Hello, good morning. God morgon.

Good morning.

It's Jussi and Antti here again.

Welcome to the webcast.

Yes, second time this year.

First quarter is behind us and it was good.

Yes, it was good in many, many ways. The year ahead looks pretty damn exciting as well.

That's cool. Like Antti mentioned, we're here to deliver you guys the results from the first quarter.

I guess this time we maybe want to start by going through the highlights from the quarter. As you can see from the numbers on screen, and I'm sure you've checked out the report already by the way, but anyways, we focus on the bottom line at the moment very much like we've said in the previous webcast.

We've discussed about that already earlier quite a bit. Part of our or maybe even a key part of our new strategy that we started beginning of this year is to focus on the so-called sound business.

Sound business,

[unclear].

Optimizing the top line

to

optimize the bottom line.

Yeah. I think that shines very well in our results now.

Another big component is to be super mindful with the cash. Why we talk about the cash so much is because we have a strong cash position.

We've had for quite some time. Yet again, it improved now during the first quarter.

It's super important for Nitro because big part of this new strategy is to invest into this what we call blue ocean opportunities...

Exactly. ...and

overall take more skin in the game to build better success, better profitability long-term. That's why we need to be super mindful that we make sure that we have that cash that we are needing these...

Exactly.

The whole plan for the year is the new growth, where we intend to find those growth opportunities to years to come.

Yes, exactly. Overall, I think in that sense, first quarter pretty much represents well what we were about to do also in terms of numbers.

The events during the period we already discussed in the previous webcast that we did some changes in the management, we have some new members in the management. That's a natural evolution.

Evolution

and

a home-grown one of the sign of the our model where the people are growing inside the Nitro. Step-by-step taking the career path inside of the Nitro.

Very happy that both Miikka and Antti have been growing into the current position.

Yeah.

In the C-level.

Yeah. Exacto.

Significant events after the period, actually from last week Friday we got a decision from Business Finland regarding one of our previous projects, this Mobile Esports Ecosystem project that we did in 2019 to 2021 if I remember correctly. Like we've sometimes mentioned earlier that if the project would fail for whatever the reason, then there's a chance that they would not demand the payback for the loan, but instead it would be voided.

That's what happened now. While that has no impact for the first quarter obviously, it's very important for us here in Nitro because it means that obviously getting rid of €1.6 million of loan from balance sheet is of course a good thing,

but

it also helps to build the EBITDA for the second quarter, so that's positive.

There has been quite a lot of discussion of different kind of governmental subsidies and different kind of programs in different countries. I think this shows how well it works in Finland.

It's very very important that the government is supporting the games companies and games business in general.

Exactly. That has worked out really well for them as well, since there have been so many successes from the games business in Finland.

I think it goes both ways, really well.

On the other events, we expanded a bit on our iGamings...

Yes.

...iGames world.

Yeah. With Yggdrasil Gaming, we signed a deal where we are the developer, they take care of the distribution and so on.

Then we split the earnings there. That's pretty exciting because we come from a world where we started our exploration last year with Pistolo.

We have been happy with the results we've seen with that one. Obviously, we're keen to explore things further, and there's so many things we hope we know now how to do also better moving forward.

Really look forward to seeing how this plays out. During this year, it's safe to expect some game releases on this front from Nitro, so that's...

This is also part of our new strategy where we are looking for those passive revenue streams

and

growing the games business. As you said, there is a chance that we are seeing some revenues coming from these...

Yeah. ...indeed initiatives

during the year.

Then kind of in line with that, we also did a software purchase and development agreement. One good thing about the what we call Nitro platform or NG Platform in our text is that we build reusable things, whether it's modules or solutions for the client side or for the backend side.

That opens a lot of opportunities. Sometimes we're able to reuse something we've already done in the past and build something new based on that.

That happens quite a bit. Sometimes it's some stuff that we're able to then provide our partners with.

That's convenient. This is yet again a good example that what we have in our backlog, we are actively seeking ways to make good use of that.

This is a prime example of that happening. Then Business Finland again, €340,000 of funding.

This is for the previous project we had with Business Finland. We completed that last year.

After completion, we always need to file the so-called ending report, which we've done, and once that's approved, we get to collect the last round of funding. This now happened during the first quarter as planned.

Again, strengthening our cash position.

Yeah. Indeed.

Then when we go forward in financials, here's some more details. I think overall from the first quarter, the themes are pretty much the same as they were already during the fourth quarter.

Continued profitability. As a reminder, we've been profitable for quite some time now, since late 2023...

2023, yeah. ...and

that's something that while we don't give any financial guidance, we have been, I hope, very clear that we focus on profitability.

