Hi, everyone. It's nice to meet you guys. Today we have a short Q&A session after our QA results for 11 bit studios. Before I go into the questions you gave us, because, like, most of you probably know there was, like, a form for the questions, and we have all your questions here. Later on, I will, I will answer all of that. Before I go into that, let me just give you some small update on where we are at 11 bit studios right now. You probably are, like, in line with what we are doing, but I will just give you just a small update. QA results are all out. It was a good quarter for 11 bit studios. Yeah, better as last year's. It was a good one.
On the plus side, it was influenced by the, of course, releases that we had last year, sales, all the biz dev stuff that we did, etc., etc. You are seeing all of that. On the negative sides, you saw there was, like, we changed some weights on, I lost the word. Darek, I'm sorry. I lost the word, amortization. Sorry, guys. We changed some stuff with amortization. Of course, the dollar is changing. This can affect us. A lot of my money is there in the dollar. There are some negative sides, of course, on the QA. It was a good quarter for us, and we are happy with that.
More, of course, in the docs, you all have that, you have it shared with you, with the board comment, etc., etc. I invite you to read that, much more data. What's going on else at 11 bit studios? You, of course, know that we are finishing The Alters. Like, it's less than a month to the release date. We have, like, a week, a bit, like, seven-eight days before we will have a review code for all the reviewers. It's like, in about a week, we will content block everything regarding The Alters. The game is, like, almost ready. It's crazy good. Like, we love the game. We have a lot of data, of course, of tests, of previews, of silent reviews, etc., happening right now.
It's last stretch, so huge, huge amount of work, huge energy there. We are happy with that. Of course, we are connected to that. We probably, most of you, most of you heard about it. If not, just let me share it with you. We just, yesterday, ended the media event that we had for the press, from the underworld. I know that there is a question about that, so I will keep more info for that question. But yeah, it just ended. It was really great. I've been there. It's great stuff, by the way, for a lot of our games, not only The Alters. What's happening else? Like, of course, we are doing a lot with the Frostpunk IP, not only with Frostpunk 2, but also with Frostpunk 1886.
More on that later, as I know that there are questions regarding that. It is a heavy, heavy, heavy work regarding the, of course, the consoles, DLCs, updates, new game, etc., etc. That is happening at 11 bit studios right now. Starting new games. You heard that on the con and during the conference. Like, a lot, a lot, as always, busier before us, like free, free, free releases of new, new, of new games just in this year with a lot of updates, etc., etc., etc. Let me skip to the questions. I will also add some more on my side during some of these. Let's ditch the Q&A. I will just read the questions, guys, and then try to answer as well as we can right now.
So the question number one, could you please explain why part of the reserve for the closed Project 8 was reversed? It was, like, in the QA, QA results docs, so you could read about that. Can we expect more events of this type in the coming quarters? The situation is this one. Like, in February 2020, we paid Epic, that kind of money. So, $290,000 for the use of Unreal Engine for Project 8. And that was capitalized as a part of the cost for Project 8. We signed recently an annex to our agreement with Epic. And it was Lana, like, at the end of March 2025, to transfer that amount of money to another of our games. That is what happened. And that was reversed from the Project 8.
We, of course, discussed that with the auditor, so everything lasts this along the rules of accounting, etc., etc., etc. That's the sum. That's what we are happy that we were able to talk with Epic, and they agreed to, like, reverse the amount of money. The second question, why are the company's results for QA so weak? Do you still claim that the results in 2025 will be better than in 2024? Results. First of all, I said it at the beginning, but the revenue of $17 million for QA 2025 was 14% higher than one year ago. That's good for us, and we are happy now. However, there were some negatives. That was my mistake I made at the beginning.
First of all, like, in general, the operating costs of $221 million in QA were 30% higher than in QA 2024. It was due to, first of all, increased royalty and license payments. So, royalty payments to The Thaumaturge and INDIKA, license payments to Epic for the Unreal Engine. That's the one thing. The second, it's the increased depreciation costs. That was my mistake. $4.5 million in QA, versus $0.9 million in QA 2024. So that's the change. It was the depreciation of Frostpunk 2, of course, and the depreciation of The Thaumaturge and INDIKA and CryptoServer. So that's the other sum. The third thing is increased marketing costs. As we approach the release of The Alters, we are, like, heavy on that right now. I know you're asking about the marketing stuff.
