Thunderful CEO Steps Down Amidst Financial Disappointments

It is rare that we hear about a CEO stepping down from a role. Today, we learned that Thunderful Games’ CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson has stepped down from the role to refocus his efforts on game development after it was revealed this week during a financial call this week that the company had lost $2.1 million during the previous financial quarter. In the meantime, former CFO Anders Maiqvist will be assuming the role until a new full-time CEO is appointed.

Thunderful was originally formed in 2017 by Sigurgeirsson, Bergsala Holding, and Klaus Lyngeled, but it became the Thunderful Group in 2019 following a merger with Bergsala. The company’s primary product has long been the Steamworld franchise including the likes of SteamWorld Dig and its sequel, SteamWorld Heist, along with SteamWorld Quest, and even its initial work, SteamWorld Tower Defence for 3DS from subsidiary Image & Form. When combining the lack of a new SteamWorld game, ports of those titles that never came to other platforms that could have made large sums, and titles such as The Gunk that didn’t exactly hit it big, the loss becomes easier to visualize, but no easier for the company to swallow.

The $2.1 million loss stood alongside an operating profit that had dropped by 62.1%. A deeper dive into the numbers can be found below:

Q2 2022

Revenue: SEK 618.7 million ($61 million), up 11.1%
Net loss: SEK 21.8 million ($2.1 million), down 206.9%
Adjusted EBITDA: SEK 69.3 million ($6.8 million), up 28.3%
Adjusted EBITA: SEK 31.5 million ($3.1 million), down 25%
Operating profit: SEK 9.4 million ($926,641), down 62.1%

H1 2022

Revenue: SEK 1.2 billion ($118.3 million), up 9.2%
Net loss: SEK 20.7 million ($2 million), down 161.6%
Adjusted EBITDA: SEK 113 million ($11.1 million), down 3.7%
Adjusted EBITA: SEK 58.8 million ($5.8 million), down 39.1%
Operating profit: SEK 14.6 million ($1.4 million), down 75.7%

When in financial doubt, what can you do? Announce a SteamWorld game of course! Look forward to one inevitably popping up soon.

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