Interview with new CEO of Vivid Games.
01.02.2021
Since Friday, you are the only member of Vivid Games Management Board and the new CEO of the Company. What do you think about these changes?
Together with Remigiusz [Kościelny], we have been creating Vivid Games for the past 14 years. He focused more on strategic areas, while I on operational areas however our visions were most often close and we made key decisions together. So these changes will not be revolutionary. I am ready to lead Vivid Games further and together with the whole team achieve the ambitious goals that lie ahead of us. I will try to ensure that messages addressed to both players and investors are published often, so that everyone knows what is happening with us.
Remigiusz also does not disappear from Vivid Games completely. He joined the Supervisory Board and will support us in making key strategic decisions.
How did the team react to such a big change?
Remigiusz informed the Team about his resignation personally, in line with our culture of openness and trust. The team was surely surprised, but Remigiusz's decision was met with understanding and calmness. For years we have been focusing on the development of our employees. Department and project managers are experienced and independent people. They know what we want to achieve and can choose the right path to reach the goal. We focus on building the context and setting a strategic goal. Remigiusz's resignation will not cause chaos in everyday work.
Will anyone join the team who will support you in managing the company?
As of today (01/02) the team is joined by Piotr Gamracy who is well-known in the industry. He created the Polish branch of NetEnt from scratch and performed important functions in other European gaming studios I am very happy that it is Piotr who will partially take over Remigiusz's duties as he fits perfectly into the organizational culture and values of Vivid Games. Among others he will be responsible for managing the Publishing and General Company departments. I am convinced that he will bring many new valuable ideas to the Company and will be a great support for me in daily work.
How do you rate the condition of Vivid Games?
I think the situation is very good and this year may be the best year in our history. In 2020, we dealt with the issue of approving the bond agreement which stabilized the company's financial situation. We built a cell in the marketing department responsible for paid acquisition of users for our games practically from scratch which translated into an increase in revenues and savings in costs. Previously, we outsourced these activities sharing the profit. The considerable work done by the Real Boxing 2 team is also noteworthy. The game engine has been updated to the latest version which will allow us to update faster and easier. There are also new titles with interesting growth prospects. All this will allow us to generate high and stable revenues from current and future games. At the same time we are looking for a hit that will bring at least PLN 4 million in revenue per month.
Which of the projects will be of key importance for you in 2021?
All the titles that do well in getting users are important to us. We are currently focusing on Real Boxing 2 or Knight Fight 2 but I do not exclude that over the course of the year there will be more. Our publishing plans for this year already include several titles like mobile RPG game - Amusing Heroes or our original Right Swipes concept produced for us by the Dutch studio Gamularity. In addition we want to test about 10 new titles half of which may be distributed globally at a later date. We will continue to invest in games that brought us record revenues last year.
At the end of last year Katarzyna Czesak-Woytala joined our team, who with her many years of experience in the banking industry is building a team for us to introduce Machine Learning solutions in our games. I believe that in case of paid player acquisition this is a key solution that if properly implemented should significantly affect player engagement and thus monetization in games.
A lot is happening and we're not going to slow down. We have a great team ambitious plans stable income and cash on our account. It is an ideal situation for us to develop Vivid Games to a level we have not yet been to.