Hello everyone, and thank you for joining Remedy Entertainment webinar. My name is Veli-Pekka Puolakanaho, and I manage the investor relations at Remedy. Today we'll go through Remedy's Q1 2022 business review. With me today are Tero Virtala, CEO, and Terhi Kauppi, CFO. We will have a Q&A session after the presentation. Tero, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Veli-Pekka. Welcome everyone also on my behalf five years ago, in 2017, Remedy was listed on the First North Growth Market, and back then we raised capital to fund our new growth-oriented strategy. Now, during this five years' time, we have developed systematically and patiently overall. As one big milestone of this longer term development, early this May, we transferred to official list of Nasdaq Helsinki. We see that this increases awareness and access to Remedy, especially among international investors. Therefore, there are likely to be also new investors in this call and following the recording then afterwards. These investors, welcome all of you who are now here, and welcome those that are going to follow this afterwards. I know that many of you are not yet as familiar with Remedy as some of the older investors.
Before we go into the first part of review, let's first have a short recap on what Remedy is. Shortly, we are a video gaming company from Finland, founded 27 years ago in 1995. We are a creative force in the wider gaming industry, with over 320 world-class game development professionals, a very international pool representing 32 different nationalities. Our main studio is based in the capital area of Finland, in Espoo, and at the moment, we are establishing also a second studio in Stockholm, Sweden. We focus on so-called high production value AAA console and PC games, and develop the games so that they create long-lasting game franchises that can continuously expand to new games. We are a multi-project studio with, at the moment, three games live out there and several games in development.
We are mostly known for our high-quality PC and console games like Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control. These games have won the hearts of millions of gamers, and at the same time, many industry awards as well. All these games have pushed the boundaries of creativity at our industry. They have built us new competencies, and game by game, they have helped us to develop a safe company. Now, all these games that we have developed and we are developing, they do share some common traits. First of all, we always build our games on top of our key strengths, and then typically add something on top of that that gives a flavor to the game and also develops our competencies further.
Typically, you will always see in Remedy games immersive gaming worlds, interesting characters, and the narrative part, memorable stories around these characters in these worlds, and all this is combined to polished action gameplay that we expand game by game. As we say at Remedy, when a Remedy game comes out, it is of high quality, and it also stands out in the market. When the game launches, we typically say that our game needs to be such that it's so distinctive that the gamer who is interested in a Remedy game cannot find a similar game that would be coming out in the same wider launch window of three to six months' time. Now, in a way, sort of on the market where we are focusing, in a way, the global game market is a massive market. It's close to a $200 billion size overall globally.
In a way, last year, there were many geographies that are showing a small decline, but it's good to bear in mind that that's mainly for the reason that the first COVID year, in a way, showed such high growth numbers that last year there was a small decline in some parts. Overall, when we look at the bigger picture, gaming industry is seen to grow many years to come. Another part, when we look at the market, if we divide it by platforms, mobile games are a bit over half of the global gaming market. PC and console games form the other half, and that's where we focus as a company.
If we look at that PC and gaming market even in more detail, and we consider what type of gamers are playing our games, are they more casual gamers who are playing games every now and then just for fun? Are they core gamers that are spending a bit more time and money into the games, and games can be considered as one of their key hobbies? That's our focus. Big screen games for core gamers. Those gamers we typically find in PlayStation, Xbox, PC platforms, and nowadays, in a way, more and more the new streaming platforms.
Many of these platforms are also becoming service platforms, providing subscription services and other type of services for the gamers. In addition to the market, wider viewpoints for the consumer market, consumer-focused gaming market, it's also good to bear in mind that as Remedy, we are affected by the gaming industry developments. The status of the industry overall and its development have been very positive to us during the past few years' time, and we see that continuing when we go into the future. The underlying consumer market keeps on growing and changing, and the industry's biggest players are actively driving this change, be it in a way subscription services, longer-lasting games, streaming services, just as few examples. Now, in addition to this growing consumer demand, these big players need high-quality games and also AAA games and competent development studios can create these games.
