Embracer Group AB

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Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q1

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

I'm very glad to have you all here today. And we will start with this Q1 presentation followed with the Capital Market Day at 1:00 and then followed by AGM at 3:30.So Q1 2018. To follow the tradition, I would say we had a stable quarter. It was the first quarter where we welcomed and had the consolidated revenues in the middle of the month of Koch Media. The net sales in the quarter compared to last quarter was up 673% to SEK 633 million. EBITDA was up 439% to SEK 226 million. And the EBIT number, actually how much money you make, was up 236% to SEK 107 million.Obviously, the quarter was a lot about the acquisition of Koch Media, and I'm coming back to that right soon here. But except the Koch Media, we also had a good quarter at classic operations in THQ Nordic in Vienna, having our first sequel for MX vs ATV series. And obviously, Koch Media having the very well-received release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.Koch Media, I will just give you a few minutes or a minute on Koch Media acquisition. This is the same information you got February 14. Obviously, this was our, by far, largest acquisition to date. And I think just to give a bit of wording on the acquisition, I think the start we have been off to has been according to our expectation levels. Obviously, having the day before acquisition, the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance helped to have a flying start in the relationship.The acquisition was done February 14 and the purchase price was EUR 91.5 million for 100% of the shares in Koch Media GmbH. With Koch Media, we will have a much more diversified business. They are in size a much larger publisher than THQ Nordic, and they also have business areas adding value to the group as the partner publishing with the local offices across Europe. But not only the partner publishing, obviously, they're having the AAA IP rights of Saints Row and Dead Island, along with the exclusive license of Metro. They're having 2 AAA studios, one based in Champaign, Illinois, Volition; along with Dambuster in Nottingham in the U.K. And over the coming years, we see a lot of potential in soft synergies between the entities, and we see Koch Media as a strong platform for further acquisition and consolidation.So the Q1 2018 financial update. Coming back to the numbers again. Koch Media were consolidated from February 14, which obviously has been a challenge, not only having in the middle of the month but also having different accounting principles. But I would say the absolute majority or the majority of the income of Kingdom Come: Deliverance has been counted into the quarter. Because of the business of Koch Media, the gross profit margin was down from 70% last year to 50% this year. And obviously, this is partly depending on the lower margin in the Partner Publishing business area. However, as a businessman, I'm counting millions, not percentage. So the EBITDA and EBIT numbers were up, and that's the most important thing.But also happy to give you, at least in this quarter, don't expect it in every quarter, the EBIT number, excluding Koch Media. So THQ Nordic in Vienna, including the mother company, were up 54% to SEK 49 million in the quarter.I would like to say that -- just commenting a bit on the business of THQ Nordic, and I have been having some questions on the MX vs ATV release, how the performance has been. And I would like to restate the phrase I used in the Q4 that I'm happy to say that, collectively, all our releases in THQ Nordic, the 5 of them, has met our -- the management financials objectives. However, I also have noticed that, for example, the MX game hasn't entirely having raving reviews to all fans. However, I do have noticed some fans really enjoy it. So as all fan groups, they are mixed as long as journalists.But I've also been stating in the Q1 wording that going forward, and especially now when having Koch Media onboard, it's even more important that we're taking the time of releasing new releases in the expected quality and expected to defense expectations. That's one thing. The other thing is we need to take the time to find the right release window. I would say Q4 is a very busy season, and everything out from Q4, it's a bit easier. And we actually had at least one release last year that really got hit. I am thinking about the Black Mirror, releasing that in the fourth or end of November last year.Cash flow. I don't normally comment to cash flow, but now with the Koch Media onboard, I think it's relevant that I give some more detail on cash flow and the balance sheet. So the cash flow from the operating activities were SEK 700 million compared to SEK 29 million last year. And the majority of that difference is due to a forfaiting process at Koch Media, having SEK 450 million added into the cash in the quarter. The forfaiting means that they are selling the receivables without regress, and the cost is really low. I would say, it's only the interest, and the interest rate in Austria is very low. So this is lowering our balance sheet and adding cash, and the cash was mainly used to pay back actual loans. And this is a process they've been doing for several years in the end of the year and the end of the financial year-end of March. And we are now discussing this to continue having this every quarter or if you just should have it end of the year. But it was not only forfaiting. Obviously, the operating profit and depreciations and reduction in working capital in general added to the cash flow.And then we have the cash flow from investing activities, which were minus SEK 549 million, which SEK 363 million was relating to the acquisition of Koch Media. But some asking me, "Didn't you pay SEK 600 million or something, Lars?" Yes, but they also have cash in account. So this is the net of it.Then going to cash flow from financing activities, which were minus NOK 681 million, and that is because Koch Media paid back SEK 781 million in loans to various German and Austrian banks at the end of the quarter. So the total available cash, including the cash in account and unutilized credit facilities, both long term and short term, were SEK 1.117 billion compared to SEK 766 million end of December.Business areas within the new group. If you noticed in the Q1 and