East Side Games Group Q4 2025 Earnings Report

East Side Games Group EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -C$0.13
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

East Side Games Group Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $19.76 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

East Side Games Group Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 3/31/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

East Side Games Group (TSE:EAGR) Inc is a free-to-play mobile game group, that creates engaging games that produce enduring player loyalty. Its studio group entrepreneurial culture is anchored in creativity, execution, and growth through a diverse portfolio of original and licensed IP mobile games that include Archer: Danger Phone, Bud Farm Idle Tycoon, Cheech & Chong Bud Farm, The Goldbergs: Back to the 80s, It's Always Sunny: The Gang Goes Mobile; Trailer Park Boys Greasy Money, and many more. It generates revenue through in-app purchases (IAP) from the sale of in-game virtual items that enhance the gameplaying experience, and through in-game advertising.

East Side Games Group Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Company is executing a strategic pivot from top-line growth to profitability and cash flow, targeting a 60-day ROAS, prioritizing fully funded exclusive licensed deals, and guiding 2026 revenue of CAD 50–56 million with Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 7.5–10 million.
• Negative Sentiment: 2025 results showed weakness: revenue of CAD 77.6 million (down 7% YoY) and Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 800,000 (down 92% YoY), with a DAU base of 196,000 and ARPDAU of CAD 1.09.
• Positive Sentiment: Leadership has implemented cost cuts and operational changes—including a reduction in force, cancellation of high‑risk projects, and bringing live operations in‑house—projected to add approximately CAD 4 million to free cash flow annually and ~CAD 1 million in incremental net revenue.
• Positive Sentiment: Revenue mix and fee tailwinds are improving: D2C in‑app revenue in the U.S. rose from 0.2% to 5% in Q4 (projected to reach the high teens in Q1 2026), off‑platform payments already returned CAD 320k, and Google’s fee cuts are expected to add ~CAD 0.5 million in annual profit.
• Negative Sentiment: Balance sheet and covenant risk remain: total debt is CAD 5.3 million (net CAD 4.9M), the company is currently non‑compliant with a credit covenant and is seeking a waiver from its lender, and it expects a temporary debt increase in Q1 2026 to cover severance and litigation costs.

Presentation

[Operator]

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Jason Bailey. Please go ahead.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

Welcome everybody to the East Side Games Group Q4 and full year 2025 earnings call. I'm Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO of East Side Games Group, and today we will share highlights from the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2025. I'd like to remind you that certain statements made on this call are forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This call includes references to non-GAAP measures, and please refer to our fourth quarter press release and MD&A precautionary statements relating to the forward-looking information and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP results. References to all figures are in Canadian dollars on an IFRS basis, unless otherwise noted. Additional materials can be found in the investor section of our website at www.eastsidegamesgroup.com under the Financial Information section.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

I want to start by addressing our strategy and performance over the past year and the shifts in focus for 2026 and beyond. Our focus in 2025 was on aggressive growth, which led to the launch of several titles in a new genre in the second half of the year. These titles demonstrated some of the best metrics, player engagement, and conversion rates in our history, proving they were the most polished games ever built by East Side Games Group. However, this strategy was unsustainable due to difficult market environment. We faced high saturation and increasingly expensive user acquisition costs, consumers entrenched in existing games, and aggressive platform fees that compressed margins. Consequently, our traditional marketing spend no longer justified the returns, so we had to pivot back to near-term profitability and strategy in order to rebuild our war chest.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

Crucially, one of several bright spots has been the successful execution of the initial milestones of our fully funded platform exclusive titles. This low-risk model leverages East Side Games Group's strength with IP partners to secure more stable, guaranteed revenues, profits, and cash flows. For 2026 and beyond, we are fundamentally shifting our strategy. Our focus will transition from top-line growth to pure profitability and cash flow generation. We will continue to concentrate on fully funded deals for exclusive licensed titles on major platforms. In order to quickly rebuild cash reserves, we are also moving away from a 365-day return on ad spend model to a more disciplined 60-day target, and to ensure the users we do acquire are of the highest quality from both retention, monetization, and a lifetime value standpoint. The C-team will now provide further insights and details.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

First up is our Chief Financial Officer, Jason Chan.

