Year End Report Q&A Stream 12 pm CET (noon)

[Susana]

Dear all

We will be releasing our Year End Report next Tuesday, February 14th, at 8 am CET.

As per usual, our fearless leader and CEO Fredrik Wester and our illustrious CFO Andras Vajlok will be running a lunch stream Q&A at 12 pm CET. The stream will focus on financial/corporate questions.

We will prioritize questions related to the report but time permitting they will also answer other questions from shareholders, the community and anyone interested in the business of Paradox. Please post your questions here, in the Twitch chat or e-mail them to ir@paradoxplaza.com.

The stream will be broadcasted via our Paradox Interactive channel on Twitch. The stream is open for anyone to watch but you will need to create an account if you wish to post comments or questions in the chat.
https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

See you there!

Kind regards
Susana Meza Graham

 

[Golwar]

Could you give us an idea about the status quo of "mobile gaming" at Paradox? With Kim Nordstrom joining, you certainly seem serious about mobile.
While Kim's interview lately shared some insights, I'd like to know more. Which mobile specialists do you currently have, besides Nordstrom and Bevan Davies?

How many risks will you take, how experimental will your mobile apps be? Will you try to "do it right" with a very limited selection of apps at first or will you try very different approaches (for monetization) with many candidates, to filter out the options that fit best to your customers?

Are you aware of any other PC developer with a similar hardcore audience, that moved to mobile? Have there been any lessons learned about failure or success that you might want to share?

If you had to rank your IPs by their value (and you have to, now that I ask ), how would you sort them?
Have you registered any greater shifts in their value, since you moved to the current long-term support / DLC business model?
Will you risk your IPs' reputation by going mobile first with your best IP, or will you test the waters first, with something new or less prestigious?

How did Werewolf: The Apocalypse become a thing? Did Focus Home/Cyanide contact Paradox about the a possible WoD project or did Paradox initiate the contact?
Who chose Werewolf to be the first World of Darkness game since Bloodlines and why?
When will you reveal that Obsidian is working on Vampire?

 

[Kareno]

• Will Tencent help you to build a customer base in China also for mobile games?

• New games stand for a majority of your revenue nowadays. Do you think that trend will continue or decline?

• You have attracted some very talented people lately, such as Kim Nordström and Daniel Goldberg. Why do you think they chose Paradox?

Keep up the good work and see you at PDXcon in May!

 

[Hemlig]

Do you think the role as a publisher of 3rd party developed games will make up a larger or smaller portion of future revenue, compared to now?

Does it make sense to give a dividend looking at the company's past return on investment? Would the excess cash not be as helpful fueling top line growth through more development, 3rd party projects or acquisitions?

And... please send me a PM if you have an open position as a financial controller / Dynamics admin or similar

 

[Anonymous Coward2017]

Do you see the relationship between Paradox and Indie developers changing? Is there a focus more on existing relationships or engaging with new teams? Will there be any shifts in the type of resources Paradox offers to developers?

 

[Jensend1450]

Where do you see Paradox in 5-10 years?

 

[Mr.Bajskorv]

Q1: Will Paradox continue develop inhouse game based around Clausewits engine or its successor, will contonie paradox be a single engine gamedeveloper?

 

[Daddl]

With growing cash reserves (about 26 million euro if I see right), how do you intend to spend that money? Investing in more manpower? Acquiring other studios or licenses? Distributing to shareholders? Do you have a rough ratio planned how much money goes in which field?

Additionally, I would be very interested to hear how much the development of a game like Stellaris did cost until launch, and how fast that money went back in. If thats not asking for too much information

 

[Jywert]

Hello

-Do you consider HOI IV: Together for Victory a success even as the reception seems to be bit mixed, I realise the first DLC is difficult to make for a new game. Could/
Did the company learn from this. As the DLC quality changes from game to game quite drastically. Probably lot to do with company's decentralised structure as developers have more freedom to do as they see.

-Have you considered allowing modders for your games to allow gathering donations or using patreon. As looking at "MEIOU and Taxes" And "Kaiserreich" are very extensive .Of course people mod for fun and money makes things different. But some hire artist to make art for the mods and other areas could use money. And some people would like to have ability to support.

-Will PDXCON 2017 have any major announcements? A tease ?

Thank you for your time and answers.

 

[Aldrahill]

Hello,

How do you consider livestreaming to be important to the growth of PDX games? Though this might not be immediately apparent to financial issues, the growth of playerbase for games such as Europa Universalis has been noticeably moving upwards (Pretty noticeable when looking at the Steam Growth charts), part of this growth could be attributed to the recent surge of livestreamers and the increase of Let's Players.

How does the company plan on expanding and supporting those livestreamers / Let's Players, who bring the games to a wider audience?

Thank you.

 

[Golwar]

As paid mods become a topic on Steam again, what is your opinion?
Do you think that publishers would have a responsibility for quality control / assurance, considering that they'd benefit from the revenue generated by mods?