the last page, we added a bit of KPIs, and I'm going to give you a bit of information on this. So the new group will report the most important business area being Games, and that is then THQ Nordic and Deep Silver. And within that business area, there is our own products, our own IPs, Darksiders, Biomutant. Then we will also include exclusive license because this is a long-term exclusive license for Metro. Everything else within Koch Media will go under Partner Publishing/Film.So that said, breakdowns for the business area Games. So in the quarter, that business area had SEK 391 million in revenues. The own titles MX, Darksiders, Metro, catalog business, for example, were SEK 134 million. That's 34% compared to SEK 55 million the first quarter last year. The digital share of the whole Games business area were SEK 148 million, 38%. I would say that's partly because of the Deep Silver release of Kingdom Come. A good chunk of that was physical, even though console digital also contributed very well. And during the quarter, because of MX and because of Kingdom Come and other smaller releases, of the revenue, 63% were new releases.Also added to just this presentation, I added pro forma net sales per business area, just to give you a bit deeper information. This is unaudited management accounts. But if you're comparing here the full Q1, if you -- if we had owned Koch Media from the 1st of January, the numbers have been the following. And obviously, the numbers for Deep Silver and Koch Media here is under different ownership. So the full quarter would then have been SEK 943 million this quarter compared to SEK 651 million Q1 2017. You will be able to download this from the website, IR website. You can just notice here the release of Agents of Mayhem here in Q3 2017.I have to say here that the Deep Silver and THQ Nordic business is obviously having a seasonal effect. But the -- one of the most important factor for that business if you have a AA or a AAA release within the quarter, at least that is driving revenue. Then profit-wise, the back catalog could have a much higher percentage. So it's not entirely through just the revenues adding to the EBIT. But the Partner Publishing business is a much more stable business. But you need to understand here that Koch Media has a much higher fixed overhead costs. They have a much bigger organization, and the Partner Publishing business is a stable business, but it's really depending on the seasonal and the general market, the games market. Obviously, that business also could be adding a lot of revenues when they have big releases. Such in the past, they have been having F1, for example, in Q3. And I would say you should expect probably the same this year that Q3 and Q4 would be much stronger than Q2, which we don't see this as a very strong quarter for the Partner Publishing segment.So depreciation and investments. If you think this was complex before, it's getting even more complex now with Koch Media. I'm trying to give you a bit of color of this, but I'm sure this will be a topic we're coming back to every quarter.So IP depreciation is not a lot to comment about. It's added a bit to SEK 4.1 million in the quarter. Games development depreciation is obviously the depreciation for the released -- the completed and released own development. And during the quarter, we had SEK 65.5 million. And then we're adding a new line here called Partner Publishing/Films. And I would say the majority of that is films. Because they are being depreciated according to a model where they're using a cushion, we can't apply exactly the same model we are having for games at THQ Nordic. But also film, I would say, had a very stable Q1 quarter.Investments increased from SEK 54 million to SEK 115 million in the quarter. Capitalized internal development was SEK 57 million. That's kind of the burn rate for our own development, our owned studios. Films, adding SEK 6.4 million in the quarter. In the quarter thereon, we have completed development of SEK 122.9 million. That is including then, for example, a good chunk of this was MX vs ATV All Out and other completed games. Crystal clear, isn't it?So the balance sheet. I think it would be relevant to give you a bit of more detail of the intangible assets because it's increased from SEK 571 million to almost SEK 1.9 billion. Of the SEK 1.9 billion as of end of March, the finished, completed games were SEK 200 million. The ongoing game development projects, all the 54 ongoing developing projects were SEK 1,131 million. Obviously, this is from -- everything from like the early start in development, the preproductions up until the end of it.The films and royalty advances were SEK 148 million. And the total IP values, the surplus values from the acquisition of Koch Media and a little bit of goodwill were total SEK 420 million. Then the financial assets, I would say, it's mainly -- or the absolute majority is relating to a deferred tax asset in Koch Media. The majority on the SEK 591 million current receivables are accounts receivables mainly in Koch Media. This meaning they don't be using the forfaiting process for everything. They still have accounts receivables.The majority of the SEK 339 million being provisioned relating to price protection and returns in both entities. And obviously, this is a very important balance running a business as part of publishing at Koch Media. So this is a very complex material, so we're not having bad surprises in the future, and that's why this amount is considerable.Current liabilities is mainly relating to accounts receivables. Interest-bearing debt, I would say that is mainly the mother company here in Sweden. And the deferred payment for Koch Media, EUR 16 million, to be paid in cash in August latest and 9.5 million to be paid in shares. So we ended the quarter with a net debt position of SEK 154 million.So release activity and pipeline. Coming back to in the quarter, Kingdom Come: Deliverance obviously had also partly mixed reviews, but it sold, I would say, a good number. I'm not stating a number, but I noticed the developer stated it sold over 1 million. We don't have the tradition to state sales numbers here. But I think we have a very good cooperation with Warhorse. They made a fantastic game. If you're enjoying these kind of games, you can actually try this game out here in the launch area.MX vs ATV All Out, in turn, developed sequel at Rainbow Studios in Phoenix, Arizona. They made a