A bit of financial news from the gaming industry. I know financial reports are not the most exciting of subjects, but in this case, the drop was so significant it may be curious to take note, especially for our members from Sweden.
Paradox Interactive published a report for the second quarter (April-June) and reported a significant drop in profits. Fredrik Wester mentioned that one of the main reasons for this may be the cancellation of the anticipated Life by You game that was meant to be the competitor of Sims.
But as of yet, it seems that the main source of profit comes from the older games like Age of Wonders 4 or Hearts of Iron IV, as well as DLCs and expansions for them, like The Machine Age for Stellaris or Sphere of Influence for Victoria 3.
On the one hand, if it works, no need to break it: games performing well are supported and expanded, which is good. But on the other, it seems that even not taking risks is costly these days. Must be hard for publishers to release something truly new and innovative.
Is it how the gaming industry will be these days? Maybe our members in the know would have better insight. @SKYTRiXSHA, @GoLLuM13 and @j7schultz, does this bring any thoughts to mind?
@DoctorEldritch - The gaming industry it's changing since covid, some things for good, but many for the bad. Chaos, insecurity, massive layoffs, etc. It is always sad when a company has to cancel a game, because a friendly competition is healthy. I love The Sims, but I was eager for Life by you, for me, it was a huge bummer when I heard the news. I hope Paradox stays alive. The same I wish for every gaming company in the world. We love games. We need games and they can also help our mental health (sometimes even the physical too). They are super important and I just wish the best for the future of the gaming industry.
@j7schultz Paradox seems to be doing well in the relative security of their past releases, but yeah. Would not wish hardships on anyone, and hopefully gaming industry will come on top stronger in the end, as the rest of the world, too...
Life by You wouldn't have been an interesting experiment, but I guess it is a position I can get behind when the company admits their game is not up to par and counts its losses instead of releasing an unfinished and not adequate game. In this particular case, I think that healthy competition could be good, but Sims had very little of it over the years and that helped it grow into this behemoth of a franchise. To try and go against it now is a challenge. A costly one. No wonder they backed out. I wonder who is big enough to try and pick it up. After all, they may as well sell Life by You IP to someone with more money?
2023 and 2024 have been very windy, its mostly just because people expected that the boom of COVID could be sustained.
Situation is stabilizing, but companies are not meeting the revenue criterias mainly because the expectations are just too high (comparing to COVID times when there was more people paying and playing due to more free time).
@DoctorEldritch - We have Paralives, from an indie company, coming in the next years. Let's see how it goes!
That's good, hopefully it does come out. Though I'd imagine it may be tough for indie companies to try and topple Sims Colossus. But their game may have that "soul spark" that indie games are known for, and just may make all the difference.
@SKYTRiXSHA True, free time and not being able to go out would do that. Still, I find it odd that so many industry players thought it could be sustained, I mean, even the most basic marketing knowledge would tell you that when people get more options, demand drops. And they should have far more sophisticated prediction systems. Makes me wonder just how exactly revenue predictions are worked out these days...
That 90% drop is shocking! It seems like Paradox is relying heavily on older titles and expansions, but canceling Life by You might have hurt them more than expected. It makes me wonder if playing it safe is costing them in the long run. What do you all think—should they be taking more risks?
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DoctorEldritch
