Hello, Hello, Hello.
Good morning. Good morrow.
Greetings from Finland.
Holiday season is behind us.
Yes.
Back in action.
Yes, indeed.
We have been already working a few weeks here and are starting the season.
Indeed. Although, like we always say, Nitro never sleeps, but we like to enjoy the traditional one-month-ish summer season here in Finland, which is usually the month of July.
Yeah.
Of course, there is always a little bit of overlap when different guys are on holidays, but this year it was pretty good summer.
It was good summer and both in weather was nice, but the operation went well during the summer also.
Indeed. Welcome to the webcast for the second quarter/first half of the year, and.
By the way, we didn't introduce ourselves.
How-
This is Jussi.
Hi.
I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Nitro Games since 19 years.
Yes. Here is Antti Villanen, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder here at Nitro Games, and also a Board Member.
Since 19 years.
Yes. Nitro, we have been running the show for almost 20 years now, so we are one of the oldest game companies in Finland. Here comes the overview of the report that we just released this morning. Overall, what I would say is that this is pretty well in line with what we are about to do this year and what we have already been doing this year. Like we have discussed before, this year is all about new growth.
New growth.
Yes. We are investing in a lot of new things. We are favoring and building a sound business, so we are very much focused on the bottom line, making sure that we keep our eyes on profitability.
Yeah.
We make sure that we keep our eyes on cash flow and the equity and do these investments in a manner that basically everything is controlled.
Yeah
Very much.
All of those are very core in our new strategy.
Yeah
That we started from the beginning of this year. I think we are going to talk a little bit more about that.
Yeah.
All of the focusing on the sound business and profitability and security, cash, and doing the controlled investments when we see the good balance of risk and reward.
Yeah.
All of those are in the very core in our new strategy.
Yeah. Now during the second quarter, we're happy to share that some of these new investments that we've been working on have been starting to surface already, one by one.
Yeah
There was some new things surfacing from the game portfolio. We went live with Project Frag for first public testing. We announced that we made a deal with Games Workshop for Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Boom coming to mobile this year. Then there's also some stuff that we're expecting to surface now during the third quarter and then moving forward as well. Definitely not done with the year yet. A big part of the first half, in addition to obviously the operations and what happens with the games, is, of course, making sure that we make sure that the groundwork for our new strategy period on other fronts is well laid. We've been also continuing our work on the balance sheet, where step by step, we've been getting rid of the debt we had there.
Earlier, we paid off our loans to our banks and Nordisk Games and so on. Now during the.
It was time for Business Finland.
Yes. They're a governmental entity that supports companies who do tech and exports and stuff like that. And we've had many projects with them along the years. And we had two projects where the support was in the form of a soft loan.
Yeah
So to speak. And now, the older one of these two was kind of waived.
Yeah
During the second quarter. And that means that essentially what was loan in the balance sheet got converted into a grant.
Yep.
That obviously helps us in many ways.
That is quite normal process within the.
Yeah
Business Finland.
Yeah
Projects. As we have some of those still left, it would be predictable that we can have a negotiation with them about the.
Yeah
Existing stuff also.
Indeed.
There was something new from Business Finland also.
Yes. We also started a new project. This one is a little bit smaller by nature, but this is directly supporting some of the things that we're building this year, especially in the field of mobile gaming and iGaming.
Yeah.
A lot of our business development help. Unlike the two previous projects, this one is directly grant. The funds that we raise from them.
Yeah
For this one is direct grant, so not loans.
Yeah.
What else? We haven't forgotten our partner business either. There was quite a lot of activity on that front during the second quarter. We'll talk more about those as well, but we signed a new agreement with a European games developer and publisher.
Yeah
After the quarter.
Actually continuity.
Yes
For the existing.
Yeah.
Showing that we have a very strong relationships with the partners that we are.
Yeah
Working on, and they are trusting us time after time.
Yes, indeed. Very good. Let's go forward then with the report. Here's all the financial summarized, the income statement as well as the balance sheet. I think what's worth mentioning, well, obviously firstly, continued profitability.
Doing the sound business.
Yeah.
That is very core in our.
Yeah
New strategy.
Yeah. So we were able to time some of the new investments to the same period when we also got the waiver for the Business Finland loan.
Yeah
Which allowed us to continue doing profitable report, in connection with all the cost control and everything that we're doing.
Yeah.