complete new game in unreal -- sorry, I don't know what's wrong with this -- were released March 27. Again, it's sold okay number. We met our financial collectively with the other releases in the quarter. We're still working -- because it had some performance issues, we're still working to improve the game. We have launched various DLC activities after -- post release. And we are confident this will also -- as long as the other games has been -- be a long-term seller, especially in the North American markets.Then we released The Raven Remastered on PS4, Xbox One and PC earlier in the quarter. Koch Media had the Radiant Historia. That is a Nintendo 3DS game from Atlus owned by Sega. And we had a Titan Quest porting release on PS4, Xbox One and PC. And I've noticed that lots of fans are waiting for a Switch version that are due out later.de Blob 2, not a very big release; Surviving Mars as a physical publishing deal under Deep Silver together with Paradox here in Stockholm. And finally, we had Rad Rogers from the Danish developers. It's IP now we own that's released on PS4, Xbox One and PC.And then to give a bit of update on the mobile games. Foxglove will continue developing both these games. We have not reached breakeven yet. We still see improving KPIs. They are working with -- the Snipers vs Thieves with Playstack in London as a third-party publisher to improve the game. They haven't scaled up any marketing really. They're working with the community. The game has way above 20 million downloads and getting a good number of downloads every day without any marketing. However, people are yet not spending enough. So just changing that 0.0 something to something else, then we are off. Seriously, I think it's a very good game. So we are really believing this could be, when reworking the game, on breakeven level or profit level.And then we're learning our own publishing at doing The Muscle Hustle, a wrestling game. Having the opposite, we have very good KPIs in the game. People are spending a good amount. They're really enjoying the game, but we need to understand how to acquire the customers. The game has about over 0.5 million downloads. It's an active community. We now hired the first in-house publishing people and monetizing and data analysis this game. So I don't like strong words, but I'm confident this is the right team to succeed within mobile and learning but also is one of the only business areas within the group that is not profitable.To give you a bit of color on Partner Publishing/Film. This is all new to me to comment, but I'm learning along the way with the team at Koch Media. And if you're staying on, on the Capital Market Day, you will have a lot of more information. But just to notice a bit of key releases. We had Life is Strange from Square Enix. We have Yakuza 6 from Sega; Attack on Titan 2 from Tecmo Koei; and I love this title, Secret of Mana from Square Enix. It was one of the first titles I sold in my own carrier in this industry on Super Nintendo, which were a porting asset care project for Square Enix releasing earlier in the quarter.But this business area has a huge catalog of products. Films is 1,500 products. Games, I don't know the number, but it's a lot. So back catalog is obviously a strong contributor. And just worth mentioning, F1 2017 are continue selling well across Europe. Ark: Survival Evolved still selling well and the Persona 5 from Atlus. And obviously, C64 Mini has been a major success in the end of the quarter. You will have more information about that at the Capital Market Day.And also during the quarter, just to give you a bit of brief on this Nickelodeon asset care deal. We relicensed the old THQ Inc. catalog of assets to be -- to having the opportunity to do asset care on this -- all these assets. They -- THQ Inc. is for -- the previous major American publisher, they made 59 games over a number of years. For example, they have a lot of SpongeBob SquarePants games, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Tak And The Power Of JUJU. This has a very strong -- still a strong following and had been millions of back then kids, now grown up, play these games.Don't expect too much out of this. It will take years or a good number of -- a good period until we actually could see some kind of considerable revenue out of this, if any. But I think it's a great opportunity to using, if possible, the emulation programs at PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as long as doing asset care reporting to current console generation and PC.And pipeline. We now have the strongest pipeline ever coming up. You will have a lot of more information in the Capital Market Day, but I would like to mention obviously the Metro Exodus. We now announce this is coming out in Q1, the calendar Q1 2019. You'll have a lot of more information at E3 2018. But this is exclusive license developed by 4A Games in Malta and Kiev or Ukraine.And obviously, we're having the AAA from Volition, having Darksiders 3 coming out. And you can see my wording in the CEO statement this morning that we are still evaluating the release dates of Darksiders 3 and Biomutant. And I stated and I told you before, it's even more important to evaluate the right release window and that the product is hitting customer expectation.Having Wreckfest, that is our showing really promising performance. If you're looking at the early access SKU that's available on Steam, I think this product could do really well when it's coming out on console.Dead Island 2, under development. Dambuster AAA project, I have to say here sequel is not correct, either for AAA project at Volition or Dambuster. Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered coming out soon on PS4, Xbox One and PC. It's IP developed by Volition that we are really seeing a great interest in -- to be remastered here. Shenmue III, you'll have a lot more information at Capital Markets Day, developed in Tokyo, has a huge fan base, obviously, coming out of PS4 and PC. Wasteland 3 from InXile announced this morning in my Q1 report together with Bards Tale IV and This is the Police 2. So in total, we have 54 projects, whereof 19 is announced and 35 are unannounced.And I just want to mention that we're having also Carnegie that has an equity research covering us from now. And by then, I will also welcome Carnegie and Oscar Erixon on stage to hopefully having a few questions.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

