Przejdź do treści

udostępnij:

Od fundamentów do budowania wartości dla akcjonariuszy - czat inwestorski z prezesem CI Games, Markiem Tymińskim

"Budujemy świetne studio oparte na kilku dobrze rozpoznawalnych franczyzach" - relacja z czatu inwestorskiego z przedstawicielami CI Games

Kategorie

W środę, 8 stycznia 2025 odbył się czat inwestorski z przedstawicielami dewelopera gier notowanego na GPW w Warszawie, spółki CI Games. W dyskusji wzięli udział Marek Tymiński, CEO CI Games, Tom O'Connor, SVP Development i Ryan Hill, Global Marketing Director. Zapraszamy do zapoznania się z całą relacją z czatu.

Janusz Maruszewski

Zapraszamy do uczestnictwa w czacie inwestorskim z prezesem zarządu CI Games, Markiem Tymińskim. Podczas spotkania omówione zostaną kierunki i fundamenty rozwoju spółki w perspektywie 2025-2028 roku.

Spotkanie rozpocznie się w środę, 8 stycznia 2025 r. o godz. 11:00. Już teraz zachęcamy do zadawania pytań za pośrednictwem poniższego formularza.

W przypadku chęci zadania kilku pytań, prosimy je zadawać pojedynczo i za każdym razem klikać przycisk "Wyślij". Ułatwi to przedstawicielom spółki odpowiadanie na pytania.

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:03

Dzień dobry, witamy wszystkich na dzisiejszym czacie. Poprowadzimy go po angielsku.

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:07

We are together with Tom O'Connor, SVP Development and Ryan Hill, Global Marketing Director.

Gość: Gosc 08 sty 2025, 11:18

What changed at CI Games after the change in strategy?

Tom O'Connor 08 sty 2025, 11:18

We are fully committed to executing on our 3 major products in development, which is our strongest roadmap to-date. These are:
Project 3, the next installment in the Lords of the Fallen franchise. Building on all the learnings from the last game and delivering a high-quality release in 2026
SGW Evolved, is building on our evergreen Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise
Project H, a new action RPG, building on our learnings from Lords of the Fallen and delivering a highly commercial title in 2028.
Our centralised development support office, committed to a player-first development model ensuring that are titles resonate with our target audiences, and helps us to ensure we achieve high-quality with as much efficiency as possible.

Dodane przez Gość: Gosc w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Ari333 08 sty 2025, 11:24

Who is managing the SGW Evolved project, and what are your hiring plans?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:24

Krzysztof Golatowski, Executive Producer for SGW Contracts 1 and Contracts 2 recently re-joined forces coming from 505 Games and latetely Techland and will lead the studio that will develop SGW Evolved. It will work pretty much the same way as we are now working with our other teams. We are soon to close the vision for SGW Evolved and working on planning including staffing. We want to take as much as we have previously developed to SGW Next for as long as that will make sense creatively.

Dodane przez Gość: Ari333 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: hubi 08 sty 2025, 11:27

How do you plan to finance the company until the release of Project 3?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:27

1. We are securing the financing for at least a year, if we will need more cash, the bank is open for a discussion on a second tranche of financing.
2. We have done a good deal with Epic, we may do more of differently structured publishing/co-publishing deals in the future if we will believe that will be the best interest for the company.
3. We have fully acquired UL, that is now a whole owned asset of CI Games.

Dodane przez Gość: hubi w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Gosc 2025 08 sty 2025, 11:28

What are your plans for the new part of Lords of the Fallen? How will this part differ from the previous one?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:28

Project 3 will address all core player feedback from Lords of the Fallen (2023) while also doubling down on the features players loved most. It will take a quality over quantity approach, with greater appeal to a wider addressable market with improved onboarding, a more inviting visual style, and westernised storytelling.

Dodane przez Gość: Gosc 2025 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: inwestor009 08 sty 2025, 11:30

What is your stance on DEI In gaming?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:30

We remain committed to producing player-first video games that prioritise an excellent user experience with compelling thematics and characters created specifically for core and adjacent audiences. While some video games have recently taken the opportunity to embed social or political agendas within their experiences, it is clear that many players do not appreciate this, and as a result, we have seen a number of high profile releases underperforming commercially during the last year alone. Our games will always be developed to maximise player enjoyment and commercial success, and as such, we will not be integrating any social or political agencies into these experiences going forward having observed the high risk this can present.

