Welcome to the PulluP Entertainment Q1 2026/2027 revenue conference call. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the question and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by raising their hand or through the chat. Now I will hand the conference over to Geoffroy Sardin, CEO, and Aurélien Briand, CFO. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone. Our back catalog delivered a robust performance this quarter. Excluding the impact of deferred revenues, it was mostly stable despite Space Marine 2 entering its third fiscal year. Our back catalog performance was based on a broad array of titles. Space Marine 2 keeps on benefiting from its live experience and is performing at the high end of our expectations. We sold more Space Marine 2 units in Q1 than one year ago. This reflects three things. First, the strength of the Space Marine brand, which is the most powerful among the Warhammer 40K universe. Second, the effectiveness of its live operations to drive engagement. Third, our capacity to enhance the game's value through smart pricing strategy. Other notable contributors to the quarter were Toxic Commando, Absolum, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, RoadCraft, and the usual Train Sim World, SnowRunner, and Atomic Heart.
The Plague Tale titles are also seeing a nice new momentum, with 500,000 units sold of the prior two titles since early June, when we announced the release date of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. This reflects our team's expertise in growing the value of our existing games and franchises at different stage of their life cycles. Talking of Resonance, players' anticipations are building up nicely. Its sales will be over-indexed on consoles, and its wishlists are ahead of prior titles in the franchise at a comparable period. We are confident it will meet our expectations. Remember, we co-own the Plague Tale IP. During our recent full-year earnings communication, we discussed how well our portfolio of upcoming projects is building up. Bradley the Badger and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster have been well-received by the community. Likewise, for Magicians: The Devil's Deal, also an IP that we co-own.
Those three titles demonstrate the growing strength of our publishing businesses, Focus Entertainment and Dotemu, who are increasingly attracting the industry's best creatives. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 production is well on track and is super promising. We have two own IPs in development at our in-house studio, Carpool Studio and Deck13, that we can't wait to unveil. This is positioning us to capture the thriving double-A and indie market opportunity and to make a difference in a crowded market. At the same time, we have taken tough decisions over the past few months to focus our capital allocation on the most promising opportunities. This discipline, combined with our upcoming projects, will lead to increased visibility and cash flow generation. I now hand over the call to Aurélien.
Thank you, Geoffroy, and hello, everybody. Q1 reached EUR 44 million, down 44% from last year. This can be explained by the release of RoadCraft and the impact of Space Marine 2 deferred revenue last year. Back catalog reached EUR 40 million versus EUR 58 million last year. This gap is reduced to zero, with both sales at EUR 39 million when excluding the deferred revenue. As Geoffroy said, this means our back catalog continues to deliver robustly. In fiscal Q2, we will notably release Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Gallipoli, and BioEden. Space Marine 2 Year 3 live content will start during the quarter as well. 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.
Okay. We'll start with a written question. First question, deferred revenue is low compared to last year. Does this mean the new seasons of extra content for Space Marine 2 are not commercially successful, or is it just that revenue will be recognized later?
Just to clarify something. On deferred revenue, deferred revenue refers to the content pre-sold in premium edition and season pass.
As the game is progressing and the live content coming on the store, player can now directly buy all the content and the DLCs. That's normal to see the portion of deferred revenue reducing over time. There is absolutely no issue with the extra content, and we're even very pleased with the performance of the live content of Space Marine 2. To answer the last part of the question, there is no revenue that will be recognized later on that because I said most of the content is not available on the store.
Second question, a lot of games will be launched around September to avoid the confrontation with GTA VI. Resonance will launch a bit earlier than that, did you adapt as well back catalog special operations to avoid the crowded September?
Indeed, Resonance, A Plague Tale legacy, has a good release window, a sweet spot, end of August, the 27th of August, before a very heavy competitive slate in September and October, and for sure, GTA in November. As said previously, we have taken a more cautious stance regarding our exceptions, this reflects the very competitive environment. It's a very good sweet spot for us. Second part, you have to know that the overcrowded momentum will start mid of September, beginning of September, we'll start a publisher promotion week all around the platform. We're seeing that combining Resonance end of August and the publisher week beginning of September, we've got a sweet spot today.
Third question, how do you explain the performance of the back catalog, even excluding deferred revenue, with Space Marine 2 sales coming in above Q1 last year? Is this mainly a pricing effect?
Indeed, what we say that Space Marine 2 sells more copy compared to Q1 last year. Obviously, the pricing strategy of a game like that means that the price is decreasing due to the sales that we put in place. In addition to that, as just said, we are very happy with the extra content that we sold on the games. Net of all that, Space Marine 2 is in EUR absolute value, slightly below last year, but we are still very happy with the performance, one more time, more than one year and a half after the launch. It means as well that the rest of the catalog is growing compared to Q1 last year, and we are very happy with that.
Can this roughly 30% decline in the back catalog be extrapolated to the full fiscal year, or should we expect the trend to improve over the coming quarters?
Another question on the back catalog. The 30% decline is 100% due to the deferred revenue effect. If we put that aside, back catalog is on par with Q1 last year. No, you will not see the decline of the back catalog following the same trend for the rest of the year.
Other question. Could you remind us of the release lineup expected for Q2?
Yes, of course. As I said during my speech, we will launch Gallipoli, a World War One series, this summertime. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, the 27th of August, and BioEden just after Resonance. You should expect to get an iteration of Train Sim World during this quarter.
Could you give us some color on Resonance wish list and how its trajectory compares with previous franchise entries at a similar stage before launch?
As I said previously, first of all, its sales will be over-indexed on consoles. It's a much more action-adventure game. Today, its wish list and even the pre-order are ahead of prior titles in the franchise at a comparable period.
Still on the Plague Tale, regarding the 500,000 units sold from the franchise, could you help us understand how this performance compares to your internal expectations and what it may imply for awareness and demand ahead of launch?
In fact, we set up a specific commotion on A Plague Tale: Innocence and Requiem. It was part of the plan, in fact, to re-engage or engage new players within the franchise. Regarding the 500,000 units, it's much more than we expected to get. Getting half a million newcomers within the franchise, it's a very good sign, in fact, to re-engage them on Resonance. The awareness and the call to action for the pre-order and wish list are positive.
Coming back to back catalog, do you see the Q1 performance as sustainable over the rest of the fiscal year? Could you also elaborate on the contribution from Space Marine 2 in Q1?
The Q1 performance, excluding the deferred revenue, is indeed quite sustainable. If this is a good and fair point to extrapolate the year, we will have some quarter above and some quarter below. All in all, this is, as I just said, a fair data point. The contribution of Space Marine 2 in Q1, as just said, in absolute value, Space Marine 2 is slightly below last year. One more time, considering the fact that the game is more than one year and a half old, this is super nice to see this level of revenue.
A question on the release date of the annual report. When will the annual report be published?
As usual, it will be published in the coming days, for sure before the end of the month of July.
Okay, we have no more written question. Maybe a question from the call. Operator?
No question from the call at the moment.
Okay, we may wait one more minute in case.
Just as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, you can dial pound key five on your telephone keypad or just write it down the chat. This concludes the Q&A session. I hand the conference back to Geoffroy for any closing comments.
Thank you very much for being part of this session and have a great evening or.