Snail Inc (SNAL) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by and welcome to Snail Inc's fourth quarter and full-year 2024 earnings conference call and webcast.

I would now like to turn the call over to Brett Milotte, Managing Director at ICR. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Snail Inc.'s fourth quarter and full-year 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. On today's call, we have Tony Tian, Co-CEO; Peter Kang, Senior Vice President, Director of Business Development Operations; and Heidy Chow, Chief Financial Officer. The company's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings press release was filed today with the SEC after the US stock market close and is available on the Investor Relations section of Snail Inc.'s website at www.snail.com or the SEC's website at www.sec.gov/edgar.

During this call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. Actual events and results may differ materially from our expectations and forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the company's Form 10-K to be filed with the SEC and other SEC filings.

The company makes these forward-looking statements as of today and disclaims any duty or obligation to update them or to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Additionally, on today's call, we refer to bookings and EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures that provide useful information for the company's investors. You will find a historical reconciliation of bookings and EBITDA to the corresponding GAAP measures in the earnings press release and the company's SEC filings.

And now, I will turn the call over to Tony Tian, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Snail. Tony?

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm very excited to share with you our results for the quarter and full year as well as provide you with some updates with our games portfolio and specifically our ARK franchise.

With the release of Extinction DLC and Part 3 of Bob's Tall Tales DLC for ASA in the fourth quarter, we continue to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the franchise by engaging new players and continuing to excite our existing community through innovative updates and launches within the ARK franchise. We remain committed to being pioneers in the world of interactive entertainment, including strategic investments in advanced AI technologies that enhance both creativity and productivity.

Now I will provide some updates on the ARK franchise. During the fourth quarter, we released the highly anticipated next-gen ARK mobile game, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition, on iOS and Android platforms. In the December launch month, over 2 million users downloaded the mobile game across the two mobile platforms. Through December 31, 2024, ARK has been played for 3.9 billion hours with an average playing time per user of 162.1 hours.

Additionally, as we highlighted previously, the top 21.3% of all players have spent over 100 hours immersed in the game according to data from Steam. We are thrilled with the continued success of the ARK franchise and to see so many players entrench themselves in the ARK universe.

Before I hand the call off to Peter and Heidy to discuss our results in more detail, let's quickly go over the financials from the quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2024, Snail generated net revenue of $26.2 million, a decrease from the $28.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. In fourth quarter of 2024, net revenue includes the recognition of $8.0 million in revenue from the release of Extinction and Part 3 of Bobs Tall Tales, ARK sales of $15.5 million and Bellwright sales of $1.0 million.

Thank you all again for joining. With that, I will now hand the call over to Peter Kang, our Senior Vice President, Director of Business Development and Operations, to review our product road map and share some key developments.

Peter?

Thank you, Tony. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I'd like to provide some updates on each of our core franchises. First, an update on Bellwright. As of the end of 2024, we have sold over 367,000 units to date, and the wish list count for the game remains over 1 million. Regarding Honeycomb: The World Beyond is a survival sandbox game set on exuberant planet, Sota7, explore its vast world and face challenges on your bioengineering journey. Cross-breed plants or animals gather resources, craft items and conduct experiments in order to develop new species.

Honeycomb continues to represent Snail Games' dedication to providing a unique gameplay experience within the survival genre. We're excited to release this game in 2025. Echoes of Elysium is an airship RPG set in the procedural world of Elysium, gather resources to design, build and live on your customized airships alone or with friends, take to the skies and discover clockwork wonders that clash with ancient mysteries in an untamed paradise.

Robots at Midnight bash through gains of hostile robots and corrupt bosses in the stylish and punchy action RPG. Robots at Midnight is a retro futuristic souls-like that takes place on Yob, a world now in ruins. Built as a luxury destination, a planet is overrun with dangers, challenging for any human to endure. Be home before midnight.

