Hello, Inderes TV viewers and listeners. Remedy published Q2 results today, and we're gonna talk about that and other interesting topics with Remedy CEO Jean-Charles Gaudechon. Welcome.

Thank you very much, Atte.

Let's start with the Q2. How was it for Remedy?

Q2 was obviously a great success from my Control Resonant standpoint, and we had the announcement of the launch date and the kick-off of pre-orders, and we keep pushing really hard on all fronts. Now, when it comes to revenue, revenue was down from the comparative quarter last year because we had the launch of FBC: Firebreak, and of course it came with much higher revenue, so we're down from that, which makes sense. And also we started our marketing campaign. We kicked it off for Control Resonant, and that has a cost, obviously, so we ended up with higher costs, lower revenue, which is usually not a great combination for profitability, but for good reasons because right now the one and only priority is Control Resonant, and that's tracking well.

Just like Lily, but over a month to go until Resonant launches, so what can you tell about the game at the moment? Where is it standing? And think about the wishlist or pre-sales numbers, what can they tell us?

So first. I mean, the game is playing well and it's really improving on a daily basis. Because. The team is working really hard to finish it. These are really important moments in any product development. So that's very happy with the way the game is shaping up.

Fixing bugs is obviously, when it comes to pre-orders and wishlists, as mentioned in the morning. See, all that's tracking well. That is on par and I would say actually ahead of some of our projections, so happy about that. On the wishlist, we're past 1.5 million, which now puts us in some of the pretty big players in the window to come, and as you know it. It's a busy window, so we need it. And on the pre-orders, same thing, tracking well. It's of course still early days because both wishlists and pre-orders can kind of hockey-stick as you're getting really close to launch, so we're expecting even much better numbers to come.

And I have to say I just had the chance to play the game for one hour, and I could still go back to the gaming room right now. It felt really good. Next question's about the game. We know that the marketing campaign is now in full swing, and there is already cost visible now in Q2, but how is the campaign planned? Is it now most of the activity happening in Q3 and the rest of the year?

Yes, of course, it was kicked off in Q2, of course. Just attributable to our marketing campaign in Q2, but the bulk of that cost will actually come in Q3, when of course we push, when the biggest push is needed in order to launch the game and support it pre- and post-launch.

You already a little bit touched about the launch window. We know there was, well, first there was like many games coming. September, and everybody knew. The GTA 6 coming in November, so when you were planning the launch date, what were you thinking on that?

It is a game that was more than almost seven years in the making. So it's not like you plan. Extremely accurately when you start the game, and during development, at the end of the day. What is important for us, it's the quality of the game, and it's really an outstanding product. And after you see what is pretty much. The best time, we did not want to rush it and avoid the whole window by launching early. There is no question because we want to push quality as far as we could. And of course pushing way out is also not an option for us for obvious reasons, so that's when we ended up roughly in that window that said, again, I think that to me what is really, really important nowadays in gaming.

It's the quality of the product and the uniqueness of the product, and that's actually what at Remedy we push really hard. It is a game. I think that no one else can make, really. So yes, it's coming in a busy window. I think we can stand out. We're doing everything to push really hard to first and foremost satisfy our core users, our core fans, which have been following the whole franchise, and think that's gonna help to convert quite a lot of people, hopefully. Never take it for granted, push really hard, but hopefully that translates that way. So yeah, it's ready.

This is the first time Remedy is self-publishing. A game of this scale, so how satisfied are you with the publishing operations with this first run?

Well, as you can see, I'm impressed by the team. I hope I was able to also bring in some of my own experience, but I would not take away any credit from the team. That's been working extremely hard on the publishing front, I think. It is also a senior team in many ways, so we look at like, yes. It's a new move, so what we're trying to build at Remedy. But the people forming this team are very experienced and very talented people, and that shows on our presence, our marketing campaign, which is just starting, so it. It's getting in full swing, and you'll see a lot more coming as we approach launch.

I think it's a team that learned quite a lot in the past and even in our third-party publishing model for some of them, so what was best practice, what worked, what didn't, and are able to apply that today. So it's not a junior team either. It is a well-rounded team. Still, improvement. Can be made, but very proud of what's happening. At the moment.

One extra question still about Control Resonant and Chinese market. I think you mentioned that it's been pre-selling pretty well also on that market, so what are your thinking about China's opportunity?

I've been very happy to see that the first Control game worked really well over time in China, so as I said, it is grounded in data. It's not just kind of a shot in the dark, as I said before, so China. Was a priority, is a priority, and I think it deserves the best possible product, the best possible localization, including VO, and we were for the first time ever at ChinaJoy in Shanghai. Earlier in Shanghai. A bit more than a week ago, and we had a great setup. I'm sure you'll be able to see some of that online. If you follow Remedy, which now turned into really good feedback on the game, on the localization, some key choices, and we are also listening a lot. So we look at people playing, like did you understand that bit, that piece, and then we always try even now to improve some things, localization all the way to the last minute in order to make the best possible game overall, but also listening to China, Latin America, or our core markets like US, Europe, etc.

Little bit talk about the other game projects. I think you're not gonna say much about Max Payne remake because that's because of Rockstar's work, but the other third project now, it moved to the production readiness phase, correct, quite fast. So what can you say also about that?

It is going at the right pace. I think one of my priorities was to focus a lot on the multi-project aspect of Remedy. That's one that I wanted to spend meaningful time with the team with, permit everyone to mature, that we put the right processes around it, and don't get me. Wrong, it's a 30-year-old studio and does already a lot of things really well, but I think there's still things we can improve. Now, going faster is good, but not always the best solution if you lose quality along the way, so to me it's still very important, we focus on quality regardless. I think we can. Get just to be more predictable and faster in order to also release games at the right pace, so that's what you're seeing with this project.

Analysts thinking that if we think about, for example, Alan Wake 2, it was quite a big development phase in the technological side also for Remedy, and can we now think that there is some scale benefits for the upcoming games. Now when the work was done already many years ago.

Very much, absolutely. It's a studio that learned, and that is usually the mark of a very healthy studio and teams, is that after every project. We take the time to look back and improve.

Last question for you. You have been now Remedy CEO for like five months. Now, so what are your key findings and learnings during that?

We just talked about that a little bit just now, but what I would add to that is I knew it was a great studio, I'm now convinced it's a great studio and I've seen it firsthand. And what I mean by that is the seniority mix is impressive, and I think it comes from the studio itself. What I'm learning also is just Finland in general seems to be producing incredible engineers. And artists. They are the backbone of the studio, both on game teams and Northlight, it's impressive and very solid, and that's of course amazing and a chance for me to be able to lead such a studio. So that's of course something that I thought before, but seeing it firsthand, and I know now really kind of the strength of Remedy. The publishing side was a question in some ways, right?

Some people were like, well, it's a new move, so. What I can see firsthand, again, is a very sound strategy, a very strong team. All this can always improve, but I see a very solid foundation, which is also very reassuring as we're about to launch, you know. Remedy's biggest UGC product of all times so far, so that's another learning, I mean. I think that's mostly that, right. I would add that it's a studio that has a strong process, kind of has developed with multi-project, a strong PM culture on the project management front, which we're still pushing, that helps again with game development quality, predictability, and these are important as the studio is trying to grow, but again always if you keep quality at the centre, at the heart of everything. We do, that's not gonna move away, so I think these are mostly the things that we've learned really so far at Remedy.

Thank you, JC, for these answers, and now just one and a half months and we get to play Control Resonant.

Shall not disappoint, thank you. Bye.