On top of that, I think we've been focusing a lot of working not only harder, but smarter.

A

leaner cost structure is a kind of clear signal on that one, and that also result in the capabilities of creating those cash reserves and...

Definitely. ...and

improve the cash position in general.

Yeah. When we say leaner cost structure, we don't refer to cost savings exclusively.

Part of that is that we are doing active cost savings as we go based on what we think is the right thing to do. Also big, big part of this is how we've been able to improve our ways of working and do stuff smarter.

Obviously, focusing on certain things and staying within a category of choosing helps us to develop things that we can then become better and better as we go forward, and that also means more and more effective on things as we go forward, good stuff. If we look at the bigger picture and where we come from and what we're seeking, we are now seeking to be recognized for category-leading games.

This is the vision that we have for the new strategy period, which is again, five years...

Five years, yeah.

...like we always have. Where this comes from is that we have worked with a lot of industry-leading partners throughout the year across many, many categories and so on.

Last years, we've been focusing on the category of action and shooter games and brands especially. Moving forward, that stays in the focus.

Then again,

we don't have limitations, we're likely going to expand a little bit outside of that as well.

You can expect seeing some other games also coming from Nitro and maybe some other projects. All of them are somehow to be recognized as a category-leading games that we will be working in the future.

Indeed.

I think that the logos on the bottom shows the kind of experience of the team and Nitro, and also the trust that there is within the industry. Many, many big players from the industry trust our expertise, experience, and especially the team.

Definitely. I think that ties well back into what we discussed in the beginning about that skin in the game and why we want to make sure that we keep our good cash position is because we're seeking to take more and more benefit also from post-release side of things.

I think we've written it that we want to be more selective with the partnerships that we have and so on. This is all about developing the business long-term and building those things.

Then where we come from, we're one of the oldest game companies in Finland. This thing, I'm sure you guys already know.

Now this new strategy period that we said that it's roughly five years, end of 2030 is the sort of horizon where we're currently looking. Looks like we have pretty exciting five years ahead of us.

At least the beginning has been really cool so far. The team, we have two studios in Finland.

Then the way we work is that we have this global scalable team. We have a lot of external partnerships, a lot of contractors, partner studios that we sometimes engage one-off things or sometimes like longer arrangements and stuff.

Then we have pretty solid team here in Finland with some of the best people in this industry that we've been able to attract in the recent years, combined with Nitro OGs like you and me

and

few others who have been here.

Now that the industry have been bit of a turbulent past years...

Yeah.

...I think the both the team that we have here in Finland, but also the scalable model have been proving itself again and again and again. Now couple of new initiatives that we are working on with the hybrid teams, where there are people from Nitro and people from partner studios, it seems to be really solid foundation also for the growing the bigger projects when time is coming that we need to scale for some project tens of people.

Indeed.

That kind of upscale potential is existing all the time without going into the very labor-intensive and costly hiring process. We can scale very fastly through the reliable partners that we've been working for 10 years, 15 years.

Oh.

It's really really strong asset for us.

Yeah. It also helps with the efficiency in terms of time.

Like we had this one case where we started to work on this new playable this spring, and since we engaged with a partner that we have worked with at least 10 years, maybe even more, to help us with some of the outside production, from the moment we said that, hey, maybe we want to consider them to the moment when it was up and running, this was what? 48 hours

or something.

Things happen super fast when you have this existing relationship.

With them, for example, that partner, we are now working 24/7, as they are in the time zone that when we are sleeping, they are working. It's a very, very efficient in the calendar time point of view.

Indeed. This year, like we said last time, and Antti also mentioned earlier, is all about new growth.

And...

There are lots of new seeds.

Yes, in many, many ways. Yeah.

I think to recap, we already said it last time, but what to expect from Nitro this year is new original games, new partner projects, those are very much what we're looking for. I guess...

Hybrid projects also, something that is growing from our original side and then partner coming along. Another way around also that there are some new initiatives, new leads, where we are working with existing games or existing IPs that might become ours.

Yeah.

It seems that this goes into two direction, but I think the big thing is still to get those passive revenue streams and get those game revenue on top of the...

Yeah.

...service revenue, where we have been quite good.

Yeah. I think that's definitely the direction.

While getting those things to dramatically chase those dynamics, it takes time to build those. That's definitely the direction where we're aiming to go.

Far, good when you look at the first quarter. If we look at the portfolio in a little bit more detail, I think that will reflect on this balance if you remember what was here in the previous webcast, it was three and three, these things were even, but now we put so much more attention on the Nitro Originals and have more stuff there.