[Jason Chan, Interim CFO at East Side Games Group]

Thanks, Jason. Today, we reported our results for the company's fourth quarter and year-to-date periods ending December 31st, 2025. As a reminder, all amounts provided are in Canadian dollars. We ended 2025 with CAD 77.6 million in top-line revenue, a 7% decrease from 2024 year-on-year, and an Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 800,000, a 92% decrease from 2024. We've already taken decisive actions, including a necessary reduction in force to rightsize our team and the cancellation of high-risk projects. Additionally, we are moving more of the live operations of our core games in-house. These efficiency measures are expected to contribute approximately CAD 4 million to free cash flow annualized on a go-forward basis. Furthermore, we are capitalizing on expected industry changes, particularly with platform fee structures.

[Jason Chan, Interim CFO at East Side Games Group]

By implementing off-platform fee payments, we expect to add 10-15 percentage points back to our margins, a move that has already generated CAD 320,000 back into our bottom line from Q4 to Q1, 2026. Our core portfolio remains our greatest strength with high-quality users who continue to monetize above industry standards, maintaining a strong margin of approximately 14%. The user base remains at 196,000 daily active users with an average ARPDAU, average revenue per daily active user, of CAD 1.09. From a capital structure perspective, the company ended Q4, 2025, with a total debt of CAD 5.3 million and a net debt of CAD 4.9 million.

[Jason Chan, Interim CFO at East Side Games Group]

Elevated funded debt levels combined with lower trailing EBITDA, driven by increased user acquisition, marketing investments, and certain one-time costs, resulted in non-compliance with a financial covenant under the company's credit agreement. The company has been in active discussions with its lender and has been told to expect to receive a tolerance or waiver in respect of such non-compliance. However, there can be no assurance that any such tolerance or waiver will be provided on terms acceptable to the company or at all. In the near term, the company expects a temporary increase in debt in Q1 2026 to fund certain one-time expenses, including severance payouts and litigation costs. The company is seeking additional accommodations from RBC as restructuring initiatives continue. These short-term impacts do not reflect a change in strategic direction.

[Jason Chan, Interim CFO at East Side Games Group]

The company's current plan is focused on maximizing profitability with a view to return to positive EBITDA and materially reducing debt over the remainder of 2026 and the next 12 months. However, these expectations are forward-looking and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Ultimately, this strategic shift isn't just a pivot. It's a firm and necessary reset for the business. Similar to our pivot back to profitability back in 2023, we have conviction that our profitability strategy, which includes the rightsizing, the project cancellations, and the in-house moves, will ensure a long-term, stable, and profitable growth for ESG. We appreciate your patience and support as we execute the path ahead. I will now pass it on to Ms. Shek, our Chief Operating Officer.

[Lisa Shek, COO at East Side Games Group]

Thanks, Jason Chan. From an operations standpoint, Q4 marked a deliberate shift from growth to disciplined execution. We've taken meaningful action to reduce costs across both our internal teams and our partner ecosystem.

[Lisa Shek, COO at East Side Games Group]

Internally, we've streamlined the organization and aligned teams more tightly to our highest-performing titles. Externally, we've reset partner economics to better reflect today's market realities, focusing on structures that are sustainable, performance-based, and aligned with profitability. As a result, we're seeing a structurally leaner business with a much cleaner line of sight from revenue to positive EBITDA. We have also taken a more active approach to our partner portfolio management. This includes optimizing how certain titles are operated, including bringing select titles in-house. Through these efforts, we're able to capture approximately CAD 1 million in incremental net revenue on an annualized basis while also improving execution speed and player outcomes. More broadly, this reflects a shift toward owning more of the value chain where it makes sense and being highly selective where we partner. Third, we've implemented much tighter capital allocation discipline, particularly in user acquisition.

[Lisa Shek, COO at East Side Games Group]

Moving from a 365-day to a 60-day return framework has fundamentally changed how we deploy capital. While this reduces top-line growth in the near term, it significantly improves cash conversion and reduces risk, both of which are critical as we focus on debt reduction and balance sheet strength. Taken together, these changes are not one-time actions. They represent a new operating model for the business, leaner teams, more aligned partnerships, greater ownership of high-value assets, and disciplined ROI-driven investment. We're already seeing the impact of our margin profile in 2026, and we expect continuing improvement as these changes fully annualize. Looking ahead, our focus remains on consistent execution, profitability, and cash generation while we selectively investing in opportunities that meet our highest bar for returns. Thanks, and I'll pass it over to Jim Wagner, our Chief of Product.

