US publisher Steve Jackson Games posted the annual overview of the company’s performance, dubbed “the annual stakeholder report for 2022,” in which he whimsically took a jab at Fortune 500 companies, and offered a full disclosure of the company’s financial and the personal significance of its success.
The Shareholder’s Success Is Everyone’s Success
The year 2022 proved to be one that went over smoothly, with the company making no significant gains in terms of staff, but also going through it without redundancies or layoffs. As Jackson put it, there is only one stakeholder in the firm – Steve, but then again, the company’s success is also the success of other people.
The employees, distributors, retailers, and the actual gamers who play the games. As such, gross income stood at just “north of $4.7 million” and the company enjoyed a strong cash flow. The company could have also booked a small profit, but for tax purposes, Steve Jackson Games chose to get rid of some slow-moving inventory and show a small loss instead.
“Let’s see a Fortune 500 company give you a report that explicit, never mind doing it in two sentences,” Jackson said taking a swing at convoluted reports that offer little substance at times. The company spoke about several highlights during the past year, including a new approach to direct sales.
The company has been looking to explore more direct sales opportunities – to gamers and retailers both and has used a Shopify store to get things moving. A lot of effort has been put into that and the initial results seem to be promising. Jackson did say the Shopify store was slow to set up in 2022, and it took until 2023 to get it running and put it out tentatively. The company hopes that these efforts will pay off.
No Dramatic Failures in 2022
Kickstarter continues to be an important part of the company’s overall strategy with large and small campaigns performing well throughout the year. “Kickstarter the marketplace has been good to us,” he argued, reflecting a similar sentiment by other companies over the past months.
Thankfully, there were no “dramatic failures” Jackson said in his matter-of-fact writing. There were no layoffs he reminded, so that was better than the “average Fortune 500 megacorp.” There again, there was no hiring push either, which meant that people had to work hard to continue producing at the expected pace.
Steve Jackson Games’ update was more like a talk between two close friends than your average financials breakdown, which makes it so great in the first place.