I do indeed. Thank you, Lars. So as you said yourself, a very stable quarter. I agree. So before we get into too much details about the report, can you say something about the reception you have received from competitors and partners in the markets regarding the acquisition?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well I think it came from a bit of surprise for the industry. But I think the reception has been very good. I think people really see the combined entities together as a new, stronger player in Europe, a new independent player. I think we both could see in the group that are -- that industry partner are reaching out to us and wants to do various kind of business that hopefully could bear fruit over the coming years.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Okay. And as for the report, I mean, very strong organic performance from THQ Nordic. I think that stands out the most perhaps. Can you say something about sort of mix in the growth drivers there in the back catalog, especially in MX vs ATV as well?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well we haven't broken down each business area Games for each entity. But obviously, the new release were the majority, a good chunk of the majority of the revenues. And out of that, the MX vs ATV had, I would say, a surprising strong performance on digital console and also a strong performance on certain physical channels in North America.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Okay. And I think we have to ask also about Kingdom Come, especially because you could see in the numbers that the revenues from new games in the Games segment was, I think, SEK 260 million. Can you say something about the impact of that game in the quarter?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well obviously, first of all, Deep Silver accounting in the physical sales for console and the physical sales for PC, and on digital accounting in the console sales and -- but not the PC Steam SKU, which is obviously a big chunk of the sell-through numbers. So of the revenue mix, the majority then is physical, and the margins are, I would say, lower than that we traditionally have seen for publishing titles from THQ Nordic. However, it's certainly a good business, and we need to understand Deep Silver came in after the kickstarting process. There has been other partners investing in the product. So I think Klemens and his team made a good deal signing that up. Yes.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

