Starbreeze banking on The Walking Dead after posting pre-tax loss of $22.2M

Starbreeze has posted a pre-tax loss of SEK 176. 2 million ($22.2 million) on revenues of SEK 361.4 million ($45.5 million) in its financials for the full-year ended December 31, 2017. 

The developer-publisher, which owns Payday developer Overkill Software, expects to show negative EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) or cash flow until it releases Overkill's The Walking Dead next year.

The company predicts the console and PC title will be a huge success, and believes the co-op shooter will help it achieve revenues of "at least" SEK 2 billion ($251.5 million) in 2020.

As we mentioned earlier, net sales for the 2017 fiscal year clocked in at SEK 361.4 million ($45.5 million), which is actually a year-on-year increase of 4.6 percent. 

That slight shift was driven by popular franchises like Payday and Dead by Daylight, with the former generating revenues of SEK 120.3 million ($15.1 million) -- though that's a drop on the SEK 162.4 million ($20.4 million million) it raked in throughout FY2016. 

Dead by Daylight, meanwhile, was the studio's "star performer," with yearly revenues rising to SEK 201.5 million ($25.3 million) from SEK 143.7 million ($18.1 million), largely thanks to its successful launch on consoles. 

The firm also ended the year on a high, closing with its best fourth quarter to date in terms of revenue by delivering net sales of SEK 100 million ($12.6 million) and a EBITDA of SEK 6.4 million ($804,000). 

Starbreeze neglected to share any predictions for the next fiscal year.