Dodane przez Gość: inwestor009 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Ari333 08 sty 2025, 11:30

What is the status of the projects?

Tom O'Connor 08 sty 2025, 11:30

We have Project 3 in full production, the next instalment in the Lords of the Fallen franchise and during this year will have extensive player testing to ensure we achieve high-quality and maximise the games potential.
Both SGW Evolved and Project H are in pre-production, and we are closing in on the vision for these titles, with more details to follow at a later date.

Dodane przez Gość: Ari333 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: inwestor009 08 sty 2025, 11:31

What is the most important thing when planning a marketing strategy?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:31

The most important aspect of a marketing campaign is knowing and understanding your target audiences, and as part of this, who makes up your primary, secondary, and subsequent cohorts. Knowing your audience and how best to connect and ultimately convert them to a sale is the best way to run a highly efficient and cost effective marketing campaign. The key is to then turn these primary audiences into brand advocates and evangelists, who will in turn amplify marketing efforts at no additional cost by recommending and discussing the game to friends and relevant gaming communities. By fully understanding our audience, we are able to ensure marketing materials are specifically designed to connect with them at an emotional level, and can also ensure we are promoting these marketing materials in the correct places.

Dodane przez Gość: inwestor009 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Ben 08 sty 2025, 11:32

With the appointment of Tom O'Connor as vice president of the production management and support office, are you stepping back from your day-to-day responsibilities?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:32

Tom has been overseeing the production of all our games, allowing me to focus on managing the company with a more holistic perspective. This enables me to take on more of the CEO work. In addition, I am also running strategic finance.

Dodane przez Gość: Ben w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Tomi92 08 sty 2025, 11:33

Are you interested in acquisitions? Do you have any companies on your radar? Are you considering it at all? Czy interesują Pana akwizycję? Macie jakąś spółkę na radarach? Czy w ogóle to rozważacie?

Gość: inwestor009 08 sty 2025, 11:33

What are your business plans in 2025?

Tom O'Connor 08 sty 2025, 11:33

To continue maximising sales of Lords of the Fallen 2023 in line with strategic markdowns and the continued release of meaningful updates up to v2.0 in response to player feedback and external user testing.
With regards to our titles in development - we have Project 3 in full production, the next instalment in the Lords of the Fallen franchise and during this year will have extensive player testing to ensure we achieve high-quality and maximise the games potential.
Both SGW Evolved and Project H are in pre-production, and we are closing in on the vision for these titles, with more details to follow at a later date.

Dodane przez Gość: inwestor009 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: g13266 08 sty 2025, 11:34

Have you announced a more effective approach to marketing as part of your strategy? What does that mean?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:34

We constantly review the performance of our marketing strategies in order to improve their effectiveness going forward. In the case of Lords of the Fallen specifically, there are a number of ways we will improve the effectiveness of the marketing going forward:
- Leveraging Existing Awareness - as a result of the substantial marketing spend invested into Lords of the Fallen (2023), the IP is significantly more established and globally recognised than it was prior to the LOTF (23) marketing campaign. As a result, we can now springboard this global recognition for future releases thereby substantially reducing initial marketing costs.
- Extensive Learnings - thanks to the considerable marketing investment made into LOTF (23), and extensive mix of marketing functions used as part of the campaign, we have significant learnings helping to much better inform future strategies.
- Community Evangelists/Advocates - prior to the launch of LOTF (23) there was no meaningful pre-existing community as many years had lapsed since the release of the previous game. We are in a very different position now with a captive, passionate and growing audience ready to help amplify and support marketing efforts to relevant players

Dodane przez Gość: g13266 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Tomi92 08 sty 2025, 11:35

Are you planning a long-term investment in CI Games? Are you thinking about a change? Czy planuje Pan długoterminową inwestycję w CI Games? Czy myśli Pan o zmianie?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:35

I am a long term investor over CI Games, the company has a great future and I will remain fully committed as shareholder, co-founder and the CEO.

