Digital Bros.' full-year results hurt by a lack of new releases
Revenue tumbles at 505 Games' parent company, but next year will be boosted by The Walking Dead and Remedy's Control
Revenue and profits were in decline at Digital Bros. in the last fiscal year, largely due to a lack of major new releases.
In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018 - the results from which have just been approved by the Digital Bros. board - the Italian company earned €76 million in gross revenue, mostly through the activities of its publishing label 505 Games. This represents a 42.7% decrease over the fiscal year ended June 2017.
The majority of that revenue came from Premium Games, which generated €54.1 million in revenue across the year - a decline of more than €51 million over the prior year.
The biggest contributors "in absolute terms" were Terraria and Payday 2, the former a game from 2011, and the latter a 2013 title that Digital Bros. sold the full rights to more than two years ago. Nevertheless, the two games brought in around €16.4 million in revenue.
Free-to-play games remain a minority in Digital Bros. portfolio, and they too were in decline. Revenue from free-to-play titles decreased by 24.9% to €5.8 million year-on-year.
This resulted in a 19% decline in net profits over the previous year to €9.2 million.
However, the company expects a much stronger performance next year, with projected revenue of between €145 million and €190 million. This is down to a much stronger release slate for 505 Games, which includes Overkill's The Walking Dead and Remedy's new IP Control.
In February this year, Digital Bros. sold the US developer Pipeworks to the Northern Pacific Group for a total sum of $20 million.