Quantic Dream an independent publisher has announced record-setting profits today and you can read all the details below
PARIS – September 17 2020 – Quantic Dream announced today that just one year after transitioning to an independent publisher, the company has generated record-setting profits. Quantic Dream’s employees have benefited financially due to a program established by senior executives to distribute free shares of the company’s stock. This program was created to recognize the contributions made by the studio’s employees allowing them to participate in the future development and results of the company.
“The opening of our capital to our employees is part of a constant process of involving our collaborators in the success of the studio”, explains David Cage, founder and CEO of Quantic Dream. Before being an independent publisher, our employees were associated with the success of the games through royalties on sales.
Since we are now our own publisher, it seemed natural to include all employees in the overall project of the company and its future. All our employees with more than one year of seniority are now shareholders of the company. With those who have joined us or will join us soon, they will soon hold more than 10% of its capital.”
NetEase’s entry into Quantic Dream’s capital in January 2019 contributed to the studio’s development and enabled it to become its own publisher. The publishing activity began with the launch of Heavy RainTM, Beyond: Two SoulsTM and Detroit: Become HumanTM on PC, first in digital through the Epic Games Store, then in physical version in a large number of countries. The release in June 2020 of these three games on the online platform Steam also contributed to the international success of these titles.
“These launches allowed the studio to achieve a record post-tax profit of more than 5.6 million Euros in 2019”, says Guillaume de Fondaumière, Chief Executive Officer of Quantic Dream. “In the first half of 2020, we then successfully expanded our distribution to Steam. Detroit: Become HumanTM is on its way to dethroning our blockbuster Heavy Rain as the best-selling game in our history, with more than 5 million units already sold on Playstation 4 and PC platforms.”
This success allows Quantic Dream to continue its development with serenity, despite a year marked by the Covid-19 crisis. The studio keeps investing in its own tools, its proprietary technology, the in-house productions and the third-party publishing of independent studios.
To cope with the health crisis, the studio quickly reorganized to allow all its employees to be quickly operational. “Like all companies, we have had to substantially change the way we operate since March 2020”, explains Marlène Richier, producer and elected staff representative. “However, we quickly adapted, with a strong focus on supporting our teams to organize their work from home. Management provided us with the means to do so very quickly. Regular employee survey were implemented allowing us to measure the quality of working conditions
within the teams. This helped us follow in particular the adaptation of each team’s organization to this year’s new paradigm.”
The quality of the work environment and the well-being of employees is regularly assessed anonymously among employees. The previous survey entrusted to the Insitute PeopleVox in 2019 had ranked Quantic Dream in first place of their company barometer. A new survey carried out by the same leading institute will be set up in September 2020 in order to collect once more the employees’ assessments of their working conditions.
Quantic Dream plans to maintain its current organization, focusing on remote working until health conditions allow a return to normal.