However, what is a bit contradictory even is that while the overall market keeps on growing and demand for games and studios developing these games are growing, there seems to be fewer and fewer studios that are capable of developing the AAA games. In a way, we have seen now for a number of years that approximately the number of development studios that are capable of developing high production value AAA games that can be sold at full prices, that has fluctuated between 150 and 170 development studios, depending on what studios exactly are counted. Now what has been seen throughout the years that no matter if the big companies or new entrants have been trying to build new AAA studios, that is hard, and most of all, it's slow.
You will need at least 100 competent developers representing approximately 20 different disciplines from AI programming to back-end programming to game design to audio designers. Those, in a way, disciplines need to work in harmony as a team, in a way, mastering the different tools and technologies. It has been seen that developing this type of studios takes years. Developing games with these type of studios take, in a way, multiple years more. Therefore, in a way, even though the underlying market grows, building these studios has been really hard. Now, as a result of that, when the studios have been in high demand, the consolidation has been continuous. It has been ongoing now for years. It will also continue in the future.
Already at the moment, most of these 150 AAA studios are already owned by big game publishers and platform holders. We are at the moment estimating that less than 40 independent studios remain, independent studios who have a possibility of partnering with any big partner that they like. For any studio, Remedy included, this naturally means lot of business to business and partnership opportunities. Yes, we have been, in a way, taking advantage of that during the past years. Now, in a way, just to conclude what Remedy is, where we are aiming at, we have stated it already before that our long-term objectives are that by the end of year 2025, we have created several successful games, and at least one of these games has become a major hit game.
With that, we mean that it's going to be a game that reaches the global top-selling charts in its own category and can keep on succeeding after reaching that position. We have unique creative skills and can create worlds, characters, stories that build the powerful brands. We will own at least three expanding gaming brands, all which will have long-term hit potential. We have, by the end of 2025, strengthened our commercial capabilities so that we can freely select the right commercial model for each game that we have in our pipeline. For some games in the future, it will be self-financing, self-publishing. For some, it will be co-financing, co-publishing. For some, it's going to be a publishing model with our partner. Great on people, they will continue to be a key focus for us.
We aim to be the most attractive gaming industry employer in Europe and are systematically taking actions that take us into that direction. The aim is clear. We will reach these objectives while having a profitable and growing business, and we manage the risks well. That's, in a way, the background on Remedy. In a way, let's have a look at our Q1 . Our revenue was EUR 12.7 million, which, when we consider the Q1 last year, it was a big growth, 55% year-over-year. Our operating profit was on a good level, EUR 2.8 million, representing approximately 22% operating profit margin. Individual events that happened in the Q1 , first of all, CrossFireX by our partner Smilegate in collaboration with Microsoft, launched for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S in February.
We also released our plans to transfer to Nasdaq Helsinki's official list, as I mentioned, and that now eventually happened early May. We also formalized our plans to expand to Sweden and established now during the Q1 . The subsidiary in Sweden is now pushing further the recruitments and in a way taking the operations further. Overall, our game projects, they progressed well across the game project and our pipeline. We also made a new deal, Max Payne remake agreement that was signed with Rockstar Games in early April 2022. In a way, when we look at our current game portfolio, we have. In fact, we have at the moment four games that are already out in the market. Control was launched already in 2019. It continues to sell, although in a declining trajectory.
The game has been now out there already for over two years. We collaborated and have collaborated with our partner Smilegate now for years, and we have developed Smilegate's new multiplayer entities. We have created completely new type of story-focused single player modes for that type of multiplayer games, and these single player operations are now available in two different CrossFire games, CrossFire HD, that Smilegate has launched in the Chinese market already during 2021 and now in another game, CrossFireX, that, as I said, was launched this February for Xbox platforms. With our partner Epic Games, in October 2021, we launched Alan Wake Remastered. What we have in development are five bigger games.
In Control brand, we are developing Condor, a co-op game in collaboration with 505 Games, and then we also have a bigger Control game, codename Heron, in development. With Epic Games, we have Alan Wake 2 in full production mode, and that game is at the moment advancing, and we are seeing progress in multiple fronts of that game. The game is coming out in 2023. As I said, before going into Max Payne, we also of course have Vanguard in development, the game, free-to-play multiplayer co-op game, player versus environment game, in collaboration with Tencent, on which we announced the deal late 2021. That game is in proof of concept phase, progressing, but nothing further to say on that game at the moment.
