AMA for shareholders, investors & fans - June 1st 10:30 CET on Twitch

[konbendith]

Hey everyone!

For those of you interested, we'll host a company presentation and Q&A session with our Chairman of the Board Fredrik Wester, CEO Ebba Ljungerud, and CFO Alexander Bricca, at 10:30 CET on Tuesday 1 June 2021 in a live broadcast on our Twitch channel. This is part of our annual communications corporate communications, and while the main focus is for shareholders and investors, and the talk will mostly about company strategy, results, and mid-long terms plans, it's open to everybody to come and ask their questions! So if you have some questions about Paradox for them, you can tune in then, and we'll also keep an eye on this forum thread here to identify some questions, so feel free to ask here in advance as well.

Just be mindful that these are most likely not the people that will be able to answer super in-depth questions about specific games, as you can imagine.

 

[JD's Aktienwelt]

Hello and thank you for hosting this event!

I have some questions for Fredrik, Ebba and Alexander.

1. Looking at the latest numbers, China has become a significant market for paradox, what is driving this growth in china at the moment? (especially looking at the past, where paradox was not that successful in fueling growth in the Chinese market). Also: what are your plans for the near term regarding the Chinese market?

2. Could you clarify on the Cities IP? Is the Cities Skylines IP actually on the paradox books? Or is Colossal Order holding IP rights?

3. Looking at the capitalized development, which grew rapidly, and looking at the share price, it seems that the market right now devalues the Capitalized development a lot (based on the Capitalized Devolopment/Market cap. figure). This figure is at its all time low. I know you can't talk about the share price or the capitalized development in detail. But, how convinced are you with your capitalized development in the books, especially for Bloodlines 2? Would be great if Alexander could elaborate a bit more on the impairment process within paradox specifically.

BONUS:
Have Shams and Fredrik come to an agreement regarding the Victoria 3 and #ShaveShams topic?

Thank you in advance and really looking forward for the stream

 

[STARSCrazy]

Hello,

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask two questions:

1. What steps will be taken in the future to prevent quality problems like in "EU Leviathan", "Empire of Sin" and "Bloodlines 2?

2. Are there further efforts to expand the potential of the brand "World of Darkness" and to use synergies apart from Bloodlines 2 and the announced movies and TV series?

Thanks you

 

[evaakimova96]

Hello!
You will have a life simulator game like The Sims?

 

[Ninking]

Moreover the Netflix series announced in 2020, what plans regarding Conan: The Barbarian does the Paradox/Cabinet family have? Are there any plans to utilize the name recognition of other Paradox games in movie or TV production (e.g. Age of Wonders, Magicka, Stellaris, Vampire or even the GSG titles)?

 

[Tullaris]

Dear Alexander, Ebba and Fred. Thanks for hosting. Here are a couple of my questions:

- How come 2021 in all likelyhood will have no new title releases? Unlucky planning? Covid delay?
- Will your increasingly large investments into capitalized game development lead to more titles or bigger titles? Would it be possible to give investors an rough indication to what amount of new titles you intend to release annually in the next 5 years, without giving any firm commitments ofcourse. It would help us get an image of your long term plans.
- The large capitalized development cost of Bloodlines 2 weighs on the balance sheet and represent a significant risk for shareholders. If a write-down occurs in the future, will that be communicated at the quarterly earnings or will you send out an intermediary press release?
- Given the large amount of cash on the balance sheet and perhaps lack of attractive opportunities outside of your core portfolio, wouldn't it make sense to return your excess cash to shareholders in the form of share buybacks or higher dividend?
- How is your assessment of the acquisitions that you have done in the past few years: Triumph, Harebrained Schemes, Iceflake, Playrion. Have they performed to your satisfaction?
- What are your plans with your 33% stake in Hard Suit Labs?
- What are Fred's long term plans as largest shareholder?
- Have you ever been approached by a potential acquirer?

Thanks.

 

[Slargos]

Given the growth of the Chinese market, does Paradox intend to take the Hollywood route and pander to China or will the games continue to describe reality as far as gameplay considerations allow?

 

[Pellaken]

What does the structure of paradox look like above the "team" level. For example, who gives team heads direction? (by team I mean PDS red, PDS green, and so forth)

 

[Robert Schnaithmann]

Hello Fredrik, Ebba and Alexander,

thanks for having us and hosting this event.

An important factor for successful game development is, of course, your workforce:

1. How do you ensure creativity of your employees?
2. How do you recruit talented people? Is there any cooperation with universities etc.?
3. How diverse is your workforce in terms of gender, nationality, age and educational background?

Thank you very much for answering these questions!

Robert Schnaithmann

 

[SPAMbuca]

My questions would be these:

- Are you worried about the bad reception of some of the latest DLC and base game releases the past years?
- Are any more measures taken to ensure better quality control of new content? If so, can you tell us something about it?
- Would you consider to make more money available for development teams so they can hire more people and keep senior employees?

 

[punterke]

Dear Ebba, Fredrik and Alexander,

1) With the Chinese market growing steadily for Paradox, Is this spread over all of your core games, or more concentrated in one or two of the games?

2) Will this lead to Paradox focussing on this with more localization or even China or Southeast Asian focussed dlc in some games? Would this affect for example how the Qing Empire durint Vicky 3 would undergo imperial wars and major civil unrest?

3) Imagine the three of you on an epic adventure together, finding an old dusty lamp. One of you has the bad idea to give the lamp a rub and a Djinn pops out, explaining you that as you have released him, he will grant you three wishes, one for each of you. However, it's not a regular Djinn, it's a corporate Djinn, it only allows for wishes related to Paradox.
What would you ask from the Djinn? Would you correct a mistake (let's say an Aztec Invasion dlc or that time you were in a grumpy mood and didn't say good morning), just ask for a nicer office with a nice view or would you use the wish to help realize a dream project that you always wanted to realize but never got to it? Or maybe you wouldn't want to change anything. at all.

 

[evaakimova96]

What game the developers are working on Paradox Tectonic?

 

[HistoricalScore1]

@konbendith Any word on the next Q&A? I missed the last one LIVE watched the VOD. Not really any tough. yet fair questions. @SPAMbuca had some thankfully.