GZW chief dev interview: Happy with sales but hoped for more, early access better than regular release, Chinese investor helped GZW

A Czech local magazine published an interview with Marek Rabas the boss of Madfinger Games. Here are some of the more interesting bits I think:

You will reach sales somewhere around 1.5 billion crowns (~60m EUR). "But of course we deduct all possible fees, server operation, technology... You will be left with much less in net," Rabas reminds us. "But with the way the game works now, we're totally fine. We don't have existential problems, we don't have cash flow issues, we don't need an investor," he adds.

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But Madfinger had an investor until recently. Nuverse, a Chinese firm under the giant ByteDance, the operator of TikTok. That's no longer the case, Madfinger is pure Madfinger again. "ByteDance was in fact shutting down its gaming operations and selling what it could. But we didn't want the stake in Madfinger to end up in a drawer somewhere or with God knows who. So we agreed to buy everything back, and they accommodated us," says Rabas. However, this was only the culmination of the cooperation with the Chinese investor, who invested CZK 130 million in the Brno company in 2021. "I can't complain about them. They supported us, brought a lot of research, provided information that guided us in the development of GZW," Rabas says. "And when you're making a game, you have a bit of tunnel vision and you think it's the best game in the world. It's just that sometimes you need a partner who sees things a little differently. Maybe even someone who might tell you that you're a complete moron," he adds with a laugh.

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Marek Rabas himself hoped that GZW would sell more after its release. "But you can just see that it's not ready yet. We kind of say the game is a quarter done," he explains. The realistic shooter was released in so-called pre-access, i.e. in a fully playable but, so to speak, on-the-fly version that is being finished and continuously expanded. The next big update is coming in a few months. "I think it's much better than working on something, then releasing it after seven years and losing a fortune because the market has changed in the meantime. This way you can respond to the wishes of the community and work with the players," he says. And that's exactly what's happening with Gray Zone Warfare. The original plans at Madfinger have been ditched these days, and the current focus is on attracting as many daily active users as possible. "So we're adding stuff primarily focused on player versus player battles. But while the roadmap has changed, we're still fulfilling the vision we have for several years ahead," Rabas says.

Source (in CZech): http://cc.cz/delat-byznys-s-cinou-jinde-ne-ale-v-hernim-prumyslu-jsou-v-pohode-rika-sef-brnenskeho-studia/

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)