Paradox touts positive cash flow despite record marketing and dev spend

At the close of the second quarter, Paradox Interactive CEO Ebba Ljungerud comments that the key to its business is keeping a balance between generating short-term profitability and investing in future projects, and she says that, so far, the company has been successful in this goal.

Ljungerud notes specifically that Paradox spent "more than ever during the quarter on both game development and marketing and distributed SEK 105.6 million (~$10.96 million) to our sharehol­ders as dividend, the total cash flow was positive and we closed the quarter with a record-high cash position.”

Part of that boost, she explains, came from an advance payment for Paradox’s recent dealings with Xbox Game Pass, while games like Cities: Skylines, Hearts of Iron IV, Imperator: Rome, Stellaris, and Surviving Mars helped revenue jump by 30 percent year-over-year.

While Steam remains Paradox’s main distribution platform, Ljungerud also notes that “it is important for us to continuously test new ways to offer our games to the market and the Xbox Game Pass is an interesting one.”

For the quarter, revenue came in at SEK 287.2 million (~$29.8 million), up from SEK 298.8 million (~$31 million) during the same quarter last year, while profit before tax was reported as SEK 154 million (~$15.98 million), up from last year’s SEK 99.5 million (~$10.3 million).

Of those top revenue-earners mentioned before, Imperator: Rome was the only new release for the quarter. Cities: Skylines, Surviving Mars, and Stellaris, meanwhile, all saw new expansion launches during Q2.