And when we're talking about margins, gross margins obviously came down in the quarter from 70% to 50%, which is natural. But I think surprised me that is still at 50%. So what should we expect in the coming quarters in terms of gross margins?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

You love to hear that, Oscar, don't you? Yes. No, I'm not giving a forecast on the actual gross margins. But obviously, Partner Publishing being lower, business area Games being higher, depending on the releases of own IPs or publishing titles. So that is really the gross margin. And again, the Partner Publishing margin, /Films margin is obviously depending on -- in the quarter of the releases and business partner having different margins. If Koch Media taking a low business risk, we have before been saying it's down to 15% or even lower, 12%, and then taking higher risk with smaller partners, it could be up to 30%, 40% and a mixture, yes, somewhere in between.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Fair enough. And in terms of seasonality, just to touch on that briefly, you mentioned Q2 is perhaps an especially weak seasonal quarter, but Q3 is generally stronger. Is that due to the releases that comes out in games? Or is it also in...

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes. I think the releases -- I've been in this industry for all my life, and Q2 is always the sun is shining and it's not really a quarter people are hanging out and playing too much games. And also, obviously, it's depending on the release window. And traditionally, the peak season starts like end of August and then go up to Christmas. So from August, you can see quite a lot of strong releases. I can also see end of the summer that the kids are coming back to playing when they already get tired of the sun and so on. So not only the kids, everyone, grownup as well. But -- so I think, yes, that's the guidance really I could give you.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Okay. And in terms of releases, we have 2 big conventions coming up this summer, and obviously with E3 in June and gamescom in August, is it fair to say that perhaps E3 will be the largest for Deep Silver and then gamescom for THQ Nordic?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

I don't think -- I think gamescom will be a fair size for both of us, especially THQ Nordic. I think at E3, obviously, Deep Silver having a partnership with Microsoft and with Square Enix, so they don't have that direct relationships in the same way, but we have presence with Deep Silver, obviously. So yes, gamescom is, as always, very important for us.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Yes. And Metro Exodus, you announced the release in Q1 2019, not entirely unexpected, but what is the reasoning behind it? And what do you think about -- do you have any feeling for sort of the quality of the game? And how does it feel in terms of appeal to the mass market?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well as stated in the acquisition of Koch Media, one of the major assets and things we saw is obviously the pipeline of AAA releases and Metro Exodus being in the final stage of finalization, and I'm not the right man to comment, but I have a strong trust in the team and the product. And if they tell me the right window is Q1 2019, that's the right window.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Yes. And also Darksiders 3 and Biomutant in THQ Nordic, no announcement date yet. But is there -- either of the game especially important to get out in Q4? Or is it you find the appropriate release window no matter when it is, so to speak?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well I don't know. I think Darksiders has very strong fans following. So whenever it comes out, it will be picked up as long as we are delivering on expectations. Biomutant, I would say, is more a mass market appeals from everything, from kids up to whatever age. So that's different. Obviously, Biomutant has -- still having great momentum on social media and various channels. So yes.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Okay. And staying on THQ Nordic, coming back to the back catalog, and again, you had a lot of releases in Q3 and Q4 last year. Is there anything that stands out in terms of the back catalog? And ELEX perhaps has performed quite well and improving. Also other games from the back catalog would be interesting to you.