The revenues, those came in mostly still from the Nitro Partners business, like before, but also an increasing amount comes from the games business as we go forward, and that's part of the big plan with this
Yeah
Strategy period, that we want to increase the role of so-called games revenue as we go forward. That's why we're investing in also new projects where we take a bigger risk in many ways.
Still keeping the strong cash position.
Yeah, definitely.
Investments are controlled, and we are always quite strictly evaluating the risk and reward profile on all and every investment that we do.
Yeah. I think worth saying about moving forward, right now we're obviously investing into things that are happening inside Nitro. Our own IP, we are investing and looking forwards to investing maybe a little bit more even into some partner projects, like co-investing together with the partner. We're also laying our eyes on some of the external opportunities as well so that we can make sure that we make the most with the cash that we have and how it circulates as we go forward. Overall, key things, we continued to be profitable. We definitely improved on our balance sheet, so reduced a lot of debt there and maintained our strong cash position.
Yeah.
All in all, well in line with our plans.
As we started our new strategy period from the beginning of this year, we laid down or refined the vision that we have. Now it's all about we want to be recognized from the category-leading games.
Yes.
Category-leading games for us, meaning any sub-category, any sub-genre. We want to work with the games that are on those categories, on those sub-categories and genres, recognized by players, recognized by industries, and rewarding in sense of the risk-taking.
Yeah, indeed. I think what's very much different this year, with this new strategy period that we have been enjoying a lot, is that we are in so much better position compared to what we've been ever before. Now we're at a point where historically, working with partners has obviously always been in our DNA. We've gotten to work with some of the greatest games out there, and we're super proud about that. But now we're in a position where we can also put some more skin in the game.
Yeah
Into those projects and hopefully also see more of the upside materializing for Nitro.
Yeah
With the long term. That is what we mean with sound business, that we want to take careful bets and sort of build the future revenue stream step by step.
Maybe worth mentioning that even our history is from strategy and action and shooter games. Now with the new strategy, we are also widening.
Yeah
Bit of a reach. So any platform, cross-platform games, different genres, different audiences, we are looking for those.
Yeah
Opportunities, maybe a little bit wider than before.
Yeah, indeed. Definitely. And especially because everything is getting kind of like there's so much overlap from.
Yeah
One platform to another, from one distribution model to another, and so on, so it makes perfect sense over time. And then overall, the roadmap that we have, like I said in the beginning, we're one of the oldest game companies in Finland. We typically operate in these roughly five year strategy periods. It's not always exactly five year, but in that ballpark. And now, like Antti explained, we just started with this new one, but our eyes are on roughly 2030, where we've set the endpoint for this strategy period. So everything we do today, everything we do this year, we have that horizon until 2030, and that's where we're building the things long-term. Obviously, we will start collecting the.
Yeah
Fruits of the strategy already one by one. In many ways, we are already doing that, but that's where the end goal is.
Even now in the first half, all the controlled investments that we have done are towards the vision.
Yeah
Driving us into the being recognized for category-leading games.
Indeed. None of this would be possible if it was just us two. We've been fortunate enough to build what I consider the greatest team out there. We have a pretty unique way of working.
It's not only our people that are working inside Nitro, but we've been building for more than 15 years the kind of network ecosystem.
Yeah
Platform of studios around the world, people around the world, that are working in our projects, and that's been very solid and.
Yeah
Sound model for us. Whether it's scaling up, whether it's scaling down.
Yeah.
Whether it's looking for the best talent for this kind of project or that kind of project. Now that we've been running it for 15 years, it feels like being a part of DNA of us.
Yeah. If working with partners is part of our DNA, it also applies to development partners.
Yeah
And partner freelancers and everything that you might have. I think this is clearly visible also in our P&L, where we are, in many ways, doing more but with less and with way better quality. That's largely due to us just becoming better and better in managing all of these things and figuring out what's the optimal and ideal way of doing things. Like I said, great team, great people. That's what's behind all of these things, and that's how we believe that moving forward as well. We still have a lot of room to introduce new opportunities t his year.
Speaking of the opportunities in games and stuff, if we have a quick look into our games portfolio. We have Nitro Originals, games based on our IPs and games that we quite often mostly self-finance. Then we have Nitro Partners, where we work with partner IP, with some of the biggest brands in this space or in the field of gaming. In the Nitro Originals portfolio, we were able to announce something new during the second quarter. There's obviously a lot more going on. We're building quite a lot of different things. Project Frag, also known as Wolf Commando, we started the first public testing in June. We've been really happy with the reception we've seen on that front. It's clear that what we're building and players instantly getting.
