Publisher Paradox Interactive today published its Q2 2021 financial report highlighting a drop in both revenue and operating profit when compared to the same period of last year. The company named the pandemic’s impact on the pace of new releases among the reasons for the performance, which Executive Chairman of the Board Fredrik Wester called “a major disappointment.”
Paradox Interactive published four expansions for existing titles during Q2 2021, one of which was the infamous Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan, whose launch state quickly led to it becoming one of the worst rated games on Steam.
“One of the many unfortunate effects of covid-19 is that the pandemic affects the pace at which we can develop and publish new content. Even though our growing player base lays a solid foundation for future growth the number of releases in the past two quarters did not reach our level of ambition. Revenues for the second quarter decreased by 13% and profit before tax by 44% compared to the same period last year,” CEO Ebba Ljungerud noted.
“For the last twelve months, revenues increased by 11% whilst profit before tax decreased by 24% compared to a year earlier. The quarter’s revenues and results are impacted by the weakening of the USD and other major currencies against the SEK from the second quarter of 2020. The quarter’s profit is also affected by the cancellation of an unannounced externally developed project.”
On a more positive note, “over 20 million players” have signed up for a Paradox account, while the publisher boasted “a strong and stable monthly player base of over 5 million.” Five years after launch, Hearts of Iron IV and Stellaris also continue to count among the company’s top five best-selling games, having sold more than three and four million base game copies respectively.
On top of that, Fredrik Wester also hinted at “a handful of interesting World of Darkness licensing deals,” on Twitter as positives for the period.
“Our growth is based on our ability to release high-quality games within the strategy and management segments that can be developed with new content over a long time. In the quarter we have continued to work intensively to strengthen the preconditions for this,” Ljungerud concluded.
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Paradox Interactive Q2 (H1) 2021 report: https://t.co/fOQOFDIAyN
— Fredrik Wester (@TheWesterFront) August 10, 2021
