Ci Games S.a. · GPW:CIG
Ci Games — Q3 2023 Earnings Presentation
65 slides from Ci Games's earnings presentation, Nov 29, 2023
Slide 1: Q3 FY23 Results
Q3 FY23 RESULTS 29 NOVEMBER 2023 PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 2: Forward-Looking Statements
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain information set forth in this presentation contains “forward-looking information”, including “future-oriented financial information” and “financial outlook”, under applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Except fo
Slide 3: Globally Recognised Developer & Publisher of High Quality Video Games
GLOBALLY RECOGNISED DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER OF HIGH QUALITY VIDEO GAMES RPG & FPS EXPERTISE • Top rated AA+/AAA developer & publisher on major platforms (Steam, PlayStation, Xbox & Nintendo) • Renowned RPG & FPS game studio, listed on WSE POPULAR IP FRANCHISES • Successful launch of Lords of the Falle
Slide 4: Platform for Growth
PLATFORM FOR GROWTH 20+ 2 25M+ Years of developing & Evergreen IPs Copies sold publishing AA+/AAA FPS & RPG Games 100% 190+ 18 Fully Remote Global Headcount Years avg. experience Organisation from management team PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 5: Seasoned Management Team
SEASONED MANAGEMENT TEAM Marek is the founder and CEO of CI Games and has Darren has over 28 years’ experience working within been leading the company since its inception in 2002. Previously Marek held board and executive positions in DARREN NEWMAN the gaming and mobile industries, including senior
Slide 6: A Global Team
A GLOBAL TEAM Key management operates from multiple geographic locations resulting in further internationalisation of the company SPAIN (63) NETHERLANDS (4) DEVELOPMENT/MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT UNITED KINGDOM (42) ITALY (3) MARKETING/SALES/DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT POLAND (28) IRELAND (3) DEVELOPMENT/FI
Slide 7: Employee Departments
EMPLOYEE DEPARTMENTS Sales 2% Admin 1% QA 8% Animation 14% Publishing 2% Production 6% Marketing 5% Art 17% Legal 1% IT 3% 190+ PEOPLE HR 2% Finance 4% Audio 2% Executive 1% Design 18% Code 16% Admin Animation Art Audio Code Design Executive Finance HR IT Legal Marketing Production Publishing QA Sal
Slide 8: European Established 'AAA' Developer Landscape
EUROPEAN ESTABLISHED ‘AAA’ DEVELOPER LANDSCAPE Notable Titles Founded Country Employees Market Cap Minority Strategic Stakeholders Lords of the Fallen series, Sniper 2002 Poland 190 124m EUR Ghost Warrior series Cyberpunk, The Witcher series 2002 Poland 1000+ 2.49b EUR Dead Island 2 series, PayDay s
Slide 9: Key Company Milestones
KEY COMPANY MILESTONES Key turning point: AAA Focus ESTABLISHED (FULLY REMOTE) WARSAW STOCK FOUNDED EXCHANGE MAIN ESTABLISHED MARKET LISTING ESTABLISHED (FULLY REMOTE) 2002 2007 2010 2013 2014 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2023 NOW AN EMERGING LEADER IN AAA GAME DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLISHING • Company under
Slide 10: 9M Income Statement
9M INCOME STATEMENT • 9M 2023 net revenue totalled PLN 59.1m, with PLN 29.1m (49%) of sales generated by physical sales of Lords shipped in September. Sales of SGWC 2 and UL’s portfolio accounted for 24% (PLN 14.3m) and PLNm 9M ‘23 9M ’22 11% (PLN 6.7m), respectively, of the reported consolidated re
Slide 11: 3Q Income Statement
3Q INCOME STATEMENT • 3Q2023 net revenue totalled PLN 36.9m, with PLN PLNm Q3 ‘23 Q3 ’22 29.1m (79%) of sales generated by physical sales of Lords shipped in September. The revenues on Net revenue from sales 36.9 10.8 physical sales is presented nett off provision for price protection. Operating pro
Slide 12: Balance Sheet & Cashflow
BALANCE SHEET & CASHFLOW • As of 30.09.2023 total assets increased by 49% PLNm which was attributable mainly to investment in the games. Balance Sheet 30-Sep-23 31-Dec-22 Cash and cash equivalents 12.8 6.6 • Intangible assets amounted to PLN 211.5m, (net Total assets 267.4 179.3 increase by PLN 59.4
Slide 13: Hexworks development studio
• Development studio behind Lords of the Fallen • 100 internal staff with 19 external contractors • Founded in 2020 SECURING GAMEPLAY OPTIMISING CONTENT PRODUCTION QUALITY THROUGH ITERATIONS • Core features developed within a Strike teams • Combination of internal and external production • Strike te
Slide 14: Underdog development studio
• Development studio behind Sniper Ghost Warrior • Major transition in 21/22 with new rebrand and full internal restructure focusing on global talent • Currently developing Project Survive • 50 internal staff ACHIEVING AN EPIC NARRATIVE KEEPING THE TEAM FOCUSED WITH WORKING REMOTELY • Full team enga
