Worms and Hell Let Loose publisher Team17 has released its financial report for the six months ending June 30th, and it looks like the studio is pretty heavily reliant on its back catalog for income right now.
In Team17's financial results presentation, the studio says that just 8% of its revenue in the first six months of 2024 came from new releases, constituting around £6 million (roughly $8 million).
By contrast, 92% of Team17's revenue, amounting to about £74 million (that's around $98 million), for this period came from back catalog releases, which essentially means any game released prior to January this year.
The studio puts this down to "a competitive market with a tough FY23 comparator", likely indicating that Team17's 2023 release schedule was stronger for the first half of the year; it did, after all, include cozy horror game Dredge and 2000s shooter tribute Trepang2.
Team17's back catalog, however, "performed very well", according to the studio. Back catalog sales were up 30% in the first half of 2024, apparently driven by "excellent lifecycle management and consumer behavior", according to the presentation.
In fact, Dredge and Trepang2 both now constitute part of Team17's back catalog, as does last November's Blasphemous 2, which I reviewed for this very site. These games, as well as others, "delivered strong performances", Team17 says.
According to Team17, the first six months of 2024 evidenced "lower expensed development and marketing costs" for the studio, with a "significant reduction in expensed development costs" happening due to "studio cost restructuring and ongoing cost controls".
With regards to its future, Team17 says it will "double down" on its "indie focus", and that it will also "prioritize evergreen franchises", which makes sense given the disproportionate sales impact of its back catalog so far this year.
You're also going to see more mergers and acquisitions from Team17, as well as a "sharpened greenlight process". We'll have to wait and see what all this means in practical terms, but in the meantime, you can read Team17's full half-year financial report here if you wish.