Dodane przez Gość: Tomi92 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Daniel K. Turman 08 sty 2025, 11:36

What are your plans on how to spend the investment received by Epic?
Are marketing budgets going to increase to be able to sell more copies thanks to those investments?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:36

Thanks to the substantial marketing spend invested into Lords of the Fallen (2023), the IP is significantly more established and globally recognised than it was three years ago. We continue to keep the franchise front of mind with regular updates and content drops, the most considerable of which still achieve significant press and influencer attention. As a result, we can significantly reduce the total marketing budget for future instalments of the Lords of the Fallen franchise, springboarding the pre-existing awareness around the IP. Furthermore, thanks to ongoing strategic markdowns, Lords of the Fallen 2023’s inclusion in Xbox Game Pass and conversations with other first parties about similar subscription services, we can expect a meaningful amount of players to have played the 2023 game in advance of the marketing campaign for Project 3, again increasing awareness around the IP without additional marketing costs.

Dodane przez Gość: Daniel K… w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Optymista 08 sty 2025, 11:38

Dzień Dobry,

Chciałem się spytać na jakim etapie prac znajduję się SGW Evolved oraz czy może Pan powiedzieć jakie studio bd odpowiedzialne na projekt.

Drugie pytanie dotyczy LoTF (2023). Czy gra bd rozwijana poprzez darmowe DLC ,albo eventy (zadania) w grze ,żeby dalej budować pozytywny sentyment do gry oraz poprawę ogólnych ocen na Steam? Co powinno przełożyć się na lepszą sprzedaż długoterminowo.

-- ENG:

Good Morning,

I wanted to ask at what stage of work is SGW Evolved and if you can tell what studio bd be responsible for the project.

The second question is about LoTF (2023). Will the game be developed through free DLC, or events (tasks) in the game, to further build positive sentiment towards the game and improve overall ratings on Steam? Which should translate into better sales in the long run.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:38

To date, we have released a considerable number of post-launch updates and content drops for Lords of the Fallen, and have observed the direct results by doing so; the recent Steam User Score has been gradually increasing throughout 2024, reaching an all-time high of 80 (very positive) in December. We also track online sentiment using the Player XP audience sentiment tool; this clearly illustrates a strong ongoing increase in audience sentiment around the LOTF franchise across the online gaming landscape throughout 2024. As a result, we will continue with this strategy in 2025 with a robust content roadmap planned for Q1 with the releases of v1.8, v1.9 and v2.0, all of which will bring meaningful improvements to LOTF based on community feedback and external player testing. It is integral that we continue to increase the franchise sentiment ahead of the release of Project 3.

Dodane przez Gość: Optymista w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Marek 08 sty 2025, 11:39

How much higher are the employee costs compared to having all staff employed in Poland?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:39

There is no cost advantage to hire in Poland for us when considering senior employees. And we always go for the best in class, every position we are covering with the best available candidate. Sometimes it means we don’t hire someone really good simply because we are taking on board even better candidate. You can hire for a slightly less if you go for freelance contract or b2b but once you hire based on regular employment contracts as we do there are no clear benefits having that in Poland. We don't hire juniors as well.

Dodane przez Gość: Marek w odpowiedzi na

Gość: gosc 08 sty 2025, 11:40

What does the new game production strategy look like in practice? How is it supposed to be better, and how will it benefit the company?

Tom O'Connor 08 sty 2025, 11:40

We have a new Player-First development approach, which ensures that our products meet the expectations of our target audiences and can be tested/iterated/improved many times during development to ensure much higher quality than before. Additionally, since my joining CI Games we have setup a centralised development support office which oversees all product, working closely with our development teams but ensuring that our products are highly commercial and high quality releases. We have an extensive internal review process for our titles, constantly evaluating where we are and how we can improve.

