thank you, Aurélien. For fiscal year 2027, we will release more than 10 titles. Focus Entertainment will notably publish Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Road Kings and BioEden. Dotemu will notably publish Chivalware, Theos: Cities of Myth, Wardens of Avalon, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster. Gallipoli, based on our own IP World War 1 Game Series, is developed and will be published by BlackMill Games. More title will be revealed during the year. You can, of course, expect a new release from Dark Devotion, and we will sustain our back catalog review with ongoing live content. Back catalog will continue to offer robust visibility on revenue, profitability, and cash flow generation. Next slide.
Beyond fiscal 2027, our teams and partners are working on circa 15 core titles. Some of these games will reflect our push towards internalizing IP ownership, we can't wait to show you more. This concludes our presentation. For your information, after the Q&A session, we have prepared a medley trailer of our upcoming games. We are now ready to answer your questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please raise your hand via the green button or submit a question through the chat.
We'll go through the written question as we have received many of them. The first question: do you plan to update or provide new guidance on the current fiscal year?
Thank you for the question. We believe it's better not to provide guidance for the current year as the current market trend with intense competition for new release is, as you could say, very intense. That's why we will not provide new guidance on the fiscal year.
Second question, the consensus stands at around EUR 21 million adjusted EBIT for fiscal year 2027. Do you feel comfortable achieving this level with the current pipeline?
The consensus is at roughly EUR 21 million, is roughly in line with our budget. It remains, as suggested, very sensitive to our release schedule. A postponement of one of our titles of the fiscal will require the consensus to adjust. You know, we have always been ready to take the hard decision to postpone a game if we believe it is best for its quality and long-term potential.
Third question. On the 10+ games set for this fiscal year, can you tell us if you see some risk of delay for some of them? If so, which games could be at risk? Thank you for your question. As you could see during the deck we presented, we already announced some fixed release date, especially on Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, which will be released the 27th of August. Assessing the execution and the quality of a portfolio is a day-to-day business. We reassess every day, but today, and we announced it during this conference call, we've got the 10+ games in our portfolio, and it's all about strong execution, and we believe that we've got it right now. Will the Switch 2 versions of existing titles be accounted in launches or in back catalog?
Indeed, we announced yesterday or this week two titles, namely SnowRunner, Space Marine 2, and those titles will be accounted in back catalog in our financial reporting.
Can you give us some indications on the financial impact of selling Douze Dixièmes?
I said during the presentation that the impact of disposal and restructuring amount to EUR 3.7 million. Douze Dixièmes is a bit more than half of that, and this is mainly depreciation of unannounced project with the studio.
Could we see another reassessment of the pipeline? In other words, do you expect all current projects will be finalized and launched? We already announced some reassessment and capital reallocation recently, and especially we did a big one with Metro Rivals from Dovetail Games. It's part reassessment, it's part of our daily business and daily focus right now. Today we think that we are strong enough, in fact, to assume and to deliver the 10 games plus during this fiscal year. Again, reassessment, because it's all about execution and quality, is part of our business and focus. Should CapEx and D&A be more or less equivalent in 2027?
As we're investing on a couple of very exciting project, namely Space Marine 3 and, as you could say, two projects internally on the Carpool and Deck13, we still expect to have video game CapEx slightly above D&A. However, we plan to have EBITDA slightly higher than CapEx for next year for video game.
With the updated projections, when do you think you could achieve positive free cash flow?
As I said, we plan to have EBITDA for video game above CapEx. This is the first indication of trending to a positive free cash flow.
Do you feel the rising hardware cost will have a negative impact on your business? This rising hardware cost is a fact right now. What I could share with you is the first parties, that is to say the manufacturers, the console manufacturers, anticipate a lot getting some ships set right on time. We are on the GTA VI year. First parties anticipate a lot this fantastic launch, which will be good for the entire industry at some point, rising the number of console on the market.