[Jim Wagner, Chief of Product at East Side Games Group]

Thank you, Ms. Shek. As we shift our strategic focus to profitability and cash generation, I'll be highlighting our success in growing our direct-to-consumer revenue, the beneficial aspects of the recent incoming changes to regulation and platform fees, and our ability to leverage our long-tail revenues from our long live service portfolio. We kicked off our initiative to increase our direct-to-consumer or D2C revenue in Q3 of 2025. As a reminder, currently, the major mobile game platforms take a fee of 30% from all purchases made in-app using their billing services. Changes that occurred in Q3 of 2025 as a result of legal rulings allow developers to offer additional off-platform payment choices for billing services to players, which have dramatically lower fee structures for the developer. The result is a significant increase to gross profit.

[Jim Wagner, Chief of Product at East Side Games Group]

These changes are extremely impactful for developers that have existing audiences with pre-established spending behavior. We're happy to report that we were able to increase our percentage of in-app revenue from D2C in the U.S. from 0.2% in Q3 at the start of the initiative to 5% in Q4, and are projected to hit the high teens in Q1 of 2026. In addition, Google recently announced a reduction in its platform service fees from the historical 30% rate to a more flexible tiered structure ranging from 10%-25%, depending on transaction type and billing model. These changes will take effect beginning June 30, 2026. The company expects the revised fee structure to contribute approximately half a million dollars in incremental annual profit.

[Jim Wagner, Chief of Product at East Side Games Group]

The industry expectation is that Apple will be forced to follow suit, which will also dramatically increase this profitability. Our live service titles continue to generate profit for the company, and over the course of Q4, we were able to optimize our revenue by releasing new features, running A/B tests, and implementing dynamic pricing capabilities. For example, after a successful A/B test, we fully rolled out a new currency pass feature called Piggy Bank in Bud Farm: Idle Tycoon. By dynamically segmenting different players with different Piggy Banks, we were able to fully optimize performance, which led to a 22% increase in event ARPDAU quarter-over-quarter. This feature is now planned to roll out across all our idle games in the first half of 2026.

[Jim Wagner, Chief of Product at East Side Games Group]

Through the same methodology, we are constantly introducing new ad placements, game modes, season passes, and event balances across our portfolio of over 15 live service games. Looking towards the future, we're exploring beyond mobile. We're actively building a title that can be played across mobile and connected TV, as well as exploring projects that can be deployed for sale on mobile, PC, and console. With that, I'll pass it back to Jason Bailey for closing remarks.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

Thanks, everyone. I want to be super clear here. 2025 was a tough year. We made some bold bets and faced high headwinds. At the end of the day, we have an incredible portfolio of games. We have right-sized the business and refocused on cash production. With that, we expect to do between CAD 50 million and CAD 56 million in revenue for 2026, with Adjusted EBITDA of between CAD 7.5 million and CAD 10 million. We will do this while consistently paying down our debt as well as investing in new titles. With a renewed focus on work-for-hire projects published by larger partners, we are finding ways to guarantee profitability in a turbulent market. I have deep confidence in our leadership team to guide us through this next 12 months and back to a position of strength with a deep war chest and a strong pipeline of games.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

As always, feel free to reach out to me directly, jason@eastsidegames.com. I appreciate the time and diligence of our supportive shareholders and the many constructive conversations that we've had. We look forward to a full report on Q1 in just a few weeks and the additional color we will be able to provide then. Thank you from the entire East Side Games Group team. I'll now pass it to questions from analysts.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. It seems we don't have any questions. Please proceed.

[Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO at East Side Games Group]

Okay. Thanks, guys. Well, feel free to reach out to me, jason@eastsidegames.com, and happy to answer any questions from shareholders. Thanks so much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Jason Bailey, Executive Chair and CEO
• Jason Chan, Interim CFO
• Jim Wagner, Chief of Product
• Lisa Shek, COO