 

[gigau]

It's a tricky question - I have moderators too and, as I start to make money, the inevitable question of their being paid arises. It's a controversial thing, as it's hard to put a monetary value to!

I think he was talking about mods as in "modifications", no as in "moderators"...

 

[Aldrahill]

I think he was talking about mods as in "modifications", no as in "moderators"...

I'm going to delete my post entirely, because I'm a HUGE moron and thought that message was directly to me, specifically, in a private message. I need to pay more attention...

 

[Fredrik II]

Coming in late to the show, will try to answer your questions as good as I can.

Could you give us an idea about the status quo of "mobile gaming" at Paradox? With Kim Nordstrom joining, you certainly seem serious about mobile.
While Kim's interview lately shared some insights, I'd like to know more. Which mobile specialists do you currently have, besides Nordstrom and Bevan Davies?

Right now we are investigating how "Mobile Gaming at Paradox" would look and it's too early to say anything, however we are willing to give it a serious try.

How many risks will you take, how experimental will your mobile apps be? Will you try to "do it right" with a very limited selection of apps at first or will you try very different approaches (for monetization) with many candidates, to filter out the options that fit best to your customers?

As stated above, it's too early to make any statements when it comes to specific titles or methods. To us, the most important thing is that it feels like Paradox.

Are you aware of any other PC developer with a similar hardcore audience, that moved to mobile? Have there been any lessons learned about failure or success that you might want to share?

We are not talking about "moving to mobile" but rather broadening our portfolio with a new platform. I think Bethesda did a great job with Fallout Shelter for example.

If you had to rank your IPs by their value (and you have to, now that I ask ), how would you sort them?
Have you registered any greater shifts in their value, since you moved to the current long-term support / DLC business model?

Can't really share an "IP valuation list" but we do have a handful of really great IP for sure

Will you risk your IPs' reputation by going mobile first with your best IP, or will you test the waters first, with something new or less prestigious?

We will not risk the reputation of our IP; we'll get back to what methods we will use.

How did Werewolf: The Apocalypse become a thing? Did Focus Home/Cyanide contact Paradox about the a possible WoD project or did Paradox initiate the contact?
Who chose Werewolf to be the first World of Darkness game since Bloodlines and why?
When will you reveal that Obsidian is working on Vampire?

For all World of Darkness related questions, please contact White Wolf directly. When it comes to any projects with any of our partners, we will get back to you as soon as we have anything to say.

 

[Fredrik II]

• Will Tencent help you to build a customer base in China also for mobile games?

We are not sure about how to approach the mobile market in China yet, it is a question for when titles are released.

• New games stand for a majority of your revenue nowadays. Do you think that trend will continue or decline?

I would say that the more titles we have in the portfolio the more stable will our revenues be. This however has to do with macro economic factors as well.

• You have attracted some very talented people lately, such as Kim Nordström and Daniel Goldberg. Why do you think they chose Paradox?

I hope people choose Paradox because we have a great culture and interesting products, but since I'm biased I think it's better to ask people directly

Keep up the good work and see you at PDXcon in May!

See you there, I'll be around.

 

[Fredrik II]

Do you think the role as a publisher of 3rd party developed games will make up a larger or smaller portion of future revenue, compared to now?

I think we will continue to keep a good balance between internal development and external partners, this will have variations over time.

Does it make sense to give a dividend looking at the company's past return on investment? Would the excess cash not be as helpful fueling top line growth through more development, 3rd party projects or acquisitions?

We are well funded and have great bank connections so we will be able to fund new games as well as potential acquisitions and giving dividends at the same time. We will however not risk falling behind on growth just to pay out dividends.

And... please send me a PM if you have an open position as a financial controller / Dynamics admin or similar

Pls keep an eye on the career.paradoxplaza.com page

 

[Fredrik II]

Do you see the relationship between Paradox and Indie developers changing? Is there a focus more on existing relationships or engaging with new teams? Will there be any shifts in the type of resources Paradox offers to developers?

We are always looking for great new games that is a good match for our core game pillars (https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/en/game-pillars/)

Depending on the project we can offer a wide range of help to the partners we work with in order to make the best game possible.

 

[Fredrik II]

Where do you see Paradox in 5-10 years?

Bigger, better, bolder

 

[Fredrik II]

Q1: Will Paradox continue develop inhouse game based around Clausewits engine or its successor, will contonie paradox be a single engine gamedeveloper?

This is completely up to the development team.

 

[Fredrik II]

With growing cash reserves (about 26 million euro if I see right), how do you intend to spend that money? Investing in more manpower? Acquiring other studios or licenses? Distributing to shareholders? Do you have a rough ratio planned how much money goes in which field?

We are planning a dividend of 1 SEK/share, but not risk missing any good growth opportunities just to pay out dividends. We are looking at growing internally, external projects and potential acquisitions. Most important is that we are not rushing, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

Additionally, I would be very interested to hear how much the development of a game like Stellaris did cost until launch, and how fast that money went back in. If thats not asking for too much information

[/QUOTE]

Sorry, we can't comment on the finances of specific titles, but the game has done well for sure