As I was already saying, as our newest addition to our portfolio, Max Payne 1 and 2 remake with Rockstar. Bit more on that game. The agreement that was announced in April states that we are developing Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes as a single entity, as a single title for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. We are developing these games utilizing our Northlight Game Engine and also with this project then pushing further many of the elements that we have in Northlight. The development budget will be fully financed by Rockstar Games. We haven't stated the exact budget, but it is in line with the typical Remedy AAA game that we have said to be between EUR 30 million and EUR 60 million.
In addition to Rockstar paying the development cost of the game, we also have a royalty opportunity after Rockstar Games have recouped their development, marketing, and selected other costs for distributing and publishing the game. The game is understandably in a very early conception phase. One important aspect that we always have are our people. At the heart of any creative game developer are world-class talents, our people. As the gaming industry keeps on growing, the competition for talent has been increasing year- by- year already for a longer time, and we see that continuing to do so for years to come. We have succeeded well in this respect, both in attracting new talent, keeping existing talent, and very importantly, developing our people in their responsibilities and roles. We have now continued the recruitments.
We have been able to keep the bar high for new entrants, and at the moment we are 324 people. As we have said, we are very systematic on how we onboard, how we support, how we develop and build high-performing game teams with these talents. We keep on iterating and developing these ways all the time. As the next step, also in attracting new talent in the future and building our game teams further, we are establishing currently a second studio to Stockholm, Sweden. Like the capital area of Finland, Stockholm is one of the European game talent hubs, so we are landing ourselves on a second hub to attract even more, in a way, talent. Operations in Stockholm, they are still in early phases, but we have already seen that they have started to progress well.
We have had good success, for example, in recruiting talented senior developers that are really sought-after talents in the industry. We complement our internal development teams with external development partners who bring us their special expertise and also allow us to scale up our productions when needed. That was my part on the Q1. Now Terhi, our CFO, will talk in more detail on financials.
Thank you, Tero. Good afternoon to everyone also on my behalf. Let's start actually by having a look at our IFRS conversion effects. We announced the comparison numbers as a release, but since this is the first time we report new IFRS numbers to market, it's good to understand the main differences. Here we have a bridge to explain the effects by IFRS standard. Clearly, the highest negative effect of EUR 2.5 million is due to IFRS 2 adoption for option programs. Because according to that standard, the value of programs is booked as expense, and this is not done in the Finnish accounting standards. IFRS 16, the leases, is basically a reclassification, so there is no net effect.
For intangibles depreciation, there is a difference of little less than EUR 1 million due to Control retroactive development cost capitalizations and in year 2021, depreciations of that capitalizations. In addition to the IFRS conversion in Q1 , we also established the daughter company in Sweden, like Tero mentioned, and therefore also started group reporting. About Q1 and revenue. Our revenue increased year-on-year by 55.9% to the level of EUR 12.7 million. We had that growth due to increase in development fees. They increased by 89% to EUR 11.6 million. We had four positive factors affecting the growth of the development fees. First, we agreed about a new contract for Vanguard with Tencent, and in relation to that, we had a new source of development fees.
Secondly, we had a second new stream of development fees as we agreed with Rockstar Games about Max Payne remake. Thirdly, we did not yet have Condor project as development fee source in a comparison period. The fourth reason is that revenue recognized from Epic Projects was somewhat higher than in comparison period. There was also one negative factor affecting the development fees, and that was that we are not any more receiving significant development fees from Smilegate. Royalties, they were on lower level than in comparison period, EUR 1 million versus EUR 2 million, so only half of the amount. We did not receive royalties from Smilegate or from Epic for Alan Wake Remastered in Q1 .
When looking at the Control royalties, they were on a lower level than in comparison period due to the natural reasons of the game's age. Our royalties in this timeline has been mostly from one game only, and there has been fluctuation over the quarters. From total sales, royalties have been from around the current level of 7%-8% to well above 50%. The royalties depend on game sales and are affected by seasonality, marketing, and discount campaigns, but also B2B deals have a significant role nowadays. Development fees are more stable in nature, and they are the basis of our revenue. We expect them to grow also over time since our portfolio of project is expanding, and also expanded in Q1 . As seen clearly in this slide, we have variation from quarter- to- quarter.
