Ola. I am very proud being here today with the first quarter report and year-end for 2016. Before running into the numbers, I would like to recap on our strategy for profitable growth. Our core business model, as we talked a lot about during the listing process, is about our acquisitions of IPs and the asset care we are providing those IPs and the development for sequels. I will come back to that in the numbers. I am very happy to present the Q4 numbers. We had a really strong Q4. The growth was 30% year-on-year, and the EBIT margin was 39%. The main driver for Q4 was the broad portfolio of games in the catalog, mainly promoted on various digital channels such as Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox Live.
As you look at numbers here, you can see that the EBIT levels are increasing in percentage more than the EBITDA levels. That is due to lower amortizations of own development in the quarter. This is because the releases we made of own development in the quarter was less in terms of millions than the comparable quarter 2015. Looking at the full year numbers. We have been growing our net sales with 42%, our EBIT operating profit with 43%, and again, the EBITDA level at 26%. The depreciation own developments are on the full year numbers, as you can see, about the same. It is a little bit less from 2015, from SEK 26 million to SEK 24 million. During the Q4 period, we made 4 acquisitions of IPs. The main ones being Delta Force from NovaLogic, Joint Operations, Comanche from NovaLogic. We bought the previous THQ Inc. title, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy.
We finished the Q4 buying the previous publishing title, This Is the Police. This Is the Police was a title we published, or we released during August last year. We also released 2 own titles and 2 published titles during the quarter. The 2 own titles was Darksiders Warmastered Edition and We Sing. Combined, these releases' performance are according to the management expectations. I am also happy, proud to show some numbers from our balance sheet. Because of the IPO process and raising of new capital, our cash position end of December was SEK 167 million, comparable to SEK 25 million the year before. We also had unutilized credit facilities at end of the Q4 at SEK 71 million. The group's total cash available was SEK 238 million. Equity are SEK 345 million, and the assets ratio is 74%.
We have a very strong balance sheet. The cash flow from operations are slightly down. Obviously, the cash flow from the EBITDA level has been increasing, but it is slightly down due to the tax and increased working capital reductions. Also some interesting numbers looking at the balance sheet for the total intangible assets. You can convert this partly to the investments made during the past year. We have increased the total intangible assets from SEK 104 million end of 2015 to SEK 228 million end of Q4. The absolute majority of this is the ongoing development for products. We are running at full speed for development. I will come back to that very shortly. That position has increased from SEK 51 million to SEK 174 million during the year. We have also increased acquisitions of IPs during the year.
From SEK 4.6 million in 2015, we invested SEK 22.6 million during full 2016. In order for you to get a better understanding of the business and for analysts and others to follow the business, I'm providing a bit more KPIs today. The new KPI I would like to point out is the share of new releases sales. What is this number? New releases sales in Q4. During Q4 2016, the new releases we made were 36% of the net sales, meaning SEK 46 million. That is only the new releases in that quarter. Titles released in Q3 or before are then counted as backlog. The comparable number for this KPI was 52% in 2015. In millions, that was SEK 51 million. As you remember, we had two strong titles in 2015 in Q4. We have Darksiders II HD version, and we had especially MX vs. ATV Supercross.
The next KPI I'm providing is new releases sales for the full year. This KPI is for all titles released during 2016. That amount is 41% of the business, meaning SEK 123 million during 2016. The comparable number was 42% in 2015, and SEK 88 million. This KPI will mean that the titles released in Q1 2016 will then be counted in Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. The titles released in Q2, obviously Q2, Q3, Q4. The titles done in Q4 will only be counted in Q4. Next time providing this KPI, all titles in 2016 will be counted as backlog. Looking at the old KPIs we have provided is the owned titles' percentage of sales. That number decreased a bit from 76% in 2015 to 71% in 2016. That is because we had a lot of publishing titles, especially in Q3.
As you remember, we published Quantum Break, for example, from Microsoft. We published Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide from Fatshark here in Stockholm, and we published many other publishing titles during the year. In terms of millions, our own titles increased from SEK 162 million in 2015 to SEK 214 million in 2016. Just to clarify, own titles, meaning it's the IPs and franchises we own. Everything else then is publishing titles. I'm providing some other KPIs. They are not always super relevant, but just to give you a bit more understanding for the business. The amount of own titles, 204 publishing titles. The cost carrier numbers in our systems, well, you can call it SKUs, it is 1,470. I would like to give you just a picture. We have a very complex business, so it's hard to provide all details. Obviously, I can't do that.