Slide 15: Strategic Pillars & Timeline
STRATEGIC PILLARS & TIMELINE Target Release: 2026. Capitalising on recognition and success within Action-RPG, driven by Lords of the Fallen, a new title built around more ambitious gameplay options for wider audience appeal. Strong potential for premium and free post launch content & expansion updat
Slide 16: Q3 Key Events/Highlights
Q3 KEY EVENTS/HIGHLIGHTS LORDS • Extensive marketing activity and promotion activity in advance of Lords of the Fallen launch in Oct; • Initiated production and shipping of physical units in advance of Lords launch PEOPLE • Headcount increased to over 190 people (up from 12.8% in year) • Survive bro
Slide 17: Looking Forward
LOOKING FORWARD • Aim for Lords reported net revenue - $100m • Lords to be amortised over 5 years • Still in active promotion window pre and post Black Friday. Key highlights – - Close on 900K units sell through to date - 50% of sales are Deluxe version • HEXWORKS continues to bolster post-launch sa
Slide 18: PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 19: Seasoned Management Team
SEASONED MANAGEMENT TEAM Almost 20 years experience in lighting and Saul has over 20 years’ experience working within photography in the games industry, including senior SAUL GASCON the gaming industry, including director level roles ERWAN FAGARD positions with Smilegate and Starbreeze. Erwan at Ubi
Slide 20: Priority Franchise
PRIORITY FRANCHISE Lords of the Fallen is the no. 1 priority franchise at CI Games, achieving over 1 million sales in less than days following its global simultaneous launch on PC, PlayStation and Xbox in Oct 23, with a revenue aim of $100million. With significant ongoing investment, we will further
Slide 21: Hexworks
HEXWORKS NEW DEVELOPMENT STUDIO • CI Games assembled HEXWORKS, a brand new internal development studio, to develop Lords of the Fallen (2023) • Prioritised senior hires with a passion for the soulslike genre • Truly multinational team spread across regions including Spain, France, Romania, Germany,
Slide 22: Lords of the Fallen (2014)
LORDS OF THE FALLEN (2014) THIRD PERSON ACTION RPG • Published by CI Games, the original Lords of the Fallen was released in October 2014 across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC • Co-developed by CI Games and Deck 13, an external development studio • A third-person action-RPG featuring AAA production value
Slide 23: Lords of the Fallen (2023)
LORDS OF THE FALLEN (2023) OVERVIEW THIRD PERSON ACTION-RPG • AAA action-RPG developed specifically for latest gen PC & Console, successfully launched in October 2023 • Built on cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5, utilizing state- of-the-art technology including the Nanite and Lumen systems • A fully reim
Slide 24: Lords of the Fallen (2023) Game Overview
LORDS OF THE FALLEN (2023) GAME OVERVIEW THIRD PERSON ACTION-RPG • Perfect for both newcomers and veterans with built-in difficulty scalers; two worlds, two players, two lives • Players embark on an epic quest across two parallel worlds, featuring intense combat, stunning environments, and colossal
Slide 25: Modernising IP
MODERNISING IP Objective: Significantly widen commercial appeal, while also addressing key community feedback received from the first entry THEME DARK FANTASY, IMMERSIVE, EPIC JOURNEY COMBAT FASTER COMBAT, INTEGRATED MELEE & SPELLS SYSTEM RPG BUILDS AND PROGRESSION, HIGHER REPLAYABILITY & RETENTION,
Slide 26: Two Parallel Worlds
TWO PARALLEL WORLDS • A first for the genre, Lords of the Fallen has been specifically designed around the concept of two co- existing, vast, parallel worlds. • Each realm has its own unique pathways, treasures, enemies and even NPCs. • With the ability to switch between realms, players will need to
Slide 27: Topline Brand and Marketing Strategy
TOPLINE BRAND AND MARKETING STRATEGY • Lords of the Fallen must always come across as a AAA- quality video game title with mainstream appeal. • Differentiate brand identity from Elden Ring, through use of a more modern, mainstream approach, utilising topical tie-ins where relevant e.g. licensed trac
Slide 28: Lords of the Fallen in Numbers
LORDS OF THE FALLEN IN NUMBERS COMMERCIAL 1m+ TOP 10 TOP 20 Copies sold Best-selling games across Best-selling games across Europe in Oct ‘23 US in Oct ‘23 DEVELOPMENT 100 400+ 3.5 Years 26 Global, Remote, Total developers incl. third In Development Updates since Internal developers parties launch (
Slide 29: Sales Overview