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well I think ELEX has continued to perform well on especially digital formats and certain physical markets in Europe such as Germany. So we could see, as always, there is a lot of price promotions going on in Q1 quarter, especially from the console formats. And we have seen some strong back catalog sales of certain titles. I don't want to give specific guidance on each title more than ELEX are continue delivering according to the management expectations.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Yes. And you mentioned Red Faction remastered version coming out. Is that sort of the first step towards releasing a sequel perhaps, speculating here?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes. That's your own speculation. Obviously, Red Faction has a good following. It's been made by Volition, the previous versions. And now Volition is part of the group. That's what I could say really.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Fair enough. So Partner Publishing, I guess we will hear more during the CMD, but are there any titles that are already released that you think will be especially important in 2018?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

No. I don't know if I should give any guidance on that really. Oscar, is there any specific title you're thinking about?

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Sort of niche title, but Shenmue and these other titles that you announced, the Wasteland 3 perhaps.

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes. Well, we haven't announced release dates for the titles. We are not disclosing release dates today or at any quarter reports. You need to follow each publishing entity to get the release dates, except now in this case, the Metro Exodus. But obviously, I'm really excited that Klemens and his team could sign up with Brian Fargo to have Wasteland 3 and Bards Tale IV. I think they will be adding a good business over the coming years.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Yes. And if I remember correctly, you released Wasteland 2 a few years back, I believe.

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

You know anything about how that performed for you?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Well, I would say, well enough for Klemens to sign Wasteland 3. But I think the title has a strong following. It's a good RPG. It's had a good metacritic. It was well received, but I'd say, it's a hard-core niche title anyway.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Okay. Do you want to have some questions from the audience perhaps in between here and continue afterwards?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Feel free. Lars-Ola?

[Lars-Ola Hellstrom]

Actually, I will take a detailed question on Koch Media games. The pro forma for Q1 was SEK 342 million. You reported SEK 257 million. So it was quite a nice performance in January and until 14th of February. Kingdom Come was released 13th of February. So I just wonder about what kind of games was it that was making up for the other SEK 100 million.

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes. Well, I don't have the guidance on that Deep Silver revenue in January until February 14, I'm sorry.

[Lars-Ola Hellstrom]

But is it fair to assume that part of that is the presale of Kingdom Come?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

We try to have the majority of Kingdom Come: Deliverance into the consolidated numbers, but obviously, there is a bit of Kingdom Come that we haven't been able to allocate and consolidate into our numbers. I can't give a guidance on the numbers.

[Lars-Ola Hellstrom]

How about -- maybe how it's -- what the mix is, what's the back-catalog sales from Homefront, Agents of Mayhem, et cetera?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Okay. I have 2 more things to just comment on before we are finishing, and one thing being at February 14, we announced that we will change the name of the mother company from THQ Nordic to something else in order to avoid the confusion and to being a bit more independent. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to finalize that name and that process is going on. So we will -- when that process is ready, we will announce that.And also, I would like to give some guidance on the IR and communication. And we decided after the Koch Media transaction that now we're having 54 projects and much larger balance sheet and business and market cap and everything not to communicate every single new game as a press release. I've been having a few questions on that. So obviously, I will try to update you. As always, all -- more information will always be communicated, but other information will be what we think is relevant for shareholders to have. But I would like to state again, please follow each publishing entity or developer's social media channels.

[Unknown Analyst]

Monster Hunter World, we could read was a huge seller in this year. Has Koch Media had a big business in selling, distributing Monster Hunter World?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes. It's only one territory, so it hasn't been -- sorry, 2 territories out of all the Koch Media. It hasn't been a considerable revenue for Partner Publishing. Obviously, it's been a great success in those territories. So Oscar?

