NEXT GAMES CORPORATION, COMPANY RELEASE, 25 NOVEMBER 2020 AT 8.00 a.m EET

Next Games Corporation has announced today its mid-term financial targets.

Next Games vision is to join forces with license holders to build top-grossing games and become the most sought after partner for IP owners, as well as to develop shareholder value and ensure financial stability and profitable growth in the long term. The company is now announcing its financial targets for the mid term.

The financial targets and the strategy behind it will be presented to investors in the Next Games Capital Markets Day event held today, November 25, 2020. Materials will be available online after the event.

Next Games’ mid-term financial targets

• To achieve strong growth, Next Games will need to scale marketing investments, which will lower its annual result in the short term, as compared to financial targets. As operational efficiency (R&D, Publishing and Admin)  improves with scalability and the cost of the relative share of growth efforts reduces in the future, the company aims for its EBITDA to exceed 23% of revenue.
  
  
• Next Games targets strong revenue growth, initially organically and in the future also with the support of selected acquisitions. Next Games believes that building up a solid infrastructure, multiple strategic partnerships and expanding publishing capabilities will help the company to reach its mid-term financial targets, also enabling inorganic growth through M&A.
  
  
• Development of personnel competence and new recruitment are key to Next Games growth. However, with the development of scalable services, reusability and efficient publishing operation, Next Games believe that a potential increase in personnel will be moderate.

The Board of Directors of Next Games has not adopted a dividend policy. There is no change in this policy.

The financial targets defined above are intended to illustrate the ambition set by the company and its Board of Directors. They do not, however, replace the company's financial guidance on an annual basis. Shorter term financial performance may deviate from the targets.

Next Games in the global games market

• The mobile games market is bigger than movies and music combined, estimated at USD 200 billion by 2023
• Annual growth in the mobile games market is expected to be 9.3% (y-o-y)
• IP based games have a strong hold on top grossing lists
• Next Games is a top 3 publisher in the Geolocation AR genre, and a top 6 publisher in the turn-based RPG genre, now looking to grow in to a top publisher for the RPG-Puzzle genre
  (Sensortower, Oct 2020 - USA)
• Next Games is an independent developer and publisher, with a strong track record of working with major entertainment studios, like Netflix and AMC Networks

Main themes of Next Games Strategy

• Strengthening strategic partnerships: in the future we look to expanding and adding new license partners
• Active brand portfolio management: continuing to foster The Walking Dead Franchise, and adding new brands like Blade Runner and Stranger Things, in addition to other new brands
• Improving efficiency through unified infrastructure: benefits of scale to be expected in the coming years
• Players first in game development: best in understanding our audience and creating titles true to the IP

Impact of the world economic situation

• The uncertainty of the global pandemic has not had an adverse effect on the global gaming industry
• Next Games remains in a good position to continue its growth plans without being disrupted by restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
  
  
  

Additional information:

Annina Salvén
CFO
+358 (0) 40 588 3167
investors@nextgames.com

Certified Adviser: Danske Bank A/S, Finland branch, tel. +358 10 546 7938

About Next Games

Next Games (Helsinki Nasdaq First North: NXTGMS) is the first publicly listed mobile game developer and publisher in Finland, specializing in games based on entertainment franchises, such as movies, TV series or books. The developers of the critically acclaimed The Walking Dead games redefines the way franchise entertainment transforms into highly engaging service-based mobile games. Currently Next Games is working on multiple new games based on popular entertainment franchises including, Blade Runner Rogue, for the popular Blade Runner franchise and a mobile game based on Netflix’s Stranger Things. For more information head to www.nextgames.com.