It resonates very well for the target audience.
Yeah. Now we continue on that front. I think this week, today, we start as part of the Ukrainian Games Festival. A considerable part of the development team is based in Ukraine. We are happy to be part of that, supporting that event. Parallel to that, we keep developing the game towards the launch that sometime next year, maybe. Let us see. Then we have Ethereal Gaming. We announced a partnership that we are developing some games together with them, and basically Nitro develops, they distribute, and they.
Little bit of new category for us.
Yeah.
Even though we have already Pistolo.
Yeah
In iGaming world. But a bit of a new category, but seems that our model is working on that category.
Yeah
That category also when.
Yes
Now we have a few horses running on that track.
Indeed. The first game we are seeking to release soon. Now, we are right now in the, I guess you can call it a pre-release phase. Already now it is clear to us that Ethereal Gaming has demonstrated pretty good sort of placement power, if you will. So they have connections to many of the different online iGaming game sites out there.
The biggest ones.
Yes. They basically then are in charge of distributing the game to many of these different sites. It is very much a different model compared to what we had with Pistolo, where we did an exclusive take for one exclusive partner. First game coming out soon, and then we are already working on the second one, and so on. Very happy with how that is developing. Then, Autogun Heroes. We were a little bit silent on that front.
Yeah
The beginning part of the year, but now towards the summer, we activated when we finally had some time to focus on those.
Found a great partner for that one.
Yes. With Autogun Heroes, the mobile and web, we have transferred the game to a great team called Hyperkani, who are now taking over the developing and publishing activities, and we have agreed on a revenue sharing model with those guys. Basically they take our IP, much like we operate in Nitro Partners with somebody else's IP, and then they work forward with that game. We are really excited with how that is now starting and expect to see some first more concrete results pretty soon. Then we have Autogun Heroes: Supercharged, a PC Steam game. As it stands now, we have not yet announced anything, but there are things brewing in the background with that one, too. I am pretty sure that still, during the second half, we will be talking more about that avenue as well.
Yeah.
So.
Pistolo is there.
Yes, Pistolo is there.
Generating those nice little streams, and it seems that the partner and the players are happy with that one. Of course, there's always something to work on, but it's quite solid.
Yeah.
On our MVP process, there are quite many new things brewing.
Indeed
Some of them a little bit further. There are some playables, there are some in the concept phase.
Yeah.
There are some bit, something that we already presented to the partners.
Yeah.
That could be something that we will be announcing.
Yeah. I think it is safe to say that at least something will surface.
Yeah
This year still from that one. Next week we are going to be in Gamescom.
There are lots of discussions about new things.
That is the biggest gaming show.
Yeah
Yes, in Europe. I am happy that every time we go into one of these major trade shows that happen quite a few times per year, we always have something new.
Yeah
From our portfolio to demonstrate and show and discuss. A lot of activity on that front.
Yeah.
Overall, I think Nitro Originals and how things are developing, I think it is pretty damn well in line with our plans.
Yeah.
There are things that we specifically want to focus on our own. There are things that we want to give to somebody else to work on because we do not have the bandwidth for that. We are expanding to different platforms, different type of distribution models, different business models. While doing that, we are also still able to build new product.
Yeah.
That is super cool.
With the control panel reasonable risk.
Then, partners.
Now partners. With Digital Extremes and Starbreeze, we finalized the projects.
Yeah.
The relationship is very strong with both ones.
Yeah.
There are lots of discussion about maybe something in the future with both of the partners. Maybe you say something about the Boltgun. I think we hit the 700,000.
Yeah
Pre-registration.
Yeah
Already quite big considering that it hasn't been launched.
Yeah. This is an opportunity on mobile, so we're bringing the Boltgun franchise to mobile with this arrangement. We've said that we're going to release the game this year, and we're now in the pre-registration phase.
Yeah
Where on both Google Play and App Store, players can sign up. So like pre-order the game. Unlike some of our previous mobile games, this is not free to play. This is a sort of free to try premium experience, basically meaning that you get to try the game for free, and then you pay a price to get access to the game.
Unlock. Yeah.
Yeah. Unlock is a good way.
