Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen summed up the results of 2019. In his post on the official website of the company, he talked about maintaining the previous principles of development and shared information about the studio’s revenue.
Ilkka Paananen
Ilkka sums up the results of the year within the framework of a large article for the second time.
He debuted a year earlier. I wanted to show that I am open and frank with the players,” Paananen explains the chosen form.
He starts the current material by saying that 2020 is a special year for Supercell. This year, the company that released five mobile blockbusters turns ten years old. Despite the years she has lived, she does not plan to give up her ideology.
In 2010, there was a simple idea behind its creation: to launch a game company of a new format, “where the best developers and teams will be able to create the best games for the widest possible audience, games that will be played for years and remembered forever.”
The founders of Supercell were guided, among other things, by the experience of Blizzard. Many of them have been playing World of Warcraft for years. They perceived the title not just as a game, but as one of the most important components of their lives, where they spend time with friends. The founders of Supercell wanted to create something similar and not compromise.
According to Paananen, today Supercell adheres to the same practices as ten years ago. For example, it still kills projects that do not correspond to internal ideas about quality.
In 2019, Rush Wars was already closed at the open beta stage. “The gameplay in the early stages was fascinating, but it was impossible to say this about the endgame,” Ilkka explains.
As is the case with all other closed titles, the decision to stop working on Rush Wars was made by its authors. For Supercell, it is important that the people responsible for creating the game independently make decisions about its future.
Rush Wars
Ilkka considers chamber development to be another important practice.
In his opinion, the ideal conditions for creating hits are small teams in which there is no bureaucracy and there is no fear of bold innovative solutions.
However, Supercell itself has faced the fact that its number has reached the level of 300 people in the last year. Because of this, some developers have expressed concern. As a result, it was decided to significantly slow down the expansion of the studio. The growth will continue when the studio is convinced that it does not harm the culture.
Now Supercell has several new titles in development. Paananen says that one or two games may be launched in 2020 as part of the beta, but this is inaccurate. It all depends on whether the teams themselves will be ready for release or not. It is also possible that games from teams in which Supercell invested in 2019 will soon appear (we are talking about Luau Games, Ritz Deli Games and Wild Games).
As for finances, the company’s games earned $1.56 billion last year. Profit before taxes (EBITDA) amounted to $577 million. The Finnish treasury received $110 million in taxes from Supercell.
The company’s revenues (and other indicators after it) have been falling for the third year in a row. In 2018, the company earned $1.6 billion, in 2017 — $2.03 billion, and in 2016 — $2.3 billion.
update: We initially gave the figures in dollars. This led to an incident. In 2018, the company earned €1.37 billion. Then it was $1.6 billion. This year, the company earned €1.39 billion or $1.56 billion. In other words, if you look at revenue in dollars, it has fallen over the year, and if in euros, it has grown.
This is happening against the background of active support and the emergence of new mechanics in the top five blockbusters. If the company plans to seriously increase revenue, this year it will not have enough innovations alone.