Publisher Paradox Interactive has shared its year-end financial report revealing that its revenues dropped by 19% in 2021, when compared to the previous year. Similarly, its Q4 2021 revenues were also down 10%.
CEO Fredrik Wester described 2021 as a “challenging year” for Paradox Interactive, while revealing that the company will shift focus to its “core business” going forward and outlining a handful of changes it has already begun implementing to ensure better results.
“2021 has been a challenging year for Paradox. Too few content releases, too low quality on some of our releases and several discontinued projects leaves us with a full-year result that we are far from satisfied with. Our revenues and our profit before tax decrease compared to 2020, this is a trend-break that shall not continue,” said Wester.
“Our overall focus has been on finding the way back to our core business. We have placed a special emphasis on increasing our content velocity and the quality of all content we release.
“Organisationally, this has meant that we have clarified areas of responsibility and goals for all parts of the company in order to strengthen game development.”
The company has taken steps towards developing a new program that will give its younger, less experienced leaders increased support. It has also “increased cost control within the company with a special focus on how we use our marketing resources in the best way.”
In terms of game development, its efforts target increasing the quality of releases and speed at which they come out.
“For in-house developed games, we have ensured that decisions are made closer our games and our community in order to be able to identify problems earlier, increase quality, and become more agile,” Wester noted.
“For externally developed games, we have reworked how we, going forward, invest in projects that are outside our core segments and how we collaborate with third-party developers. The investments will be monetarily smaller and managed by a dedicated team working outside the regular development organization.”
Wester also noted that the publisher was “generally satisfied” with the quality of its fourth quarter releases while noting that Hearts of Iron 4: No Step Back and Stellaris: Aquatic Species Pack’s reception exceeded expectations.
This shift in approach was already foreshadowed when the publisher released its interim report in November 2021.
The past year also saw former CEO Ebba Ljungerud stepping down and Chief Business Officer Shams Jorjani leaving the company after 12 years.
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