The past performance of a quarter does not mean that in the following year, the comparison quarter would perform in a similar way. The profitability for Q1 , the EBIT was EUR 2.8 million, and that is 21.8% of revenue. Whereas in comparison period, we had slightly negative EBIT level. Clearly the increase in revenues drove the profitability improvement. It's important to remember that similarly to revenue fluctuation, there has been and will be EBIT fluctuation between quarters. Although the multi-project model should even out the fluctuation to some extent, this will still be the status. We will continue our investments in game development, and this affects profitability in coming quarters.
Running a multi-project model to generate top-quality claims requires the world-class talent, and we have invested to that to drive sustainable growth, and we'll continue to do so. Still, our cost base is increasing in a steady and controlled manner as we have continued to expand our projects and have started new initiatives. This increase in resourcing is visible both in personnel expenses and in external development costs. Our capitalizations, EUR 2 million, were at about the same level as in comparison quarter, and we expect them to remain at about a similar level over the coming quarters. It's good to know that in official profit and loss formula in IFRS, it nets the capitalization effect with the expenses. Our personnel expenses were EUR 6.3 million in Q1 , also at about the same level as in comparison period.
External development costs were EUR 3.6 million, an increase of 125% year-on-year. It's especially important for us to be able to utilize external development capabilities in order to ensure scalability for our operating model, because external development scales in a much more efficient way than personnel expenses. We will be investing also in future heavily to resourcing, and we foresee both personnel expenses and external development costs to increase over the coming quarters. Our operating cash flow in Q1 was record high, EUR 17.7 million. Timing of incoming payments affects the operating cash flow on quarterly basis, and during Q1 , we received large payments from Epic for budget increase amendment and from Tencent for new Vanguard deal.
These were both recorded as revenue already in Q4 , but the cash inflow effect is visible only now in Q1 . Also, our cash position overall was record high, EUR 73.4 million. For eight consecutive years, the revenue has grown, and we have always been profitable. Now the profitability level is somewhat impacted by IFRS conversion from year 2020 onwards. Overall, we see possibilities for our top line growth, but as the cost base is steadily increasing, our quarterly results do vary. For example, our good Q1 now might not be similar to upcoming Q2 or other quarters. This is also reflected in our guidance for 2022. Our partnering terms overall affect our growth and profitability in significant manner for years to come.
We are taking steps towards self-publishing in a risk-controlled manner by starting with co-publishing, like with Project Condor and Vanguard. Like mentioned, actually in May, we announced a new subcontracting agreement with Rockstar Games for Max Payne remake. This is a logical addition to our portfolio since the partnering with Smilegate has been winding down. Now back to Tero for outlook.
Thank you.
Terhi.
I'm very happy how we have continued to develop in Q1 . We are patiently building a long-term profitable growth company. Actions we have now taken in Q1 , they support us in that path. With this, our outlook for 2022 stays the same as before. We expect our revenue to grow and operating profits to be on a lower level than in 2021. A few words that we already said in our full year preview last time. We also need to consider the long-term business prospects. We now have several games in development. We have been able to now, during the past five years, build this position where we have a multi-project model in operation. We have multiple games in development, and step by step, more games out in the market as well.
All of the games we have in development, they are done with a publishing partner and with an agreed long-term development plan and development fees. These development fees, they form as a growing and predictable revenue basis for many years to come. Then we are building a more scalable revenue stream on top of that, the game royalties. Now, individual game royalties, naturally they do depend on many variables, but each high-quality game that we one day are able to launch has the potential to succeed. When we ensure the good quality, the success can drive significant revenue and profit growth for many years to come. This now, of course, we have revenue royalty opportunities also with the games we have out there.
In addition to this, we have now multiple game projects in development, and we will have major game launches between the years 2023 and 2025. Our creative capabilities, they have been long known in the industry. We have been investing even more into this to have these capabilities creatively, technology-wise, and production-wise. Now all the time, our ability to execute our game roadmap to make the games in quality better and better, they are stronger than ever. That's why already last time we said that we entered the next phase of our long-term growth plan, and now it's about execution. That we are able to execute this plan in high quality, in a way, manageable costs and in good schedule. That's the road where we are, and we will continue also in the forthcoming quarters. It's about execution. Thank you.