Let me, let me tell you more in the, in the coming, in the coming questions. Plus there is this very high foreign exchange cost in QA 2025. It's $4.2 million. This is, again, a non-cash, maybe not again, but this is a non-cash cost. And it's like we, as an exporter, and let me read the, the, that, that note. Like, with high USD cash balance, we are exposed to the, to the turmoil that is happening right now on the international markets, following the introduction of tariffs. We are all observing. We are living in that world right now. So, and over 80% of our revenues are in USD. That's an info for you to, to understand what's going on. And the value of dollar fell by 6% in QA 2025.
That is also a part of the results, and it affects the results in QA. The next question, what are the thoughts on the recent event at which you presented the, The Alters, yeah, that the event I was talking about and the Moonlighter 2? When can we expect articles on this topic? I have a note from the, from the cookie, from our Director of Marketing and PR. I was, of course, there, like, yesterday, and we, we've seen the stats. Just to give you a glimpse on what happened, we've hosted, like, around 50 creatives and journalists from around the world.
Like, mo they finished a huge part of The Alters, they played a lot of The Alters, and they played almost the final, final version, kind of a latest preview version of The Alters. They have seen the never-seen-before content, so that was a lot for them, new stuff. They, of course, have played Moonlighter 2 for the first time, and a brand new demo of Death Howl. There were some surprises. We also showed some unannounced games at the event, but that's not for today. We wanted to just have them a glimpse for the future, to know, you've seen that game. That was secret, secret by them. They have seen some new stuff there. Of course, we had talks about Frostpunk 1886 and with Frostpunk 2 in general.
There was a lot happening with, not only The Alters, but for these guys to understand what 11 bit studios is doing and for the future, for them to understand that, okay, that was it, that was it, etc., etc., and hype them for the future. The reception of, for all of the stuff that we, of course, you can say it's blah, blah, but it was the, that was it. The energy was there, and the guys were so hyped, and the reception was very good. We anticipate a lot of positive stuff from the guys, from the media. You can expect the first impressions to go public next week. That's how we look at it.
Next week, we should see stuff around the event with the previews, with the materials recorded, because we allowed the guys to record the material. Plus, there were a lot of media actions to be taken during that event. We did some cool stuff. We even had a concert from the guys that create music for Death Howl. There was a lot of energy, surprises, talks. We anticipate a lot of great stuff from the event. Regarding The Alters, I know that there was the question, even expanding on that, like, what's happening with The Alters marketing. That is the last month right now.
We opened it with the event. Of course, the key game at the event was The Alters. Like, the one whole day was only for The Alters. It was, like, really a lot for those guys. A lot of reviews, not reviews, but the interviews with our team, especially with Tomek, the director for the game. A lot, a lot of interviews, a lot of material from those guys. This is the event. What else will happen? New movies, of course. We will have some secret events planned. Like, it's some even a bit of a crazy in a way that never done by any other guys. Some cartoons happening. Like, a lot will happen around The Alters during that month time.
That is the start of the intense last few weeks for The Alters. And we are prepared for that. We have everything done. It's going to be great. What else? Analysts estimate that The Alters will be purchased by 400,000-600,000 fans this year alone. What are your thoughts on such forecasts? Okay, no comments, but some comment. What we can see is that the wishlist for The Alters is only second to Frostpunk 2, and it's growing. We are happy with the wishlist. It's growing. It's great. We like the wishlist for us. Of course, on the other hand, what we are seeing is there is a huge interest from the press.
It's like, no, it's not yet the Frostpunk 2 interest, or from the press, but, you know, everyone knew the Frostpunk. It was like a huge IP, and it is a huge IP. On the other hand, the interest is much better than all the other games that we released recently. The press knows already the game. They want to play. Apart from the 50, around the 50 guys that we've made during the last days, we also sent a lot of codes for the creators that couldn't come to 11 bit studios. They also received the game. Some big names in the media, in the games media.
That's not only the people that came, but some people that requested, we had the demo prepared for them. Not only, not a demo, they received almost the whole game for the previews. The interest is currently high. We are optimistic regarding the premiere. Will you publish a message about refunding costs for The Alters after the game's premiere? Yep, of course, that is definitely an option. We'd love to do it. I can't promise that, but we would love to do it. Probably we'll go in the same way. Let's wait for the premiere, but everything is ready for that. We would love to publish that kind of statement. How would you rate Patch 1.3 for Frostpunk 2? It hasn't improved the game's ratings.