SALES OVERVIEW Standard Deluxe 50% 50% *Digital sales date captured 27th Nov. Physical sales data captured 19th Nov. PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 30: Average Playtime
AVERAGE PLAYTIME Numbers taken from howlongtobeat.com on 27th November Based on community sentiment and user reviews, players are spending considerably longer than this in- game, as they strive to complete each subsequent NG+, partake in post-launch events, and engage with other players in online ga
Slide 31: Marketing Spend
MARKETING SPEND 3% 3%-1% • Total marketing budget across 2022/2023 - €18.8 mil 10% • 69.6% spent on AAA paid media campaign, across digital and OOH • 13.9% spent on high quality assets, to ensure Lords of the Fallen immediately created and sustained mainstream AAA perception throughout campaign • 10
Slide 32: Launch Marketing
LAUNCH MARKETING • Total launch media campaign budget - €10.5 mil • Highest spend across US, UK, DE and FR OTHER CHINA 5.1% INFLUENCERS 14.9% XB 5.5% CINEMA PSN 8.8% CTV NORDICS PREMIUM+ BENELUX OOH IT INREAD TR XB KR PSN JP PREMIUM AUS ENDEMIC CA SOCIAL* ES YT/GDN PL SEARCH FR 5.9% DE 6.1% UK 10.6%
Slide 33: Media Spend Impressions
MEDIA SPEND IMPRESSIONS PSN 19,439,481 1.9% XB 32,307,800 3.1% OOH 162,306,621 15.7% CTV 13,788,192 1.3% CINEMA 22,569,444 2.2% ENDEMIC - GAMING MEDIA 78,309,950 7.6% NON-GAMING MEDIA 17,272,068 1.7% PREMIUM DIGITAL 29,751,178 2.9% GOOGLE GDN 108,434,948 10.5% GOOGLE SEARCH 20,002,467 1.9% YOUTUBE 1
Slide 34: Trailer Timeline
TRAILER TIMELINE Announcement Trailer Gameplay Teaser Trailer Technical Showcase Gameplay Reveal Trailer Release: 23rd August 2022 Release: 8th December 2022 Release: 22nd March 2023 Release: 18th May 2023 Event: Opening Night Live, Gamescom Event: The Game Awards Event: State of Unreal, GDC Total V
Slide 35: New York OOH Campaign
NEW YORK OOH CAMPAIGN PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 36: Los Angeles OOH Campaign
LOS ANGELES OOH CAMPAIGN PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 37: Chicago OOH Campaign
CHICAGO OOH CAMPAIGN PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 38: London OOH Campaign
LONDON OOH CAMPAIGN PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 39: UK Regional/University Campus OOH
UK REGIONAL/UNIVERSITY CAMPUS OOH PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 40: France/Germany Transport OOH
FRANCE/GERMANY TRANSPORT OOH PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 41: Warsaw OOH
WARSAW OOH PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 42: Marketing Numbers
MARKETING NUMBERS 214M 12.7K 1.3B Campaign Views Articles Generated Paid Media Impressions 1.2M 14M Wishlists on Steam Streaming Hours Watches PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 43: Launch Reception
LAUNCH RECEPTION • Successful simultaneous launch across PC and major Consoles • Received highly positive response with minor performance challenges on PC 1M 10 150M Units sold in 8 days Top Global Steam Total Trailer Views Wishlists • Metacritic Scores 9M+ 78% ‘Ultimate Game of Hours watched on Pos
Slide 44: Review Scores
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Slide 45: Media Accolades
MEDIA ACCOLADES “exploration… feels better than “Some of the best boss fights in arguably any other Soulslike... “A technological and visual the genre's recent history… marvel… I was obsessed until arguably one of the best not oozes creativity… the combat made by FromSoftware” the end… spectacular”
Slide 46: Google Trends
GOOGLE TRENDS • More users searching for Lords of the Fallen than any other 2023 soulslike release over past 12 months • Generated over double the number of searches than Lies of P at respective launches • Less steep drop than Assassin's Creed Mirage, and now generating more searches, despite launch
Slide 47: Steam User Scores
STEAM USER SCORES • We analysed the Steam User Scores of all major AAA PC releases from 2022/2023 (over 40 titles, including BG3, Hogwarts Legacy, Armored Core VI) • Lords of the Fallen scores very similarly to the industry averages • For ‘English Speaking’ Reviews, Lords scores higher than the indu
Slide 48: No. of Reviews
NO. OF REVIEWS • Steam review numbers are a strong indication of sales • Lords of the Fallen received the highest number of ‘all language’ reviews in Week 1, compared to other key AAA action-RPG releases in 2023 • In terms of ‘All time’, Lords has already accumulated more received that Wo Long, desp
Slide 49: Post-Launch Review: Release Schedule