Thank you, Tero and Terhi. It's now time for Q&A. If you want to ask questions, type in your question to chat or to the Q&A part of the Zoom, or you can also request a speaking turn by clicking raise hand button in Zoom. If you are participating by phone, dial star nine to request for a speaking turn. We are now ready for questions. I can see that we've had some questions to the chat already. What are your thoughts on CrossFireX launch and the critical reception?
Well, in a way, we can't comment exactly on the CrossFire HD or CrossFireX. They are Smilegate games. Smilegate is the publisher. As has been said before, they are dominantly multiplayer service-based games. We have developed a new type of single-player operations that form part of this wider package that Smilegate is offering for the players. We started making, in a way, the first operation already six years ago, so they were long in development. It was in Smilegate's hands to decide when they launched these operations, and eventually they happened first on the Chinese version for the Chinese market. The CrossFire HD overall, based on the information we have received, has received a good reception on the Chinese market. Now we need to bear in mind that that was also the first target of these games.
Now, CrossFire has attracted a lot of interest also in the Western markets for a long time, and Smilegate decided to partner with Remedy and take also our single-player operations as part of that package and bring it to the Western audience. In a way, the CrossfireX has received quite mixed reviews. What are the underlying, in a way, reasons for the bigger package? I'm not, in a way, going deeper into that. That's up to Smilegate to communicate and analyze more.
Thank you. The next question. Can you say anything about Alan Wake Remastered sales performance and how much cost there is still to recoup?
Yeah. First of all, we are not disclosing the recoupable amount. That's between us and Epic and a deal. Overall, we could say that it's been pretty much in line with our expectations. Surely we, of course, wish for the higher the better sales, that's for sure.
You mentioned about the B2B deals. Can we expect more B2B deals or B2B deals in general for Alan Wake Remastered?
Well, the B2B deals like overall the marketing campaigns overall the deals with the other third parties are in the hands of our publisher. That's the situation with Control, so that's in the hands of 505, mainly, and the same is with the Remastered, so with Epic Games. We cannot really say anything more about that.
Good. About a question on Max Payne 1 & 2 remake. Why did you end up starting a new work-for-hire project instead of a new own IP project?
Well, there are a number of, you know, reasons for that. The big important perspective is that we have been building the multi-project model, and we see it as one key part of our long-term future success. When we have been building this model, which in fact has been very hard model to build traditionally for creatively led gaming studios. We have been succeeding on that front step by step. One of the key learnings during the years has been that one key part of building this successful multi-project model has been the ability to build more and more autonomous and independently led project teams. One step in that is to be able to build a really strong and good leadership team led by the executive producer, who is almost like the business leader, CEO of his or her project.
A leadership team around that person with technical director, art director, creative director, business director, development director. Now, in a way, one very positive result with the CrossFire projects that we have been doing in addition to developing our technology further, gaining new expertise creatively on first person games, in a way, military shooters, these type of things, driving our technology development, was also that we were able to develop a strong and good leadership team. Now, after six years, when we were able to get these games out there, we had an opportunity to consider what do we do next. When we now had this core leadership team, we knew that that's one of our strengths, and we wanted to see the right type of project for them. It was clear that we wanted to have a next project.
In a way, work for hire. I think there are three, in a way, key drivers. The first one is the passion of the team. That's always in our type of industry that, in a way, when we have a strong team, they will develop a good game. But when we can have a strong team who is really passionate about what they can do, then they can develop excellent games. Now it's Max Payne. It's like homecoming, kind of like there was no question that the enthusiasm, the passion was there. So that was one thing. The second thing is that throughout the years, yes, we have been learning also that where is Remedy strong, what type of games fit best for us, where can we find synergies?
We saw that with this type of game, there are so many, in a way, world and story-focused elements and the action gameplay, we know that we can master that. We knew that our existing competencies fit well with that game. At the same time, having this type of game actually supports the development of our other games as well, 'cause we can innovate with multiple games with certain similarities. We can invest even more into our technology and tools that will then serve not just, you know, a Max Payne, but other games as well. The third part was the business part. That yes, we have, in a way, considered , portfolio-wise that on how many projects do we want and how many projects can we invest ourselves?
