Okay I did not have much time to review this AI translation, so take it with a pinch of salt Atte: Greetings Internet TV viewers. Remeni is reporting its Q1 results today, and as usual, I’m interviewing CEO Tervo Virto. Hello, Tito. Hello. It hasn’t been long since our last chat, but would you like to briefly recap how your year has started? Tero: Yeah, it hasn’t been long indeed, but looking at the beginning of the year overall, it’s been quite eventful. However, it’s also gone well, so in that sense, I’m quite satisfied. Q1 specifically, our revenue was 10.8 million euros. It’s a significant increase of over 50 percent compared to the same period last year. Still a loss, though, at 2.1 million negative. But that’s also a significant improvement compared to the previous year. Generally, our projects have progressed well, building on what started at the end of last year, and these larger projects have been advancing smoothly. That trend has continued, and we’re quite pleased with it. Additionally, in Q1, we achieved a significant milestone by acquiring all commercial rights to 505-Control back from our partner. So, there have been various developments. Let’s delve into those a bit further. Regarding Alloway 2, there were significant sales figures back in February, with over 1.3 million sold. Is there any new information to share at this point? No, those are the latest updates agreed upon with our partner Epik. We’ve been busy in the background, though. Our development team has continued DLC development, with certain updates already implemented, and ongoing work for this type of game. Our publishing team has been working with Epik on promotions and planning for the rest of the year, as well as preparing for upcoming sales activities. Typically, for triple-A games like ours, the beginning of the year is quieter. In a way, the sales year generally divides into three parts: the end of the year, leading into the holiday season, where sales start to grow from October onwards, continuing into January. Then there’s a quieter period for a while before spring sales kick in. Usually, from April onwards, various sales campaigns and events start on different marketplaces, lasting until early summer, followed by separate summer campaigns leading into autumn. I feel we’ve been quite satisfied with Alan Wake’s sales; we’ve been steadily progressing according to our sales forecasts, which is a good sign. What’s positive is that the game’s average price has remained relatively high, meaning we haven’t resorted to significant discounts yet, although all games eventually do. This indicates that there’s still an audience we can reach with the current pricing and occasional discounts. But it also suggests that there’s still a lot of potential audience to be reached in the future. So, we’re moving forward in that regard. That’s the plan. Atte: Yes. Moving on to Condor. It has moved into the production phase after a long Proof of Concept phase. Can you share the latest developments? Tero: Indeed, it’s a complex game for us, serving as both a game and service. It contains many elements that we believe will contribute to its growth and development beyond its launch. It’s been a new experience for us. Now, reaching the production phase is a significant step for any game, but especially for a game like this. We’re confident that now is the right time to move forward. We believe this final stage will lead to a good game that will thrive in the future. We’ve also revamped our state-scape process, determining how projects are managed, assessed, and moved to the next stages. Following this new process, for example, in Condor, we not only presented creative presentations to the entire staff but also conducted extensive internal playtesting involving over a hundred gaming professionals. This provided good confirmation that the core gameplay mechanics are enjoyable and that we can bring that Remedy touch, that secret sauce, to this genre as well. Atte: I have to ask, did you get to play it yourself? Tero: I did. And I enjoyed it. Good to hear. Atte: It’s been a while since we last talked, so have there been any significant developments in the Max Payne project or Control 2 since then? Tero: I’m pleased to say there haven’t been any major changes, as those projects have been progressing steadily since late last year. Partly because they started to receive more available resources from LNV 2. Overall, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes. We’ve been reevaluating how we plan our game projects, how we manage them, what methodologies we employ, how our technology partner Nordlight has progressed, our collaboration with them, and how we manage our portfolio. There are many reasons why our projects have been progressing steadily since the end of last year, and Max Payne and Control 2 are good examples of this positive development. The progress has only accelerated and continued in every aspect since our last conversation. Atte: Indeed, now you have a significant matter to resolve this year, namely the Control game brand. It could be considered almost fateful, the decisions you make. Whether you retain the rights and negotiate with partners or explore the possibility of self-publishing, can you provide some insight into this matter? Tero: It’s a patient process at this stage. There’s been a lot going on lately. Over the past month and a half to two months, we’ve met with many partners. Potential partners, potential funding partners. We’ve discussed our company and our plans, but most importantly, we’ve discussed Condor and Control 2. We’ve received very positive feedback and responses, which is encouraging. We’re currently exploring traditional publishing partnerships, various co-publishing models, considering which aspects we should retain control over, and exploring various funding partnerships and models if we decide to pursue self-funding and self-publishing. There are good options available, but these are significant investments for potential partners as well, so they are carefully considering their options. I feel we’ve reached a point where partners have been presented with our plans and they know exactly what kind of games are coming. They will undoubtedly make their own calculations and evaluations. We’re pleased that these processes are progressing, but we don’t have any further details to share at this point. So, at this stage, all options are still on the table? At this stage, we want to keep all options on the table. It’s absolutely crucial for us as an independent entity. We have the opportunity to collaborate with anyone. We have our