Dodane przez Gość: gosc w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Marek 08 sty 2025, 11:42

Why do you operate in a remote work model?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:42

We have the widest possible access to the best talent in Europe by being remote. Our people are extremely important in making great games and helping to grow the company. And this is not just remote work but the way we structure the development of multiple projects. We want to have fully flexible teams. Smaller core teams of each studio working simultaneously on several projects and majority of our devs moving from one project to another when that is close to be completed. This brings the efficiency levels up and further protects the employment.

Dodane przez Gość: Marek w odpowiedzi na

Gość: gibon 08 sty 2025, 11:45

Are you planning layoffs?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:45

We have done two rounds of layoffs last year and we have no further plans on that. We have strong, efficient teams and we are happy where we are.

Dodane przez Gość: gibon w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Guest010 08 sty 2025, 11:47

How are you planning to regain players trust?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:47

The sentiment towards Lords of the Fallen has significantly increased through 2024 as a direct result of our dedication to improving the game with meaningful updates based on player feedback and user testing. This is apparent from the increase in Steam User Scores and is tracked internally using the Player XP sentiment tool. We will continue with this strategy as we work towards the release of v2.0 to further improve player trust and wider sentiment around the franchise. The marketing strategy for Project 3 will be built around validating the improved experience as early as possible in the campaign through media and influencers. We will remain transparent throughout the campaign, showcasing the many ways in which the experience addresses all major player feedback from Lords of the Fallen 2023.

Dodane przez Gość: Guest010 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Gosc 2025 08 sty 2025, 11:47

Why might CI Games be an attractive proposition for investors? Dlaczego CI Games może być atrakcyjną propozycją dla inwestorów?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:47

We are building great studio based on several, well recognised franchises with multiple teams, consisting of top international talent that is well structured and lead by very experienced directors. We constantly improve efficiencies within product development processes and have proven to delivery one of the best in class marketing on the last game. We invest into games that have serious chances to become really commercially successful and bring the company, and its valuation, much forward. I absolutetly believe it is a great time now to invest in CI Games as its valuation can grow exponentially.

Dodane przez Gość: Gosc 2025 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: KARL 08 sty 2025, 11:50

When show trailer project 3 lord of the fallen 3?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:50

The current plan is to release an announcement trailer for Project 3 at some point in 2025, kickstarting a concise and cost-effective go-to-market campaign designed to grow and sustain hype through to launch. We are currently considering the best opportunity to debut this for maximum effect.

Dodane przez Gość: KARL w odpowiedzi na

Gabriel Uryniuk 08 sty 2025, 11:51

W ostatnim wywiadzie mówił Pan, że potrzeby finansowe związane z tworzeniem nowych gier zapewnią pożyczka, umowa z Epic Games, Microsoft Game Pass oraz bieżąca sprzedaż. Plan nadal jest podtrzymany, czy dopuszcza Pan jednak emisję akcji?

-- ENG:

In a recent interview, you said that the financing needs for the development of new games would be provided by a loan, an agreement with Epic Games, Microsoft Game Pass and current sales. The plan still stands, however, do you allow for a stock issue?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:51

We are acting in the best interest of all shareholders. Currently the capital raise would not follow that. We want to make sure we finance our growth by other means than raise.

Dodane przez Gabriel Uryniuk w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Antonio 08 sty 2025, 11:52

2 questions:

- lessons learnt from 11bit studios (cancellation of Project 8) applicable for CI Games (and the future and expected games between 2025-2028). Do you have any? Will you perform any preventive action from CI Games side?

- Could you list/describe some of the save cost / increase of benefits that are being applied to the creation of the future games based in the own experience after Lords of the Fallen creation in 2023? Are you able to quantificate the saving amounts? (For example, programing hours reduction, quality for future games, etc).

Thank you,
Antonio.

Tom O'Connor 08 sty 2025, 11:52

In response to the 2nd question. Lords of the Fallen 2023 provided us with great foundations on which to further build on and improve for our future games. Having this foundation means that we can accelerate development, by building on existing architecture, tools, systems and repurposing of some assets. This is especially useful in the early stages of development, during pre-production as it means we prototype quickly and put most of our efforts into developing new features and gameplay. Our teams working closely together across different projects, means we benefit from ongoing improvements and optimisations to our shared architecture. Overall, this results in more cost effective development and higher-quality products.