How do we manage the risk profile as there is, as shown? We have all the time thought that if there is a right type of work for hire project, it does fit into our business portfolio and project portfolio. When Max Payne kind of like hit the mark in the passion of the developers, in a way, the synergies it can bring, it was quite clear. It is, I just repeat, it is Max Payne. We have never seen such an enthusiasm from the audience when we are announcing Remedy to work on something new. When there is a royalty upside on the game as well, we see that as long as we can develop a high-quality game, which we can, there is a good business opportunity on top of the work for hire opportunity via royalties.
Good. There is a question on, is there a meaningful revenue impact now when AMC bought the rights to Alan Wake TV series?
Yeah. Clearly, at this stage, sort of, monetary-wise, would have been really significant. We have, of course, also announced it in a more significant way, as an official release. We did not do that. Overall, of course, in terms of the IP and expanding the media coverage and opportunities around that and so forth, we clearly see that there is a lot of value for us. It's a bigger package we are talking about here and not individually only that deal.
Thank you. There's a question on how should we read into your decision not to release a trailer or a demo on Alan Wake 2 in the summer 2022 as originally planned? Is the project running behind schedule?
The project is, as we have said, it's coming in 2023, and that's what we are focused on, and that's when the game is coming out. No changes in that. It was a consideration together with our publisher, Epic. The most important thing is that one day, when Alan Wake 2 is going to launch, it has to be a unique stand out, very high-quality game. The role of the demos, they are still important when the timing is right. Overall, what has been happening in the gaming industry is definitely that consumers nowadays have so much more, in a way, alternatives where they are spending their time and money.
In a way, the supply of good games, the longer-lasting games, in a way, different media and entertainments that are competing for the time, all that has increased. Overall, what has been seen is that the marketing, in a way, campaigns for big games, they have been getting, in a way, shorter and shorter. The other thing is also that with the use of, in a way, digital media, the role of the traditional, in a way, trailers and demos is in a way maybe changing its form a bit. Now originally, in a way, there were ideas also that what type of big gaming industry events there would be this summer. There have been changes in those overall in the industry.
In a way, making a remarkable demo or video that really kind of like makes sense and has a big effect, it's not a small work. In a way, yes, our team, in a way, is over 100 people, and some people might say that it's a big team. In AAA development, it's not. We are trying to be efficient, in a way, using, in a way, investing in right things on the right time. The decision with Epic was that it's just best to continue on the current trajectory where the development is and not to deviate the development team into doing something that most likely, in a way, would not serve the high-quality, efficient development of the game at the moment.
Thank you. There's a couple of questions on Vanguard. Can you share a bit more details about the progress?
Well, it's in the proof of concept phase. We have, in a way, the team continues to develop the game. We are increasing the team size gradually with the right new hires and additions from the existing Remedians. The team is very focused. Now, in a way, we know exactly what game we are building. We have a playable build that's being developed all the time. Now, according to our past learnings from a number of projects from the past 10 years' time, we are extra cautious that the team focuses on nailing down the core pillars of the game, the core game play, in a way, the most important parts of the meta game of the game, so that they are locked before we start adding content, in a way, creating new enemies, expanding the world.
'Cause unless those key elements are fully locked, then, in a way, we need to change everything later in the game if these core elements, in a way, continue to iterate and change remarkably, in a way, as we would progress. In management, we are rather pushing the teams to spend a bit more time than they necessarily would like to in these earlier phases. I think Vanguard is an excellent example of a team that's doing exactly the right things on their development. The focus is. The game is progressing all the time on a number of fronts. The biggest focus is now, in a way, iterating and making the core elements so solid and clear what they are.
When they are, in a way, finally locked, then we start expanding the team and start expanding the game in other areas.
Thank you. There's one additional question on Alan Wake Remastered. What are your thoughts on the strength of the IP, and have they changed because the game has not yet recouped the budget?
The sales have developed according to the estimates that we have had. In a way, of course, we would always, in a way, love to see the games, the game sales, in a way, going through the roof and recouping faster. The game sales are progressing. The game hasn't yet recouped. In a way, did you read that? Have your thoughts regarding the strengths of IP changed?
Yeah.