For the PC, today, as I told you during the presentation, it is the more dynamic segment on the market right now. This rising is not reflecting what is happening right now on the trends consumption. You mentioned that the back catalog has had a very good start to the year. Is it performing well enough to suggest that it could remain stable in H1 compared to last year?
Indeed, back catalog had a very good start. We mentioned the very successful live content for Space Marine 2 and the MARVEL Cosmic Invasion. We can say as well that the sales promotion are still deterrent for Space Marine 2, but we need to remind you that last year we had a meaningful effect of different revenue from season pass in H1, so that if we accept this effect, the back catalog is trending in a comparable way to last year.
Can you give us a bit more details on the last two games announcements? Which are Magicians: The Devil's Deal and Bradley the Badger, and their potential. Just to complete, it's Magicians: The Devil's Deal and Bradley the Badger. For Magicians: The Devil's Deal, we just announced the game four days ago, and as I told you during the presentation, it was one of the best received of this showcase. What I could share with you is this game generated more than 100,000 wish lists, and every day there is a lot of comment and discussion about this very intense, very distinctive setting for a first-person, not shooter, but magic in a kind of a BioShock environment.
Regarding Bradley the Badger, first of all, we are very proud to work with this team who previously set up one of the biggest franchise in the world, naming Red Dead Redemption, naming Mario and Rabbids. We fell in love with this concept. It is outlining exactly what we are looking for. That is to say, uncompromising gameplay, freshness, fun, narrative-driven. Today, what we could share with you is when they revealed the game at last TGA, that is to say The Game Awards last December, it was namely the biggest surprise of the show because it was new and it was on the top 10 wish lists generated by this event. Much more than 400,000 wish lists at this time. We think that we've got very strong promises regarding those two titles.
Is it correct to assume the working capital variation could be highly negative this year, as you started the year with a lot of trade payables?
Indeed, the working capital has a lot of trade payables. As we said during the presentation, we have a good favorable working capital on royalties. If you normalize the working capital, answer is yes, we cannot exclude to be in the same position at the end of next year. That's why we are in a very positive position of working capital by the end of March.
What is behind the EUR 12 million CapEx of Scripteam? Just to do a recap, Scripteam is a department, is a division dedicated to the production of TV series and film, as well as the adaptation of the group licenses. Today we've got several projects on track, both on two legs, production and TV series and film, and as well adaptation of the group license. We can't reveal right now exactly what's is under discussion. What we could tell you is we are very close to some big partners and platform to make it happen regarding the adaptation of group franchises.
Are you considering additional disposals after Douze Dixièmes as part of portfolio optimization? Today, it's exactly the same answer to the last one regarding the reassessment. Today, we are very pleased with what all the entities are delivering and contributing. The reassessment of a project is a daily focus and business. The decision we made was an agreed decision with the studio, Douze Dixièmes. Today we're still very positive and engaged with all our entities. Last question: What gives you confidence in the commercial potential of the 2027 lineup? How do you assess current competitive intensity in the valley?
That's a big question for this end of the call. First of all, the positioning of Focus and all the entities is to be different, better, and less expensive, if I must say. Our lineup of 2026 and 2027 is very strong based on Resonance, highly community-driven IP. Resonance will be out end of August and before the overcrowded situation of end of September till end of November with GTA VI release. Road Kings is a very well-executed game on the specific simulation genre, and you know how we like and we love working on simulation because behind simulation, we are talking about live operations. Live operations, we are talking about recurrence of revenue.
The Warhammer, if I take only those examples, the Warhammer Deathmaster game coming from Dotemu, as soon as we revealed the game, the excitement within the community was very strong, and you saw the execution and the strong personality again and again. It is a very differentiated portfolio we are proposing to the players. We are in a good way, in fact, to deliver what we want to deliver today. This is it for the Q&A session. We now have a trailer of different upcoming games, a medley trailer to show you. Thank you very much