Dodane przez Gość: Antonio w odpowiedzi na

Gość: g13266 08 sty 2025, 11:52

Are you recruiting for managerial positions? Who are you looking for?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:52

Steven Lux recently joined as global Head of Commercial replacing Jon who acted as SVP Sales. He will help to grow the business from strategic standpoint as well.

- 25+ year interactive entertainment industry veteran
- 15 years with Take-Two Interactive Software and 2K Games
- Was VP Publishing and co-founder of 2K Play label
- Responsible for digital and physical lifecycle management of all 2K titles including: NBA 2K, Borderlands, Bioshock, Civilization & Mafia

Dodane przez Gość: g13266 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: gosc 08 sty 2025, 11:55

What are the sales figures for Lords 23 in Q4?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 11:55

We are happy from the sales and happy from how much we drove the user score up over Steam, at some point crossing 80% positive recent user reviews. More to come, we are fully committed to support that game further.

Dodane przez Gość: gosc w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Nicole Walker 08 sty 2025, 11:57

It seems like single-player games like Lies of P or Stellar Blade have outsold Lords of the Fallen.
What do you think caused poor sales for Lords of the Fallen?
Are you planning to create a more focused experience for the next game?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 11:57

We know that the Lords of the Fallen marketing campaign delivered significant hype, based on key marketing metrics as well as platform wishlists. Unfortunately, the day one sales were hamstrung by performance issues which brought down the user scores significantly subsequently having a direct result on ongoing sales conversion. We have released a considerable number of updates addressing these issues and the game is in a much better state today. The release of LOTF 23 also provided significant learnings which will inform all future releases. Project 3 will address all major player feedback, delivering an experience that prioritises quality over quantity.

Dodane przez Gość: Nicole Walker w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Ivan Gomez 08 sty 2025, 12:00

In the 2025 Strategy plan Underdog has been moved to Project H and a partner studio has been assigned to SGW Evolved. Will they be able to deliver the target date with only 2 years of development time?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 12:00

Project H is designed as a new IP but it can become a game that is very connected to one of our existing franchises. How we position that game we will decide neerer the time.

On SGW Evolved - we are not starting from the scratch. We also have more than 2 years to deliver this game still in 2027.

Dodane przez Gość: Ivan Gomez w odpowiedzi na

Gość: hubi 08 sty 2025, 12:06

How many people currently work at CI Games? How many are in Poland versus abroad? Which countries have the largest workforce?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 12:06

We employ 160 people full time internally, mostly across Europe.

Top 3 countries are: almost 40% in Spain, 20% in the UK, 15% in Poland.

Dodane przez Gość: hubi w odpowiedzi na

Gość: Guest010 08 sty 2025, 12:06

What is the predicted cost of upcoming Lords of the fallen and how much of it are you going to spend on marketing? Also which forms of marketing are you going to choose this time?

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 12:06

As previously mentioned, the marketing budget for Project 3 will be significantly lower than the budget for Lords of the Fallen 2023, thanks to strong global awareness, a pre-existing community, and extensive learnings from the last campaign. Strong branding with high quality assets released at tentpole industry events will again be at the core of the campaign, having observed the effectiveness of this previously. Additionally, early and ongoing validation from key influencers around the improvements of the next game will be integral to restoring player trust outside the core community.

Dodane przez Gość: Guest010 w odpowiedzi na

Gość: TO 08 sty 2025, 12:12

What are your plans for United Label? Will you retain the team working there? Will you be the president of this company?

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 12:12

We have recently signed 3 new titles for United Label since I stepped in as the CEO for UL. We have further plans for that company that is now fully owned by CI Games. We are continuing to look for more content and we are very selective. I am planning to stay on my current role there. It has very strong synergies with CI Games.

Dodane przez Gość: TO w odpowiedzi na

Marek Tymiński 08 sty 2025, 12:17

Thank you for participating in the chat and look forward to reconnecting in the near future. We have a lot to work on and this is very exciting time for CI Games.

Ryan Hill 08 sty 2025, 12:18

Thank you to everyone for taking the time today. I look forward to revealing more around our future marketing plans shortly.

udostępnij: