FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT: FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT 2023/24 third-quarter revenue of €43.3 million 9M revenue came to €128.3 million, down 9% YoY

Paris, 18 January 2024, 5.45 p.m.

FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT

2023/24 third-quarter revenue of €43.3 million

9M revenue came to €128.3 million, down 9% YoY

Banishers: Ghost of New Eden and Expeditions: A MudRunner Game to be released in Q4 2023/24

Focus Entertainment will become PulluP Entertainment on 1 April 2024[1]

PARIS, FRANCE – 18 January 2024 – FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT (FR0012419307 - ALFOC) is announcing its revenue (unaudited) for the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year to 31 December 2023.

Unaudited third-quarter revenue (as at 31 December 2023)

For the first nine months of the 2023/24 financial year, FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT reported total revenue of €128.3 million, down 9% on the first nine months of the previous financial year.

2023/24 third-quarter revenue came to €43.3 million, down 43%, as anticipated and announced by the Group during the publication of the half-year results.

Back catalogue performance was solid in this year of transition, and the Group is reaping the rewards of its strategy of creating and offering a line-up with attractive, recurring content, with sales of 29.5 million euros up 45% on the same period in the previous year. There was no major games release during the quarter while the third quarter of the previous year benefited from the successful launches of A Plague Tale: Requiem and Evil West, resulting in a high comparison base.

Activity during the quarter was driven in particular by Insurgency: Sandstorm, A Plague Tale: Requiem, SnowRunner, Atomic Heart, which was also awarded in the category «Exceptional visual style» at the Steam Awards 2023, the full release of My Time at Sandrock in November, as well as Train Sim World 4 and Chants of Sennaar which were launched in September.

Revenue for the quarter includes for the first time the activity of the newly formed audiovisual production platform Scripteam.

Like-for-like revenue, excluding the contributions of Dovetail and Scripteam, was €35.1 million.

84% of the Group’s sales were made via digital partners, with international sales accounting for 95% of the Group’s total revenue in the third quarter.

Major releases to mark the end of the 2023/24 financial year

The final quarter of the 2023/24 financial year will see the release of Banishers: Ghost of New Eden on 13 February 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The Group stressed that this is a brand new franchise jointly owned with the award-winning creative studio DON'T NOD. The release will be supported by a large-scale marketing drive, including one of the most ambitious campaigns by gaming influencers during the launch. The game’s ultra-meticulous production and supernatural artistic direction received broad praise during its presentation to the specialist press, including from jeuxvideo.com: “Banishers could be the biggest “made in France” surprise success this winter.”

Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, by Saber Interactive, will be launched on 5 March 2024 on PS5, PS4, XSX, Xbox One and PC. This new opus developed by the creators of SnowRunner, which has garnered more than 15 million players worldwide, will revamp the gameplay of the famous off-road experience. IGN gave a raving preview: “Saber Interactive presents Expeditions as a gateway to driving in extreme conditions, offering a successful and demanding gameplay that provides enough options to keep newcomers or those less comfortable with its formula captivated. We felt a real sense of progression as the hours passed, reaching our goal and savouring the work along the way."

The next DLC (downloadable content) for Atomic Heart will be released on 6 February 2024.

A new organisation to support the Group’s development.

On 2 January, Fabrice Larue, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, appointed Geoffroy Sardin to take the reins as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of all of FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT’s businesses, after a 25-year career at Ubisoft Entertainment.

On foot of this appointment, the board of directors, which met today, decided to redraw the Group's organisation to mark a new transformative stage in its development around three complementary activities:

• Firstly, a plan to spin-off the group’s historical publishing activity, to which the board of directors agreed in principle. This activity would then become Focus Entertainment Publishing on 1 April 2024, led by John Bert, Deputy Managing Director.
• A division dedicated to the publishing of independent games and retrogaming comprising Dotemu, The Arcade Crew which will be managed by Cyrille Imbert, CEO of Dotemu and Deputy Managing Director.
• The “Studios” division, which includes the seven creative studios (Deck13, Streumon, Twelve Tenths, Leikir Studio, Blackmill, Dovetail and Carpool Studio).

Subject to approval by the shareholders, who will be convened to a combined general meeting on 28 February to vote on changing Focus Entertainment's company name, Fabrice Larue is delighted to announce that these three divisions will be brought together under a new umbrella brand from 1 April 2024: PulluP Entertainment.

This new organization aims to accelerate organic growth, profitability and cash flow generation for the Group’s three core businesses.

At this combined general meeting, the appointment of a new independent director, Didier Crespel, will also be proposed. A graduate of EDHEC, Didier Crespel is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and majority shareholder of the industrial group Mecamen, which specialises in robotics and the manufacture of innovative parts. He was a director of Ubisoft between 2013 and 2023, serving as chairman of its audit committee and as lead director between 2016 and 2023. 

Major releases planned for 2024/25

The first half of 2024/25 will see the release of the enhanced version of Atlas Fallen, developed by studio Deck 13, recently voted best development studio in Germany, together with live updates throughout the year for players of Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, Void Crew and Atomic Heart. The Arcade Crew, Dotemu’s publishing label, will continue early access to Cross Blitz.

For Dovetail Games, the year will see the launch of several new games and the continued growth of the award-winning Train Sim World and Train Simulator Classic series through the steady delivery of additional content. BlackMill Studio, for its part, will continue to invest in its latest creation in the multiplayer shooter segment of “Isonzo” with a content-rich roadmap.

An adaptation of the famous Metal Slug franchise, Metal Slug Tactics, will be launched in 2024, published by Dotemu and developed by the Leikir studio, member of the Group.

The highly anticipated Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, the iconic Games Workshop licence, will be released on 9 September 2024. The game is already ranked 15th on the STEAM platform (Steam DB and Game popularity rankings).  

Other major titles are expected in 2024/25, including John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, developed by Saber Interactive, combining humour, chills and 1980s Hollywood film style action.

“In my capacity as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and a leading shareholder, supported by an expanded management team, I fully support FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT’s long-term strategy. The new organisation comprising three divisions aims to structure the Group so that it can successfully pursue a trajectory that enables it to achieve its growth and profitability ambitions”, says Fabrice Larue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT. 

Improved rating from Gaïa Research

Irit Hillel, independent member of the board of directors and chair of the CSR Committee, is delighted to announce there has been an upgrade in the extra-financial rating awarded by Gaïa Research, a subsidiary of EthiFinance. The rating has been increased to 64/100 (2023 rating on 2022 data) versus 60 previously (2022 rating on 2021 data). Gaïa Research assesses companies on the basis of nearly 140 criteria divided into four categories: environment, social, governance and stakeholders. This assessment measures the transparency of information, the maturity of the policies implemented and progress achieved in sustainable development including topics related to governance, business ethics or diversity.

Next release:

FY 2023/24 revenue: 18 April 2024 after the market closes

About FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT

FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT is one of the European leaders in video game publishing and development. Publisher of strong licenses such as A Plague Tale, Atomic Heart, Evil West, The Surge and SnowRunner, its mission is to support leading French and international studios in the development, production monitoring, marketing, sales and financing of their projects. FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT generates more than 95% of its sales internationally. The Group generated turnover of €194.1 million in 2022-2023.

All financial information pertaining to FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT can be found at www.focusent.com

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[1] The change of company name will be submitted to a vote by the shareholders at the combined general meeting of 02/28/2024