Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group has released its financial results for the second quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year, and things aren't looking great for the company, although a massive casual studio sale might help things along a touch.
In a financial statement summarizing the quarter, Embracer reveals that net sales dropped by 21% on a year-on-year basis, while sales across the first six months of the financial year dipped by 23% (again compared to the same period last year).
More specifically, PC and console sales dropped by 46% for Embracer this quarter and by 40% across the first six months of the fiscal year. Embracer puts this down in part to the underperformance of remaster Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, which the company says sold "slower than expected".
Embracer also says that the releases of Remnant 2 and Payday 3 in the same period last quarter makes the year-on-year comparison "tough". It's worth noting here too that Payday 3 hasn't exactly done too well since launch, so it's not really providing a constant revenue stream for Embracer.
Along with its financial results, Embracer has also announced the sale of casual gaming giant Easybrain, the company that owns the Sudoku.com domain.
It's been sold to fellow casual gaming purveyors Miniclip for an eye-watering $1.2 billion, which, along with the recent sale of Raid: Shadow Legends developer Plarium for over $600 million, just demonstrates how strong the mobile and casual markets are.
In general, it's a bit of a gloomy forecast for Embracer; not a single one of the business' divisions has reported increased sales either this quarter or across the April-September period.
According to the Embracer statement, the company also expects its overall yearly earnings to be lower due to "the delay of a number of notable H2 releases".
The company's lineup for the second half of the fiscal year includes Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered, and Hyper Light Breaker, with releases like Killing Floor 3 and Gothic 1 Remake also apparently set to arrive sometime in the next year or so.
We're also currently awaiting the splitting of Embracer into three separate companies, as was revealed back in April. Embracer says that Asmodee, in particular, which will handle the company's tabletop properties, is poised to "build on its successful track record" and "[unlock] shareholder value".
If you're into the numbers, you can check out Embracer's interim report right here.