Have your thoughts regarding the strength of the IP changed? No, they have not. We also need to bear in mind that Alan Wake originally came out 12 years ago. We have been, in a way, successful in delivering the game, in a way, to millions and millions of gamers, and it has been also delivered for free in certain campaigns throughout the years. There is already a massive audience who already has the Alan Wake game. It was also a question mark for us and Epic that when the game has been, in a way, delivered already to such a vast audience, how many of those would be interested in having Alan Wake Remastered? We believe that there is still, in a way, big audience out there. When will they pick up the game?
Will it be in the discount campaigns? Will it be in some of the other campaigns that most likely will still follow, as time passes? We don't yet know, but we definitely see that there are strengths on the IP that are kind of, like, still relevant today. Then it's also good to bear in mind that we have been developing the IP further. The next game is going to be more like a survival horror game, in a way, in comparison what the old Alan Wake IP was. So in a way, there are new type of elements also how we are taking the Alan Wake IP further. That's also partly based on, in a way, a lot of market research and creative intentions that our people have.
Thank you. There's a bit tempting question. When can we expect the partnership agreement for Heron?
No speculation on that. Yeah. That will be, in a way, announced one day when the time is right.
Do you have any capability or capacity or willingness to take on further projects in the near term?
Well, we are now focused on the current roadmap and pipeline we have, especially when we consider the near term, in a way. We now have a lot in our hands. In a way, we have built up the multi-project model. This is a challenging model for any development studio. With this roadmap, as long as we are able to, in a way, deliver high-quality games in the forthcoming years, we have a lot of opportunities. As said, now it's about execution, at least not just in the near term, but I would say in the near and medium term.
Good. For Terhi, could you please quantify the development fee contribution of Max Payne Remake for Q1? Is it correct to assume that the Q1 development fee was higher than the run rate for coming quarters, given that you likely received compensation for work already performed for the game in the past?
Yeah, I think this sort of an analysis is correct in that sense that, yes, normally, when we start a project, we, the aim is to have a smaller team working around the ideas, concepts for quite a while. When we are ready, and when we have something to show, and when we are in a good position to negotiate, we start to have the partner and agree about the terms and conditions. Quite often, yes, it is so that in the beginning, we consider the whole development phase for that project.
Quite often, but I wouldn't say that this is exactly like that always, but quite often, yes, in the beginning, we might have a higher amount at first, and then it's more like affording the future development of the project. Yeah, we are not breaking down our revenue by partners or by product at this stage. That's all I can say.
What is your view and position to M&A in a little bit longer time period, let's say three-five years' time?
Well, two aspects. If I read the question right, of course, how this is going to develop in the industry and then what's our take on it. The industry consolidation will continue. In a way it has actually expanded. I think, it will continue. It started on the development studios front, in a way, the bigger publishers, platform holders buying in a way the creative capabilities. That has now continued for a few years. Most likely will continue also in the future. Now it has moved to next level also that, in a way, bigger ecosystem developers and platform holders are buying in a way bigger publishers for the sake of the brand portfolio development studios, and also for the communities that they already have. Overall, I think both of these trends, will continue for the forthcoming years. Our take...
In a way, we see that we are a unique company in this industry. Still this is soon a $200 billion business industry. Our size is still that we, in a way, we are talking that last year we were still in a way less than EUR 50 million for whole revenue. With this type of, in a way, creative capability, the multi-project model, we have so many opportunities for long-term growth with organic model that has been our, in a way, main focus. That's why we are now saying that the multi-project model, in a way, the structure has been built already earlier. We have been developing it. We have a strong roadmap of games. Now it's about execution, that we are able to launch high-quality games more and more regularly in the forthcoming years.
I think the approach has been absolutely the right, that the main focus is on organic growth. It's also good to bear in mind that we have never said that M&A is the remedy one day in a way, looking for smaller studios, that would be out of the question. It's not our priority. We are not, in a way, actively seeking that. In a way, when we are doing more and more external development, working with different partners, there are at times also cases when smaller studios are asking from us if we would like to collaborate. At least so far, that hasn't been our priority.
When we continue for three-five years' time and the industry is changing, we are not saying no, but in a way, still try to keep the eyes on the ball and do what we are currently doing the best.
Good. Thank you, Tero. Thank you, Terhi, and thank you all for questions. We will be back with the next earnings webinar on twelfth of August. Thank you so much, and have a great weekend.