There is a lot of products, a lot of channels, retailers. It is a complex material. That is why I'm saying here, we had in Q4, we have the strong backlog sales. As you can see in the numbers here, the share of new releases only were 36%. The rest was then backlog. I hope these new KPIs will give you some more color until we have the next quarter report. Perhaps I will try to get better every quarter providing KPIs. Now looking into the future. As you know, we are not providing any financial forecasts. However, I would like to talk to you about our upcoming products. In Q1 2017, we will have the following new products or new releases. I would say there is no major title for us in Q1, but we do have new products.
The product I would like to point out here is especially "Halo Wars 2" coming out this week in cooperation with Microsoft and 343 Industries. In end of the quarter, we have "This Is the Police," where now being our own IP, we are very excited to bring this out on console, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, both on physical and digital formats. In the corresponding quarter 2016, we had no new release. I will now also tell you a bit more now on our mobile products. As you remember, during the listing process, we just acquired a studio called Foxglove Studios, actually based out from Stockholm. They had been working on two titles for two years, owned by a Japanese big gaming company.
Somehow they decided not to continue their Western operations, not only Foxglove but a lot of other studios, we agreed with the teams to take them on as fully owned studios. However, we let the employees of that studio still owning the rights for IP, but we made a deal that we will recoup the burn rate we're spending with them to get these two products out. We will also have the bulk or a good chunk of the net profit of the products. The two products, they are called "Snipers vs Thieves" and "The Muscle Hustle," a wrestling game. It's a multiplayer mobile products. I would say they are very good mobile products. They are very senior teams. They've been working two years, and they have been about 10 people on each game.
As you know, the lady heading up this operation on Foxglove is Senta Jakobsen, which has been in this industry for many years. She was previously chief operating officer at DICE here in Stockholm. Okay. This product has been soft launched or being soft launched during Q1, together with two different publishers, one called Playstack and one called Playlab. As you know, THQ Nordic, we don't have our own publishing operations for mobile. They will provide the PR and marketing and all the publishing duties. I have to say, I'm a bit excited for this. "Snipers vs Thieves" is a very good mobile product. It has been on Google Play beta since December, and so far it had about 2 million downloads. Google also seemed to be very excited. Apple are also interested or excited, we had a trial in Nordics here.
The four Nordic countries during, not last week, but I think the week before. We were the most downloaded game for a few days in most of the countries. We had about 200,000 downloads here in Nordics, which is a good number for Nordic. The challenge with the title, this is a free-to-play product. This is it. For me, it's a new market. Perhaps I'm sounding too excited, but I would like to give you some color, my view on this. "Snipers vs Thieves" has good traction. People like to play it. They like to come back to it. They are on YouTube, you can find a lot of videos and so on. It's a challenge to get people to spend enough in the game.
Obviously, what I understand, if you don't have the right KPIs, the product are financially not worth anything because you can't charge for a product. You need to get people either to spend something or look at some advertising. This is about spending. Masks. This is about robbing banks and Snipers vs Thieves. All right. The other product is The Muscle Hustle. A wrestling game, a fantastic game, multiplayer, also had very good KPIs, better spending KPIs. The problem is the traction. People are not doing it on YouTube. They're not really talking about it so much, but I like to play it. We have some serious interest. It has been under soft launch in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines during the past month. This is my view today. This is a new market for me. We previously had pay-to-play products. That is a totally different market.
For example, we had "The Book of Unwritten Tales 2" for launching on pay-to-play during the past weeks. The numbers of that is not that exciting. The big market is free-to-play. I'm looking forward coming back on these two titles in the coming quarters. Here comes the big thing. What are we doing to do in the future? We raised new capital. We are building our strategy for growth, and it's very much about the investments we are making to own development. We have a very strong pipeline for 2017 and onwards. We have some major sequels coming out on own IPs and publishing titles, and they will come as of the information I have today in Q3 and Q4. The titles announced are ELEX own title or 70% owned.