POST-LAUNCH REVIEW RELEASE SCHEDULE • 2023 was an unprecedented year for high-quality AAA video game releases - possibly busiest year ever • Sep/Oct even busier than usual - Starfield, Mortal Kombat 1, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, EA Sports FC 24, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake II, Super Mario Bros. W
Slide 50: Post-Launch Review: New Technologies
POST-LAUNCH REVIEW NEW TECHNOLOGIES • Lords of the Fallen is one of the first games ever to release on UE5, paving the way for future titles • Many elements of UE5 are still being optimised. Not enough titles released to date, to properly optimise the engine • Due to the technical advancements, many
Slide 51: Post-Launch Development
POST-LAUNCH DEVELOPMENT • HEXWORKS continues to work diligently in response to user feedback • As of 28th Nov, has released 26 major updates to date • Has worked extensively with AMD and NVidia to significantly reduce performance related issues. As of 17th Nov, only 1.3% of users are experiencing cr
Slide 52: Post-Launch Development
POST-LAUNCH DEVELOPMENT • Aside from performance, in-game difficulty has been the main subject of feedback from the community • HEXWORKS continues to respond rapidly to ongoing player feedback and in-game telemetry to release weekly updates to further refine balance between challenge and enjoyabilit
Slide 53: PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 54: Seasoned Management Team
SEASONED MANAGEMENT TEAM Aitor has almost 20 years’ experience working within Wayne has been making games since 1990. In his 33 AITOR RODA the gaming industry, including senior level roles at Konami, Starbreeze, TopGolf, Gaming Corps and WAYNE BILLINGHAM years’ career in games he’s worked for compan
Slide 55: Project Survive: Capitalising on a Growing Genre
PROJECT SURVIVE CAPITALISING ON A GROWING GENRE • In the last decade, the Survival genre renaissance has been building in strength • 48% player growth in last 18mths across key open world survival craft game set • Evergreen titles reaching 20+m player bases – the lead achieving 50+m across all platf
Slide 56: Project Survive Overview
PROJECT SURVIVE OVERVIEW • Elevates the extremely successful ‘survival’ formula, previously characterised by indie/AA titles (Sons of the Forest, Valheim, Subnautica), with AAA production levels. • Being developed within UE5 will enable Project Survive developer and creative teams to deliver • Top o
Slide 57: PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 58: United Label
UNITED LABEL • Independently branded publishing house, under CI Games umbrella, focussing on very selective smaller but equally ambitious games with long term focus • Utilises infrastructure of CI Games to lend a AAA publisher lens to independent titles • Three commercially and critically successful
Slide 59: PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 60: Project III
PROJECT III Project 3 will capitalise on the recognition and success achieved by Lords of the Fallen within the Action-RPG genre and wider gaming landscape. • A new title built around more ambitious gameplay options for wider audience appeal • Will benefit from the substantial learnings, experience
Slide 61: Appendix
APPENDIX PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Slide 62: Share of Voice
SHARE OF VOICE LORDS OF THE FALLEN Launch Month Lords of the Fallen tracked almost perfectly with Nintendo’s biggest exclusive of the period – Super Mario Bros Wonder, and easily surpassed the biggest platform exclusive on Xbox (Forza Motorsport) and the long awaited Cities Skylines sequel. Three Mo
Slide 63: Share of Voice: Lords of the Fallen vs 2023 Soulslikes
SHARE OF VOICE When comparing the amount of articles written about each game LORDS OF THE FALLEN VS 2023 SOULS-LIKES during their respective two week release windows, share of voice is as follows: Lords of the Fallen achieved the highest levels of reader • Armored Core VI (25%) engagement during its
Slide 64: Twitch Performance
TWITCH PERFORMANCE LORDS OF THE FALLEN VS KEY 2023 RELEASES • Lords of the Fallen’s launch was of a comparable size to EA’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor • Create a much bigger impact than Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, delivering significantly more minutes watched overall • Day 1-3 generated more o
Slide 65: Content Creator Impact
CONTENT CREATOR IMPACT LORDS OF THE FALLEN • Lords of the Fallen performed incredibly well among content creators pre and post launch, generating over 81.3M video views and 14.3M (excluding China) hours watched from the 7.6k creators involved • Peaked at 184,812 ccu viewership on Twitch. • Number 2