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Starbreeze has released it full year-end report for 2016 and its net revenue for the year was up 58 per cent year-on-year, reaching 345.5m Swedish Krona (SEK) (or 31m).
The publisher had a particularly healthy Q4 as well, with net revenue totalling 99.4m SEK (8.9m), showing a growth of 103 per cent year-on-year. The biggest contributor to that figure was Dead by Daylight, earning 54.6m SEK (4.9m) of net revenue.
This was followed by Payday 2, which earned 37.2 SEK (3.3m) of net revenue in the same quarter, but Starbreeze notes it’s still expecting 505 Games to recoup $5m on Payday’s console releases. Moreover, as sole owner of the Payday IP, Starbreeze no longer receive any production support revenue. It does, however, get 100 per cent of the game’s "healthy" PC sales.
"We’re proud to yet again show a triple digit growth for this quarter and the highest EBITDA since the launch of Payday 2," said Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint in a statement.
"It is a solid performance that shows our ability to deliver profitability while we are scaling our business to secure future growth."
Speaking on Dead by Daylight, Klint said the company was "over the moon" with the title’s performance, calling it "a complete success both strategically and financially." The game has now sold over 1.8m units on PC and has generated 267m SEK in gross sales on Steam. It also had its best-ever quarter for net revenue in Q4 last year.
Klint added that it’s "an impressive trend that we, together with Behaviour, will nurse carefully as we expand the product to consoles in Q2 2017."
Klint further commented: "As we continue our steady growth we need to invest in our key assets Payday, Overkill’s The Walking Dead, Valhalla engine, StarVR and in our very important publishing business.
"Consequently, our operating expenses, excluding royalties to publishing partners, have increased with SEK 46.7 million or 78 % compared to Q4 2015. The incremental spend is in all material aspects still derived from employee related expenses as we continue to ramp up the teams for delivering on our plans. Despite the increase in costs we show a remarkable profitability with an EBITDA margin reaching 23.4% underpinned by a strong development of our top line but also boosted by a stronger US dollar.
"Boosted by successful financing activities during the third quarter, we’re ending the year with a cash position of SEK 669.4 million (SEK 85.4 million). To be clear, these funds will not be put in the bank to rest, they will continue to build our momentum. Hence we expect it to be reduced over time."
