Starbreeze reports Q2 revenues up 54%

Uppsala, Sweden-based developer Starbreeze Studios has reported its second fiscal quarter financial results with the headline news that its revenues were up 54 per cent year-on-year for the three months ending December 31, 2008.

The company posted SEK 24.9 million (USD 2.84 million) in sales, with profit for the period coming in at SEK 5.5 million (USD 627,000).

Starbreeze, set to release a new Riddick game with Atari in April this year is also working on a title with EA utilising the Jason Bourne franchise.

"This news was enormously popular in the industry and also in many newspapers outside the games world," said CEO Johan Kristiansson. "Revenue figures for the books and movies on Jason Bourne show that it is one of the largest properties currently in existence in the entertainment industry.

"It feels like a very good vote of confidence for our work that the EA, the world's leading game publisher, wants to start a project of this calibre with Starbreeze."

He also noted that the company was satisfied with the reaction so far to its forthcoming Riddick title.

"Together with our publisher Atari, we arranged press days during the winter in San Francisco, London and Uppsala, where the cream of the world's game journalists tried out parts of the game," he said.

"So far we are satisfied with the advance publicity this work has received. The next important step is now that Atari will be able to convince the world's great game store chains to place large orders to the release date."

In the past year the company also increased its staffing levels, from 86 at the end of June to 93 by the end of 2008.