Yeah
Way to put it. This is something that has gotten a lot of attention, maybe even slightly more than we anticipated.
Yeah
Which is, of course, fantastic.
It's interesting to see how high the pre-registrations are going before the launch.
Yeah
Let's see.
Yeah. We've been not only taking holidays during the summer season, but we've been also visiting the platform holders on the U.S. side, because of what's.
Yeah
Been happening with the pre-registration phase. Fingers crossed that we will get some strong support from them as well. For a game like this, the key to succeed in the launch is obviously in the quality of the game. That's something that gets a lot of attention now. But also about the support from the platforms and how their algorithms boost the game and how we get or don't get visibility from there. But so far we are
Even have the pre-registrations.
Yeah
We are pretty good point for the for the launches.
Yeah.
700,000 is already quite a big number.
Yeah, definitely.
Then we have VOID Interactive.
Yes. That is also starting to be pretty long-term partnership now.
Yeah, it is.
Happy with how things are developing on that front, and very much looking forward to when we can maybe discuss a little bit more.
Maybe reveal the game.
Yes. Maybe. Let's see. Sorry. Now I got it. This year, moving forward, what to expect from us, this is exactly the same that we said in the beginning of the year, because nothing has changed in our plans. We continue to invest in new growth, and for us, that means our new original games that we are investing in, and new partner projects. That means projects that are financed by the partner usually mostly, but Nitro Games is seeking to put more and more skin in the game on that front as well, simply because we are in a happy place that we can.
I think in both categories, in the Nitro Originals and Nitro Partners projects, one could expect hearing something during this year.
Yeah. Definitely. That's very much on the menu. On the financial side, since we're talking about a financial report, we keep our focus on the sound business and on the bottom line, making sure that we focus on profitability, making sure that we manage with our cash and the equity that we have. That's the direction. Now I think it's time for our traditional Q&A session, and we've already received some questions in the email. Let's check out some of that stuff. Obviously, there's questions about the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. There's questions about the revenue-sharing model, the size of the revenue share.
Collaboration
Deal structure, collaboration, those type of things. To recap, what we have is a licensing agreement that we've signed with Games Workshop. Like always, we can't disclose the exact terms, because we are happy with the terms that we have, but those are always not shared publicly. I think it's safe to say that we feel very good about the deal we have. We have a revenue-sharing arrangement, and revenue share is, of course, always subject to the commercial performance of the game. The PC and console version of Boltgun, that was originally obviously developed by Auroch Digital, a fantastic team, and we also have.
Very small collaboration with them.
Yeah. We have an arrangement with them, how we've gotten access to then again the game license and the source code and everything. We're happy with that setup. I think it's safe to say that the setup overall is very good for Nitro.
As long as the game performs, of course.
Exactly.
Then there's questions about the future with that one, questions about Boltgun 2 and so on. Obviously, what comes to those things, our lips are sealed. But in general, I think it's safe to say that with this free-to-try type of model, it's little bit maybe like PC games that you sort of release the main game, then building on the success of the release, you release DLCs.
Sequels.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's overall the thinking behind any free-to-try game, of course. Let's see, what else? There's question about the Business Finland. So we had them waive the loan related to the older project. We had the so-called soft loan, and now we still have another one in our balance sheet, which is roughly EUR 1.5 million. And there's questions about that, will that loan get the same treatment? Obviously, we do not know. These things are always case by case. There are processes related to that because it's governmental funding and so on, but.
This far the success rate has been very good.
Yes. Time will tell. There are questions about the cash flow, but I think we already discussed about that quite a bit. We are definitely eyeing in on the cash flow and on the bottom line at all times. But this year is about investing, and we seek to continue doing so while staying very mindful to the cash flow and profitability and also equity. We have also gotten some questions about funding side and so on. We are seeking to manage with the cash and funds we have with the business that runs. Also, like we demonstrated during the quarter, we might go after public financing with very favorable terms like grants and stuff if needed. [inaudible] I think that is.
That is all the questions.
That is all this time, and that means that we are
Yeah
Nearing the end of this webcast.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for tuning in.
[Non-English content] . Nitro will be present in Gamescom if any of you will be there.
Oh, yes, indeed.
We are.
Actually, if one of you is coming, don't hesitate to ping us. We might have a little bit something for you.
Yeah
We're doing something fun again.
[Non-English content ].
Yes, until next time. Bye-bye.
Bye.