Moving on to our Indie publishing label, Wandering Wizard. As mentioned previously, we have expanded our publishing catalog with several games signed earlier this year. The Cecil: The Journey Begins, Chasmal Fear, Castle of Secrets and Stoneguard. All of these Indie titles will be gradually released in our pipeline.

At the end of 2024, Wandering Wizard has many game titles at various stages of development and has maintained our commitment to identifying new opportunities that emphasize gameplay excellence and clear market fit.

Let's turn now to the ARK franchise. For ARK: Survival Ascended, we released the Extinction DLC and Part 3 of the Bob's Tall Tales DLC in the fourth quarter. On the mobile side, we released the highly anticipated revamp of the original ARK mobile game, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition in December of 2024. Through the year-end, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition has accumulated more than 2 million downloads.

Looking ahead to 2025, we are proud to celebrate the launch of the Astraeos Map as an official partner DLC for ARK: Survival Ascended, a significant evolution from its origins as a community-created mod by acclaimed map maker [Nekatas]. Now fully supported as a paid DLC, the Astraeos Map infuses the ARK universe with a rich Greek mythology twist, delivering immersive new environments and challenges that transform the overall gameplay experience.

We are excited to announce the 10-year anniversary ARK: Survival Evolved Aquatica DLC, a fully underwater gameplay experience, waking up on Aquatica, a crash-landed arc submerged with a vast underworld water biome. Survivors are thrust into exotic challenges never before encountered. Extreme environmental hazards, crushing pressures, rapid currents and a host of extraordinary creatures await within the mysterious depths.

On Aquatica, survivors will uncover the potential source of element and catch a glimpse of what the future holds for those bold enough to endure. Aquatica is the first official DLC to tell a non-canonical mythical story, expanding the ARK universe into new dimensions of survival. We are excited for the next chapter in the ARK universe with the release of ARK: Lost Colony DLC for ARK: Survival Ascended towards the end of the year. ARK: Lost Colony is a full-size canonical expansion pack featuring a new map, creatures, items, structures and a continuation of the story of ARK.

I will now pass the call out to Heidy to discuss our financial results in more detail. Heidy?

Thank you, Peter, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. As mentioned, net revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2024, was $26.2 million as compared to $28.6 million in the three months ended December 31, 2023. The decrease in revenues during the three months ended December 31, 2024, was due to a reduction in sales of ARK that was partially offset by the recognition of deferred revenue upon the release of ARK: Survival Ascended DLCs noted in our financial statements.

Net revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, was $84.5 million as compared to $60.9 million in the prior year period. The increase in net revenues was due to an increase in recognition of deferred revenue of $32.2 million related to the ARK franchise; an increase in sales Bellwright of $5.9 million, partially offset by a decrease in total ARK sales of $13 million; a decrease in ARK Mobile sales of $1 million and a decrease in the company's other titles of $700,000.

Net income in the fourth quarter of 2024 was $1.1 million versus $2.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. The decrease in net income is a result of increased research and development costs of $3 million to support our future game releases, partially offset by an increase in gross profit of $1.4 million and a decrease in advertising and marketing expenses of $900,000.

Net income for the year ended December 31, 2024, increased significantly to $1.8 million versus a net loss of $9.1 million in the prior year period due to an increase in net revenue of $23.6 million; decreased general and administrative expenses of $2.9 million, partially offset by increased research and development costs of $6.5 million; increased cost of revenue of $5.9 million; and a decrease in income tax benefit of $3 million. Bookings for the three months ended December 31, 2024, was $17 million as compared to $52.6 million for the three months ended December 31, 2023.

The decrease in booking is due mainly to the release of ARK: Survival Ascended in the fourth quarter of 2023. Bookings for the year ended December 31, 2024, was $75.7 million as compared to $85.7 million in the prior year period. Bookings decreased by $10 million or 11.7% compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, because of increased sales at a higher ASP driven by the release of ARK: Survival Ascended in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The releases of Bob's Tall Tales and Bellwright along with the ARK: Survival Ascended DLC Scorched Earth in April 2024, Aberration in September 2024, and Extinction in December 2024, partially offset the decrease in unit sales in 2024, but each product releases was at a lower ASP than the initial release of ARK: Survival Ascended.