strategy, which we are following. We have some very promising games in development, and we believe in them. Our focus is on creating successful games. Atte: Thank you, Tero, for these insights. We’ll eagerly await news of your negotiations and outcomes regarding the Control projects. Thank you. At this point it seems that ChatGPT skipped some material. So here is something it missed. Sorry Im a bit busy please sort the text yourself! And if it does not make any sense lets just remove it. Atte: Your Game Engine has taken quite significant steps forward in recent years, and you’ve mentioned that in your strategy and practice, you believe you’ll get more out of technology synergies in future game projects. Can you somehow concretize what these synergies could practically be in the future? Tero: Yeah. There are a few perspectives. When we seek synergies, they’re not just technological; however, technology is central, bringing certain synergies and largely enabling others. At the same time, this is also intertwined with our development in a multi-project organization. Going back a few years, the situation was that Northlight was definitely an efficient and enabling technology, but it was often developed to meet the needs of the next game. And then, if it took four years before the next game came out, four years later, all those old technology components weren’t as readily available as they would have been if games were released at a more even pace. But now, we’re in a situation where we have four projects constantly utilizing Northlight. It’s a good thing in that sense, but it has also required a lot of development in our working methods, in how we can simultaneously develop new technology within the technology team and in collaboration with game teams, support existing technology, and then assist game teams in utilizing it. Now, looking at where we are and how we see technology generating synergies, definitely when you think about both the development of those technology components and tools, when they are being developed and being done for one project, what’s being done for one project will likely be 6-12 months ahead for another project that follows. So when it progresses, it actually has access to quite up-to-date and tested technology that it can use. And that, of course, then enables more significant investments in certain areas of technology development when we know that the work being done will certainly help multiple projects and elevate one project. But in addition to that, looking at the direct technology and tool synergy we get, even the development of next-generation technology has been done in a way that it can be much better utilized. In a way, the pipeline and workflow developments associated with it allow us to cross-use things much more and make it easier to use content between different projects, but also ensure that not all things are possible with technology alone; we have skilled game developers, including game programmers, in our game projects. And even though they do the most massive technology developments, during three or four-year game projects, a lot of different systems are built for the game. Whether they are different technical effects or game mechanics. And now with this new technology of ours being utilized, the use of these smaller systems is also crossed and brought into other projects. It’s clearly easier because they operate on the same technological basis. And as I mentioned earlier about this synergy as one thing, how these are made, our technology team not only develops those technology components and tools, but it’s also a lot about developing those pipelines and workflows. So if we go back 50 years, it was very typical in the game industry to model an object with one tool. Then it had to be imported into another tool where it was done. There were its own technical challenges. Then something was done, and it might have to be imported into a third tool. Now, in a way, as our technology has reached the point where these pipelines and workflows are evolving all the time, they are more seamless, and we are also in a live editing situation. You do something, you immediately see how it looks in the game. It has indirectly enabled the fact that when creating content for one game, the content that previously would have been very difficult to utilize in other games can now be utilized if desired in other games. It’s definitely one of the leading developments of Northlight, enabling synergies also in content creation. And of course, at the core of everything are skilled people. And now if we think that we still have about 250, around 230 game developers, we have 60 technology developers or people in technical support, and they all know our technology and tools. And now that they’ve come to use the same versions, it’s definitely easier for people to transition from one project to another and how well we can support different projects with skilled people, so they are definitely significant sources of synergy. Atte: Yes. Finally, as a matter of fact, on Friday, it was noticed that Tencent has increased its ownership in Remedy by almost 15 percent, when previously it was around the 5 percent mark, so what thoughts does this raise? Tero: Well, I can’t speculate too much about it because firstly, as a company, we weren’t part of this deal where Tencent bought a larger share from another investment firm. Tencent has been a long-term investor in us. I remember back in 2021 when they invested in us; they have been a very passive owner and clearly did it then as a financial investment. Of course, they’ve been working with us over the years regarding Vanguard and then Kestrel, and we have good relations with them, so they have been able to follow our development in a certain way. Tencent is a company involved in countless other companies, so they make these kinds of investments. After the deal, they contacted us, and they said to us that this investment was a financial investment. They believe in our future as a company and see opportunities. They saw the investment as a good opportunity for them, so they made it. What does it mean otherwise? I wouldn’t speculate on that at this point. However, it’s crucial for us to remain an independent operator. We have the opportunity, and still have the full opportunity, to collaborate with anyone. We have our strategy that we follow. We now have very promising games. We believe in them in development. Our focus is on making successful games. Thank you, Tero, for these comments. We’ll eagerly await your possible negotiations and outcomes regarding those control projects. Thank you.