Techland has shared its financial results for 2023, and they were lackluster compared to the previous two record years. The company, however, remains optimistic about its position and future games.
Dying Light 2
In 2023, Techland reached a net loss of PLN 90 million ($22.8 million), according to Polish business newspaper Puls Biznesu (thanks, GRY-OnLine).
This is the highest loss in the company’s history. For comparison, it closed 2022 with a net profit of PLN 746.8 million ($188.8 million).
Techland also reached PLN 229.1 million ($58 million) in revenue last year, which is an almost 5x decrease from PLN 1.12 billion ($283.2 million) in 2022.
Such a sharp decline occurred due to the lack of new releases and the depreciation of development costs for already released games. The record results in 2022 were driven by the launch of Dying Light 2 and its Bloody Ties expansion. The game sold over 5 million copies in less than a month.
The success of Dying Light 2 helped Techland at one point surpass CD Projekt in market capitalization. The company’s financial results were also better than those of any other Polish developer (the Cyberpunk 2077 maker ended 2022 with a net profit of PLN 347 million, or $87.7 million).
Despite record losses, Techland’s management board believes that this is a common situation in the games industry where your profit depends on the performance of new games. The studio also noted that revenue from successful products goes towards the development of new projects.
“The life cycle of video games, characterized by high revenues at the time of release of a new game and at the time of introducing significant expansions (DLC) or improved versions (enhanced editions) to the market, causes significant fluctuations in profitability in individual years,” the statement reads.
Techland is now working on its next project, a AAA open world RPG based on a new IP. In 2023, it spent PLN 24.6 million ($6.2 million) on it, bringing the game’s total production costs to date to PLN 96.5 million ($24.4 million).
Last year, Tencent also acquired a majority stake in Techland, with CEO Paweł Marchewka saying that the deal will allow the studio to “move full speed ahead with the execution of the vision for our games.” It was later reported that the Chinese tech giant paid over $1.5 billion for a 67% stake in the Dying Light developer.