Next Games looks to The Walking Dead for growth after €7m H1 loss

Next Games' revenue halved in the first half of 2018, dropping from €19.5 million to €10.5 million year-on-year.

The Finnish mobile developer made a loss of €7.3 million in H1 2018, compared to a profit of €0.6 million in the same period last year.

In part, this is due to rising development costs, which increase from €1 million to €3.9 million year-on-year. However, the company's fiscal report shows a wider picture of decline, with DAUs down from 498,000 to 311,000, and MAUs down from 1.5 million to 1 million.

Previously, Next Games operated only one product, The Walking Dead: No Man's Land, but H1 2018 marked the company's transition into operating multiple games as services. It launched The Walking Dead: Our World after the reporting period ended, while its game based on Blade Runner went into soft-launch.

"The first half of 2018, Next Games has focused on preparing for new game launches," said CEO Teemu Huuhtanen in a statement. "During this time we did not release new products and the development of our live game, The Walking Dead: No Man's Land continued on a similar path set in early 2018 without significant changes."

The Walking Dead: Our World will be the source of Next Games' growth in the second half of the year. According to Huuhtanen, the global ARPDAU [average revenue per daily active user] for the the first week was €0.35 - much better than the €0.19 for the entire company in H1 2018.

"2018 will be a significant year for Next Games in many ways," Huuhtanen added. "During 2017 and early 2018 we have worked hard in preparation to scale our operation to launch new games on many fronts, from game development, technology, marketing to analytics, as well as from an operational perspective.

"I firmly believe team Next Games has succeeded in creating a robust foundation for our future. During 2018 we will see the first results, starting from The Walking Dead: Our World."