Would you like to continue developing this title based on this example? Some comments on that. It's like, it's early, but what we can see, I know you don't like when I say that, but it is during that long, very short period that passed, it's along our sales assumptions. I know you don't like that, but it is just along as we assumed. Regarding the writings, we are a bit surprised. That I can say. What I can share with you is how we approach the 1.3 patch. As you probably, some of you saw, we made the beta access to the update 1.3. From what I recall, 1,300 people rated that beta. Because we had a survey for that, 1,500 people rated that.
We got from that test, we got 95 point something positive results. There was a good, it was from the people that we asked about the play, guys, there was the beta, play it, check it, rate it, comment on that. We had really great results, and we were happy with the results. A lot of people shared their comments. Now when we see the Steam stuff, we are a bit surprised. I do not want to comment more. It is along our sales stuff. We are just analyzing what to do right now with it. Of course, we are working more on Frostpunk 2, like DLCs, console, etc., etc. Nothing is changing here right now. Probably in the future, we will have more to say about the 1.3 patch.
How is the production of Frostpunk 2 for consoles going? When is the premiere? With the first Frostpunk, you had major issues with preparing the port. It's along the communication that we shared with you guys. Currently, the console version is planned for the summer of 2025. Nothing changes right now. Regarding the porting stuff and the complexity of that, it's complex, of course. Porting the game as a strategy game is complex. Two pluses and two comments on that. First of all, from what we talk with our devs, etc., etc., Unreal gives some opportunities and pluses to porting the game for the consoles. It was much more difficult on the Liquid to do that. That's one plus. The second stuff on the UX, UX, it's user experience.
In general, like UIs, interaction stuff, etc. On that field, we had a lot of experience with Frostpunk 1, and we are taking that knowledge to Frostpunk 2. A lot of work was done with Frostpunk 1, and we are using it. Plus, Unreal is helping. Yeah, it's planned for the summer. That's where we are with the consoles. When will the first DLC for Frostpunk 2 be released? Can you tell us what it will be about? The first DLC is planned for the autumn this year. Please excuse me, but we don't want to share any info on that. We have our DLCs planned, like always around some idea, topic, and like expanding the game in the areas we believe will work for Frostpunk 2.
Okay, be patient a bit. It's still too early for us to communicate that, but it is just in the works. We know what we are doing. Exactly. And it's in the autumn. How many people are currently working on Frostpunk 1886? Have you started assembling the team to work on the next game? Will it be This War of Mine 2? So the Frostpunk 1886, currently around 15 people are working on that version of Frostpunk. We plan to scale it up to 25-30 people by the end of this year. That will be the scale for the production team till the release. We are currently at half of the team size. It was a bit connected to the DLC, to the update 1.3.
Like, we plan it this way that after 1.3, some of the people from Frostpunk 2 will help with the Frostpunk 1886. And that's what's happened right now. Yeah. So that's around that. Like, have you started assembling a team to work on the next game? Yeah, of course. And there is work being done, but no comment on that side, on that game, yet. When will the premiere dates for Moonlighter 2 and Death Howl be announced? Summer starts in a few weeks. Thanks for the question. Of course, we had planned for it. Everything is under control. Guys, don't worry. I know the summer is starting, but it has a timeframe for the summer. As for now, we don't really reveal any plans for when we will do it. So again, be a bit patient.
It's still just a few months, guys. You will soon see and know what's happening with the, with the Moonlighter 2, that hole. As I told you earlier, both of the games we played during the media event were well received and, like, it was one of the events that also started to hype both games. Do you think the Moonlighter 2 will be as successful as the first game? Yeah, that's the plan. We believe so, of course. The demo will be important. As we also shared with you, we will share the demo for the Moonlighter 2. We will observe how it works. Yeah, of course, we are planning for the game to be as big as Moonlighter 1, which was a huge success for us. When can we expect information about new publishing agreements?
