Starbreeze sets sales record in a quarter devoid of new releases

Starbreeze has shared a financial report detailing the first half of the company's fiscal year, noting specifically that it set a new Q2 sales record during 2018, despite not launching a single new game during that three month period. 

The company recorded SEK 123.6 million (~$13.6 million) net sales for the second quarter of the 2018 fiscal year, up from SEK 122.7 million (~$13.5) last year. For the first half of the year altogether, net sales came in at SEK 233.6 million (~$25.7 million), up from SEK 180 million (~$19.8 million) for the first half of 2017.

Breaking those sales down by game, the company’s Payday series was responsible for SEK 31.3 million (~$3.4 million). Dead by Daylight, which is now being published by its developer Behavior Interactive following a $16 million publishing agreement, brought in an additional SEK 71.5 million (~$7.9 million) in net sales this quarter. 

Starbreeze notes the Dead by Daylight publishing rights deal was finalized, resulting in a boost to the company’s profitability this quarter. The company says that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came in at SEK 52.4 million (~$5.8 million) this quarter making for a significant increase over the SEK 2.7 million (~$297,000) loss in 2017, an improvement that the company attributes largely to the Dead by Daylight deal.

Year-over-year, Starbreeze has also pulled its profit before tax back into the black. During 2017, the company reported a loss of SEK 16.8 million (~$1.8 million) while this year, the company saw Q2 profit before tax of SEK 26.2 million (~$2.9 million), bringing the figure for the first half of the fiscal year up to SEK 19.8 million (~$2.2 million) after recording a loss during Q1 2018.