We already discussed through the Project West is what we called collaboration with Yggdrasil Gaming. That's the iGaming space, some game launches happening this year, that's what we're aiming to do.

Then we have Project Frag, which if you pay attention, you might have seen something about that earlier in this webcast.

Green video.

A little bit. Yes.

Very much falling into retro action shooter category. That's also good example that it's a Nitro Original game, but there could be a room for the partnerships on that game.

Yeah. We've been discussing some pretty interesting IP collaborations and things like this, we're now trying to figure out that, okay, which is the right way to go with this one.

Super excited about how that's coming along. Of course, it's also co-op, so that's a big, big thing at the moment in many ways and something that if you ask me, I love co-op games because those are...

It seems that players are looking for that kind of experiences.

It's cool match in that sense. Then we have...

Pistolo is there.

Pistolo, yes.

Some improvements, but the performance seemed to be solid.

Partner

seemed to be investing into the game

and

I think it's a good baseline project for us.

Yeah. That's something that moving forward, thanks to Pistolo, we are now seeking to find more and more ways of exploring the iGaming.

It's something that seems to be pretty good match with where we see overall the games industry going and our plans and so on. Seems like a no-brainer direction, at least for the time being, to continue exploring.

Then obviously, Autogun Heroes, games that we've released already during the previous strategy period. Autogun Heroes live on mobile, Discord, web, and Autogun Heroes: Supercharged on Steam.

This is one thing that we've been looking into that, okay, how can we leverage those things and learnings more moving forward and so on. Obviously, one thing that we've kind of entertained the idea a little bit in the past is about maybe considering bringing the IP to consoles and stuff.

People have been asking about that, let's see how things go.

On the MVP process, there are lots of new seeds for the new growth. We've been quite busy on exploring the what kind of games our team is willing to work on,

what kind of

games there is a demand on a market, and matching those, and then on top of that talking with the partners and looking for those kind of blue

ocean

opportunities where we could match our technology, we could match our expertise, experience, and market needs, and a partner needs,

and

there are quite a few going on. I think come after summer, maybe we can talk something.

I hope that more and more good stuff will keep surfacing from that because it's been insanely active now beginning of this year. In addition to things you mentioned, we've had game jams, like building prototypes together with the team and everything, and it's been sort of both the scientific approach, the partner discussions approach, and also just having a lot of fun drawing good games on screen.

Really cool stuff. Nitro Partners is where we offer our expertise to industry-leading partners and their action and shooter brands.

Void Interactive being...

Yes.

...one of the greatest at the moment.

Yep. Started with those guys last year.

Last year with those guys. Last year with those guys and very happy with the collaboration.

It's been widening and deepening the collaboration. People are quite close to each other,

and

there seems to be kind of one-team mentality to bring the experience on the players.

Indeed. Then PAYDAY 3.

Starbreeze Entertainment, we collaborated with those guys last year and then also beginning of this year. Now it was last week when the update featuring some of our work went live, we're now done with that work, at least for the time being.

This was really cool thing to work on. Obviously, PAYDAY is a fantastic brand and Starbreeze is a great company to work with, not just because they're Swedes, but because they have some cool games and good people,

so

that was fun thing to do. Then also with

Warframe,

we've done our heavy lifting now when the Android went live in February and...

It's been performing quite well, and partner is really happy about the performance and even a bit of a surprised of the Android performance. There also it's long-term, you could say even strategic partnership...

Yeah.

...partnership with the Digital Extremes and Nitro, and there are also lots of discussion about the common future, what we could work on together. Yeah.

In addition to the stuff that we have in the portfolio, there's obviously tons of activity on the business development front at the moment, and like we've kind of hinted earlier on this call, a lot of this stuff that kind of falls in between these two and sort of hybrid models and ways of working. Now I think the second quarter, something that we're seeking to do quite a bit is to retain and use this momentum that we have to build a lot of new things.

These new things, some of them start from Nitro Originals, some of them start from partner IP, and then we try to mash up and build some cool hybrid cases from those. I think from what's happening inside Nitro, the second quarter seems so much more busier and more exciting than the first one, and really cool times now.

Then

that concludes the presentation part, but let's see if...

Time for questions.

Yes, let's see if we have any. I'll get rid of that.

Let's see. Lately, people have been asking less and less, and that seems to be the case again this time.

Doesn't look like there's any questions. Maybe we've been pretty good at explaining stuff.

Coolness, and we shall meet again in August...

In August.

...when we release the first half report and share stuff, but between now and then still lots of things to do. Keep your eyes on us.

We plan to be busy now, so...

Plan to be busy and active.

Yes. Thank you for joining.

Tusen tack.

Tusen tack, and see you the latest in August. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.