You are planning the premieres of the games this year, but we do not know anything about your plans for the future years. How many games do you intend to release each year? A few short sentences. We have a third game that is unannounced. You heard about that on the investors conference. We shared that there is another game signed. It is not ready to be shared, like officially, talked about. We are currently negotiating just right now the next game. Like we crazy love the game. Like we are just right in the negotiation phase with the team. Currently it is legal stuff, financial stuff happening, etc., etc. In general, on average, we would like to release around two, maybe three titles a year, but only if we manage to find a great, great title.
Again, our investors conference, you heard like not quantity, but quality this time. We believe around two, two plus per year. Guys, if we find a game and we want to sign it, that means that we are so hyped about it and we want to publish it. We are just looking for those games. As for now, the plans and the games we have in the portfolio look very promising. At the investor conference in April, you announced that you wanted to develop four or even five of your own games simultaneously. Since then, however, you have not managed to produce even three games in parallel. What has changed in the company since then? Good question. Thanks, guys. What I want to say, we still managed to run three large projects in parallel.
Yeah, of course, one of them failed, but the production and the operations that we had at 11 bit studios worked in a way that we were able to do that. We are just very positive about that. Of course, another part is that, yeah, you say five and you're right, but also remember that, like, it just, we want to keep the scale. What we did recently, like, after the Frostpunk 1 and This War of Mine, like The Alters, Frostpunk 2 was like a new scale for us. We just want to keep that scale, not to grow and, like, find ourselves in completely new reality. We are keeping that knowledge and we are keeping, like, procedures to that scale.
Another thing is that also remember that, from that five games you, you're noticing, you're talking about is like two of those are planned as platform games. So a bit smaller games and in a way that they are just like made a bit differently. You know about Frostpunk 1886, then that doesn't require a huge team. The Frostpunk 1886 is based on Frostpunk 1. A lot of knowledge already here, a lot of, a lot of design done it, etc., etc. So it's not like we can't say that it's a completely new project. It's different.
I know it can be risky, but on the other hand, like we believe that that approach with that amount of games and that approach with the new games, with the platform games and with the ex-dev is the answer to the current situation, is the answer for us on how to grow, where to be in the future years and how to answer at the, what's going in the, with, with the, with the games in the players, etc., etc. It allows us for quicker reactions, etc., etc. 11 bit studios is on the list of participants for this year's Wall Street event. Will you be dropping by [car park] for a short time or will you be available throughout the event to talk calmly about all topics? I will be there.
I will be there on Friday, Friday and Saturday, maybe Sunday, I don't know yet. I will be there for two days. We will have a quick presentation, then we will see it with Darek and we will talk with you and wait on Saturday to talk with you. It will be open for the discussion on every topic. I invite you to come to us, talk with us. Like I said, we are there and we are open to talk with you guys. What else? That question I already answered to you guys. It's kind of the second stuff. Are you going to launch a pre-order for The Alters on Steam? No, we don't plan to launch a pre-order for this new IP, for this new game.
We do not want to water down the Day 1 sales. Like, we just want to secure the best possible visibility on Steam during the launch week. It is a new IP. We have a great wish list, but still they are not like in the amount of Frostpunk, Frostpunk 2. For this title, that is the decision. Yeah, this week's sales position is like crazy important for us. We will push for that. We do not want any pre-orders. Is The Alters kind of position on the Steam wish list satisfactory for the company? We have our goals set, of course, like for everything. Here we know where we want to be by the, when the release date happens. We are just very close to the amount that we assume.
I'm like totally like, I believe we will be just there. I think we will even, even have more wish list than we assumed with our, with our predictions for the, for the wish list. Yeah, we are happy with the wish list. Is The Alters release date secure? Yeah, no, it's, of course, it's, it's game names, game dev, showbiz, etc., etc. I don't see any risk for any delay for The Alters. The game is like almost ready, as I told you at the beginning. We have like a week or like eight days or something till we'll have the review code, and then there is a content lock, etc., etc. Nothing, we don't see anything that could like change our decision to release the game. Yeah, it's secure. That's it for today.
Thanks for being here with us. I welcome you to talk with us at the conference next week, the Wall Street conference. For some of you that have not seen the investor conference that we had last month, I invite you to see that. A lot of data, a lot of talks about the strategy and the future of 11 bit studios, about our future projects. Just visit our page, check, there are links for that. Of course, if some of your questions were not answered today, just give us an email, drop an email to our either relations, and then we will find a way to answer you guys. Thanks again and have a nice day.