11 bit studios has announced its financial results for 2022, delivering over PLN 74.2 million in revenue, PLN 25.87 million in EBITDA and close to PLN 22.89 million in net profit.
“Thanks to the hard work of the entire team, our financial performance in 2022 proved far better than we had assumed in our budget,” said Przemysław Marszał, CEO of 11 bit studios. Przemysław Marszał also admits that operationally it was a busy and challenging year for the Company due to the difficult macroeconomic (economic slowdown, high inflation) and geopolitical (war in Ukraine) environment. “We are very pleased with the way we tackled these challenges,” he concludes.
The strong fundamentals allowed 11 bit studios to focus in 2022 on the development of games in its proprietary and publishing portfolios, which will be marketed in the coming periods, starting from 2023. “Given the progress in the development of the games and the approaching release dates, we were able to launch promotional campaigns for the selected titles,” said Przemysław Marszał. In August, the Company released the trailer for The Alters (former code name Dolly) and in February 2023 for Thaumaturge (Vitriol) developed by the associate Fool’s Theory. “Both trailers have been very well received, as evidenced by the fact that they keep going up on the Steam wishlist,” Marszał added. He points out that a promotional campaign for Frostpunk 2 is underway, which will gather momentum in the coming months of 2023, as well as for The Invincible, a game from the publishing portfolio, developed by Starward Industries of Kraków. 11 bit studios has been a minority shareholder of this company since 2022. “The equity investments in Starward Industries and Fool’s Theory made by 11 bit studios last year are good examples of activities which are strategically important to the Company. We are convinced that the combined competencies of the teams will bring significant synergies and may result in new interesting titles in the future, expected by fans around the world,” said Mr Marszał.
He notes that 2022 was also a year of significant organisational changes at the Company. “First of all, we succeeded in implementing a hybrid work model. We consistently expanded our staff number to more than 250 people, of whom over ten percent are foreigners. We strengthened and expanded our internal teams, including – in view of the growing amount of duties and responsibilities – the Management Board, with Pawel Feldman and Marek Ziemak as its new members,” added the CEO. Przemysław Marszał also stresses that the Company and its employees managed to find the time to participate in various types of aid for the victims of the war in Ukraine. “We are very proud that, in addition to our employees, fans of our games, especially fans of This War of Mine, joined to help. Their generosity allowed us to donate almost PLN 3.7 million to the Ukrainian Red Cross already in the first days of March 2022. This was the largest one-off donation we have ever made,” said Mr Marszał.
In his opinion, 2023 is going to be an extremely busy year for 11 bit studios. “It will be a time for us to deliver on our promises and also to complete an important stage of the strategy we had defined a few years ago,” he added. “Frostpunk 2, The Alters and Project 8 (code name) will be developed at full steam, which will require recruiting additional staff. New hires will not only join our development teams, but also the other divisions, mainly marketing and publishing, which are gearing up for the upcoming premieres.” As announced by the producer, the list of games to be released this year includes The Invincible. “The other release will be Thaumaturge,” added the CEO of 11 bit studios. In 2023, to respond to inquiries from the gaming community, the Company intends to unveil some information on more games in its portfolio which so far have only had code names, especially since they are at an advanced phase of development. “Discussions and work on new publishing projects we are yet to add to our portfolio in the coming periods are at an advanced stage, too. We hope that the scale and themes of the games will strongly appeal to our fans, further strengthening the importance and role of the publishing division in 11 bit studios’s strategy,” concludes Przemysław Marszał. In 2022, the publishing division accounted for as much as 38% of the Company’s total revenue (the highest figure on record).
