Worms Maker Team17 Issues Profit Warning, Insists Next Year Will Be Better

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The UK video game industry continues to suffer poor results, this time at Worms maker Team17.

The veteran indie publisher and developer issued a profit warning for this financial year, saying that despite revenue expected to come in “modestly” ahead of current market expectations, profit is expected to be down.

That’s because certain games “are not meeting internal expectations”, which has in turn caused a “less favourable mix” between higher margin owned intellectual property games and third-party games with higher royalty payments. In short, Team17’s own games are selling well enough.

Meanwhile, Team17 said it was too slow to address some project overspend, and has seen delays in cutting costs. Last month, Team17 confirmed a round of layoffs, with a consultation process set to end this month. CEO Michael Pattison is expected to leave.

In its note today, Team17 said it’s reviewing a number of titles, both under development and already launched, “to assess the revenue potential in the current market environment, which is expected to result in impairments recognised in FY23.” That amounts to an impairment charge of £11.5 million for the current financial year to 31 December 2023.

Team17 games include Dredge, Moving Out 2, Headbangers, and Ship of Fools. Coming soon is Classified: France 44, Earthless, and Conscript. Looking ahead, Team17 said it expects the next financial year to be better. “The Group has an exciting schedule of high-quality new releases planned across the Group in 2024, while back catalogue investments will continue to support revenue growth,” Team17 said. “Management will provide greater clarity on FY24 at the full year results, but currently expects to see an improved underlying trading performance compared to FY23.”

Team17 Group PLC shares have fallen steadily throughout 2023, and plunged 40% on the latest news.

Team17 is just one of a number of UK video game companies that have endured financial problems in 2023. Frontier Developments, which is also going through a round of redundancies, today issued a trading update after Realms of Ruin sales flopped. IGN recently reported on significant redundancies set for Sega-owned Creative Assembly after the cancellation of extraction shooter Hyenas. Elsewhere, Fall Guys developer Mediatonic was said to have been “decimated” by layoffs triggered by parent company Epic Games, creator of battle royale Fortnite.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.