It's "Battle Chasers," the publishing title, "Aquanox Deep Descent" own title, "SpellForce 3" own title, and "The Guild 3" own title. As of today, there is no delays. However, we are in the games industry, so it's normal that product gets delayed for various of reasons. Key for me as owner and on the business side of it is that we bring out products that has the right quality. The product will have a long-term value, meaning the product should be without bugs by releasing, should have the polish that the consumers expect. These products have millions of fans waiting for this collectively. Coming back to the intangible assets, we had SEK 174 million in ongoing development end of December. By end of December as well, we had 27 products in the pipeline. Whereof seven were announced and 20 were not announced as of 31st of December.
As you know, our strategy is to announce products where we think it's beneficial for the company and especially for the product for the consumer perspective. We will make announcements during the year at trade shows and other occasions. That will be announcements on both owned and publishing titles also coming out 2017. Foremost, some of these will be for 2018 and onwards. There is different strategies. To give some color on that, there is different strategies. How long time do you need to announce a title before you're releasing it? Various publishers have everything from one month minimum up to years. I would say when you announce it, you have a moment, and that moment you need to catch. You need to catch the excitement and continue having the audience or consumer fan bases excited until the release.
You need to convert that excitement into, hopefully, pre-books of the new releases. There is different strategies how long you should announce titles. This title you see here, "ELEX," was announced long time ago. That is always a challenge to keep that excitement going. However, I'm excited for the future, what we have to show you in the future. I would also say that compared to many other publishers in this industry, we have a lot of products, many titles, many releases, many IPs. I would also state that we have some substantial investments in "ELEX." A few others. We are not dependent on any of them. I'm still, as I stated during the process, comfortable with that it's a good investment, and we will have a good return of investment.
I would like to point out that we have a broad portfolio of backlog, but also of new releases. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, that was my presentation for the quarter. I would welcome you to have questions, and this session will be headed up of you, Lars.
Yeah. Thank you, Lars, once again, congratulations to a really strong report. Also thank you for giving me some new KPIs, it's easier for me to track this company. First of all, I was thinking to start if you can say something about specific titles that over-delivered during the quarter, which you are really satisfied that you're surprised on the upside.
Well, combined, as I stated, the new releases was according to expectations. There is always titles doing a bit better. I would say there was none of the titles doing extremely well. That if something does extremely well, I will point out that. Darksiders Warmastered Edition had a great feedback from fans, on Metacritic, we have the good reviews again. It's a five, six years old product. It gave away 2 million copies on Steam for free to the previous owners. They were, of course, very glad to get this new version, and I think that is an investment for the future in the IP.
What concerns publishing titles, was it some that over-delivered or?
Well, we had The Dwarves. It's okay. We made our money.
It wasn't too big investment.
Okay. You invested SEK 67 million during the quarter. It's quite a lot. Are we now, if you would split that, how much is for titles that is to be released during 2017, and how much is for titles later on?
First of all, I think that number is including the IP acquisitions made. I think you can dig that number down how much development there is. I'm sorry, but I don't have that exact number, so I'm not providing that KPI.
Okay.
How much of the development investments are being released.
Okay. I must say it was really exciting to hear about the mobile venture with Foxglove. For how long have they been developing these games? You said two years?
Yeah, a bit more, I think over two years now.
Have you something to say about the investment budget, how much they've been putting in?
The team is in total, they are 18 very senior people, so this is not low-cost productions. We made a deal that we pay the burn rate, and we recoup the burn rate, and we share the margins on it. My thinking of Foxglove is not these two titles. I think it's nice to have them. I'm excited, and I would like to support it. The thinking behind Foxglove was to understand the market, start looking at our own IPs, what they could make for the future.
Please, this is a little bit excitement in the corner.
If this venture goes well, can you consider using existing IPs for free-to-play games?
Well, I am not the man to answer that question. I will come back to that in the coming quarters.
Do we have any questions from the web or from the telephone conference?
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question on the phones, please dial zero one on your telephone keypads now to enter the queue. Once again, if you wish to ask a question from the phones, please dial zero one now.