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Yes, I do have a couple of more questions here if we have the time. So I think I would like to hear more about the C64, which is quite an interesting release. I guess that's also in the CMD, but some more detail on if there's any tangible impact on Koch Media and the group.

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

No. I think it -- for sure, it sold about 50,000 units in the quarter. It was the first shipment. It was sold out. The demand was great. We're having second shipment coming now. What I understand in the quarter, a bit more units. And we are adding territories. We will be adding the states in the future, hopefully. We have the global distribution rights for this product. I'm really -- perhaps I'm in the business [indiscernible], I'm really a fan of this kind of products. So I really like this kind of products, and I really encourage Koch Media to continue having such products. There is many kind of products you can make. So -- and also making a good product, you can have a SKU that are selling for a long period of time, which is also valuable for -- as a business. So yes.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Yes. And some releases during 2017 were very good and others were perhaps a little bit...

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Not so good.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

Not so good. Exactly. So you mentioned here in the report that you will -- that you have or will very soon open a QA office, quality assurance office. Can you discuss that a little bit?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes, but obviously, it's one of the key areas being able to execute on the releases. And again, you need to understand you're a young organization, a quite young company now talking, especially THQ Nordic, and we're learning every day. And producing QA and execution is obviously key. Now we're opening up a second office in Vienna, focusing just on tech producing and QA. But there is various other things that you can make or we are making that could improve this going forward. But again, also I would like to also -- being a bit of problem, not of failing on releases, but also we're actually making money on the development. So this goes hand-in-hand. Obviously, you can't have 500 people finishing MX. So it needs to be a balance of costs really versus -- yes.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

So let's perhaps end with a few questions about the new group with THQ Nordic and Koch Media. So you've had a few months now to sort of get into the details even more than before the acquisitions. Has anything changed or cleared in terms of strategy, game budgets, acquisitions, distribution channels?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Yes. That's one -- the reason we're having a Capital Market Day, I would like to give a deeper information about, first of all, Koch Media but also where we are and where we are going in the future. So please tune in at 1:00.

[Oscar Erixon, Financial Analyst]

I will. Okay. I think that's it for me. So if no other questions from the -- okay. One up there, actually.

[Kristoffer Lindström, Equity Analyst]

Are there some additional M&A-related costs in the financial numbers for the transaction?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Thank you for asking. We -- because of we having Q3, K3 -- Q3, K3, correct me, Erik, the cost for transaction has been added to the valuation and balance sheet. So it's in the goodwill. And last question.

[Pierre Mellstrom, Small Cap Analyst]

Pierre Mellstrom from Handelsbanken. So kind of reading what you stated in the report and also not being scared to push up metrics, so there's a quarter, quality assurance, should we sort of assume that the sort of average development time will increase on the benefit of sort of maximizing each game's potential from here on out?

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

I think you need to differentiate from asset care releases, general sequel releases and AAA development. There is a difference in this. And smaller asset care releases, you can't spend too much time and money on because then you wouldn't make the money back. So somehow, you need to make a cut there. But obviously, now talking THQ Nordic having bigger sequel releases such as Darksiders and Biomutant, we need to make sure that we're hitting the expectation and the quality of what you should expect and finding the right release window. I think by far, that will be the absolute best return of investments for all shareholders and all fans and all organizations. There is no questions about it.

[Pierre Mellstrom, Small Cap Analyst]

And I assume with Koch Media, you could be more comfortable sort of waiting a bit with a broader diversified portfolio.

[Lars Wingefors, Founder, CEO & Director]

Obviously, Koch Media have been adding a lot of titles and revenues. So I think now having a bigger balance sheet and a much more diversified revenue streams, I think now is a time to really make that statement that we need to take the next step of executing on this.All right. Thank you very much. So welcome back at 1:00.