The affairs of Next Games, the developer of The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, are not going in the best way. The Finns’ revenue has almost halved. The company hopes that the new titles will turn the situation around.
Until recently, Next Games seemed to be a role model. She became the first Finnish company to enter the stock market, her income grew, the company was even recognized as the best gaming employer in the country.
However, the figures from the financial report shared by the Finns do not inspire optimism. Revenue of Next Games in the first half of 2018 amounted to $12.2 million, this period the company ended with a loss of $ 8.5 million. For comparison: a year ago, during the same period, Next Games earned $22.7 million and closed the half-year in the black.
The company’s development costs have quadrupled over the past year. This is understandable, since Next Games has been working on two new projects at once: another game on The Walking Dead universe, this time with augmented reality (The Walking Dead: Our World), and a project on the Blade Runner franchise.
It seems that the Finns overestimated their strength a little – completely immersed in the development of new games, they almost did not update their main project, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land. Left without the previous support, the game began to lose its audience. Statistics on active users in the Next Games report are disappointing: DAU fell from 498 thousand to 311 thousand compared to last year, and MAU – from 1.5 million to 1 million.
However, the executive director of Next Games, Timu Huuhtanen, assures that this is a growth disease and things will get better in the second half of 2018.
I am absolutely sure that our team will be able to create a strong foundation for future success. We will see the first results already in 2018, starting with The Walking Dead: Our World.
Executive Director of Next Games
Hopes for the success of The Walking Dead: Our World, which was released in July, are really justified. ARPDAU, revenue per player per day, in the first week after the launch of the game was $0.4. This is almost twice as much as the company’s ARPDAU games in the first half of 2018.
Also on the topic:
Source: GamesIndustry