Okay. No questions, I go on. Maybe you can tell a little bit more about acquisitions you have made since the IPO, the NovaLogic and the Sphinx acquisition, and what kind of development activities can we expect? How many of the title is a potential sequel? Is it mostly porting and remasters? What is the spectrum of these investments?
There is some asset care to be made on Sphinx and the Delta Force titles. There are new platforms to be added for the catalog of NovaLogic. I would say that NovaLogic has a challenge because those titles are on the edge of being very old. It is games from the 1990s, early 2000s. Early 2000s works okay. 1990s, it is becoming a lot of retro. I think the IPs, such as Delta Force, for example, has, I would not say a strong following, but there are millions and millions of players that remember the game, played the game, lived with this game when they were young, and they are now in my age.
I think if you have the right dev team, you can make something really good on that. That is just one example. Sphinx has also a following. It is a bit more niche. There is a potential on Nintendo Switch. There is a legacy from THQ Inc. on this as well.
Really strong ratings for that IP.
Good ratings. This Is the Police, that is a new thing. We published the title, then we acquired it. I like it. It is a good investment, I would say. I am excited for that IP in the future. The good thing, it is a current game, there is a current team, there is up-to-date product.
Concerning new IP acquisition, how is the deal flow? Have you noticed even more potential deals since you changed the name to THQ Nordic, or is it basically the same?
We always had a good deal flow. That's because I'm proactive rather than waiting for the deals to come. There is always a challenge if you approach people and would like to buy something, rather than the people come to you and need your help.
There is a difference in this. I'm not concerned. We will make acquisitions going on continually making acquisitions this year and the years to come. There is some deals that are too expensive in the market. I want to keep the strategy of paying the right amount for the products, rather than getting overspending on acquisitions.
Sounds likewise. Also, another question on the publishing side. Now you got this new deal with Microsoft for "Halo Wars 2," which is a high-flying title. Should we expect more and larger titles on the publishing side going forward?
Yes. As classified as publishing, I'm really excited for the future. Publishing title is a wide spectrum here. For example, Battle Chasers and a few others we have, we are investing in the development. We own all rights for all future on digital and physical formats and working with the team on that for sequels and so on. We have publishing titles as Microsoft. Microsoft, that's a big company, doing Halo Wars, that is a very specific thing. The thing with Halo Wars 2 is we're doing the physical version on the PC edition now in the European markets. It's okay. We like to work with Microsoft. It's a business, and we're providing something they need and the market needs. How long is this market?
I think there is a market having physical products for years to come because people like to have something in the bookshelves, especially collector's editions as well. The issue with just doing physical publishing deals is I don't see the same long-term income. You have an income in the quarter releasing it, and then there is a challenge to have that income going forward in a sizable amount. Compared to if you have a product on publishing, you also have digital product. You can have income for 20 years.
This is something we are working on to balance. I'm happy to work with Microsoft, but it has to be a business for both parties.
Okay, should we check if there is any question? No questions. I can continue the questions with the pipeline, and you will announce further down the road when the projects will be announced. Concerning titles for 2018 and 2019, will larger parts of the project pipeline be revealed this year, or is it only some high-flying projects?
I can't really provide if it's a larger part or a % on the pipeline, but I would say there is a good chunk of titles coming out this year.
Of course, gaming industry, you need to invest. It takes two, three years to make a good product. I think you should be worried if I didn't have any plans for 2018. Which we do, of course. 2018, we're now planning for 2020, 2021, in discussions.
At the IPO, we had, I think it was 29 projects. Now we have released some and excluded them on the pipeline, and now we're at 27. I think one project is added since the IPO. How much is in the planning phase? If we stand here in six months' time, how many new projects do you think that you have added?
We have a good deal flow. We have a good process of signing up new products.
Also, I love this asset care, portings. I love this where you can reuse some of the assets. It's a bread-and-butter business for us. Making major investments on AAA products, you need to be careful.
Concerning development studios, is it still 19, or have you added another external?
Sorry, what studio?
Development studios, external.
Yeah. I'm not providing a KPI on that today.
No.
I'm sorry.
Okay. Okay, I think that was it for me. Thank you all, and thank you, Lars.
Thank you.
Let's see you in first quarter report.
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you.