Additionally, the company recognized $13.2 million from deferred revenue upon the release of Scorched Earth, Aberration and the first two parts of Bob's Tall Tales in 2024 and deferred $6.7 million in revenues during the year ended December 31, 2024, for the ARK: Survival Ascended DLCs have not yet released as compared to $22 million in revenue deferred during the year ended December 31, 2023, for the ARK: Survival Ascended DLC and parts of Bob's Tall Tales that have not yet launched.

EBITDA for the quarter was $1.6 million versus $3.6 million in the prior year period. The $2 million or 55.6% decrease in EBITDA was due to a decrease in net income of $1.3 million; a decrease in interest expenses and interest expenses related party of $400,000; and a decrease in provision of income taxes of $300,000.

EBITDA for the year was $3.2 million versus a loss of $9.7 million in the prior year period. The $12.9 million or 133.4% increase in EBITDA was primarily because of an increase in net income of $10.9 million and a decrease in the benefit from income taxes of $3 million, partially offset by a decrease in interest expense and interest expense related party of $800,000.

As of December 31, 2024, unrestricted cash and cash equivalents was $7.3 million. To review our detailed financial statements, please refer to the earnings press release, our most recent 10-Q and our 10-K filing.

Thank you all for joining us today. We will now open the line for Q&A. Operator?

(Operator Instructions) Michael Kupinski, Noble Capital Markets.

Thank you and congratulations on a solid quarter. I have a couple of questions. When do you anticipate Bellwright would be available on Xbox? And then how many new games do you have access to Bellwright -- or how many new gamers will have access to Bellwright on Xbox? And could you just talk a little bit about whether or not it would be a good candidate for Game Pass?

Hi, this is Peter Kang. I'm going to try to give some answers to this question. We do anticipate Bellwright to be available on the Xbox platform in Q4 of 2025. As far as how many new gamers, well, that's hard to say. There's lots of console gamers out there that enjoy the survival simulation, crafting type of gameplay. We do believe it is a unique product in that catalog. There's not too many of those types of games on that platform. If I would have to guess, it might be, at least as much as we have on PC, over time.

As far as if it would be a good candidate for the Game Pass program, that's up to Microsoft to consider. We do have communications open with their team regarding that subject. So, hopefully that question can get answered in the future. But as of right now, we don't have a definite confirmation.

Thank you. And another question. I know that the several gaming companies in the past have gotten into a little bit of trouble as they try to develop more games and then just kind of ran out of resources. I know that you have a different process for that, and I was wondering if you can kind of describe that a little bit and then also discuss some of your newer titles, potential release timelines and also the benefits of doing some revenue diversification.

Sure, sure. That's a very complicated question, but I'll do my best to break it down. So, we definitely have increased our licensing pipeline where last year we went out and signed 11 new publishing deals to publish content manufactured and developed by third parties.

We also kicked off or continued development of three internal projects. These projects are bigger in scale, using some with new IPs like the project For the Stars, and some with flagship IPs that we have retained for many years, named the Nine Yin Sutra, I believe, right?

And then, as we move on, we're constantly looking for new projects to publish, so we're very active in the sector looking for different projects to publish. The projects that we have signed, Honeycomb, for example, that is coming out on the second half of 2025, Echos of Elysium, another sandbox survival game that will also be arriving second half of 2025. Robots at Midnight is going to be the first half of 2025, so coming up here in a few months.

And then how do you allocate your resources among the marketing spend against some of the titles and how do you allocate those resources?

Sure. The resource allocation is mainly based on an analytical approach where we look at the size of the market that the game will be actively trying to establish a presence in. And based on the size of that market, we do some math, and we deduce the correct amount of marketing budget that we can afford to spend on the project.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.