Snail, Inc.

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Snail Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. I would like to now turn the call over to Stephen Chinesky with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Snail Inc.' 's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Joining us for today's call are Snail Inc.' 's Chief Executive Officer, Hai Shi, Chief Financial Officer, Heidi Chow, and Senior Vice President, Director of Business Development and Operations, Peter King. The company's first quarter 2026 earnings press release was filed earlier today and is available on the Investor Relations section of Snail Inc.' 's website at www.snail.com or the SEC's website at www.sec.gov/.anchor. During this call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. Actual events or results may differ materially from our expectations, and forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the company's Form 10-Q as it files with the SEC and other SEC filings. The company makes these forward-looking statements as of today and disclaims any duty or obligation to update them or to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in its events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Additionally, on today's call, we refer to bookings and EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures and provide useful information for the company's investors. You will find historical reconciliation of bookings and EBITDA to the corresponding GAAP measures and the earnings press release and the company's SEC filings. And now, I will turn the call over to Peter Kang, Senior Vice President, Director of Business Development and Operations of Snail. Sir, please proceed.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review our financial and operational results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. Coming out of the fourth quarter last year, we reinforced the underlying fundamentals of our business. We exited 2025 with a diversified content pipeline that positioned Snail to deliver more predictable, stable growth. We announced a content roadmap for Arc, including new DLCs, content updates, and game modes that stretches through 2027. In parallel, we continue to strengthen Snail's positioning as a developer with several indie titles in development, and more importantly, three AAA titles now in the final phases of their development cycles. For the stars, Nanyan Sutra Immortal and Nanyan Sutra Wushu. I will return to each of these titles later in my remarks. Beginning with ARC, engagement remained consistent across the franchise during the quarter. ASE sold over 573,000 units. Average DAU was 117,000 and peak DAU was 143,000. ASA average DAU was 127,000. Peak DAU was 188,000 and more importantly, ASA total units sold for the quarter rose to 1.4 million, supported in part by the Steam Winter event and the strong momentum from the successful launch of ARK Lost Colony DLC in December 2025. ARK Mobile total downloads were approximately 11.9 million as of the end of the quarter, with average DAU of over 141,000. Over the next two months, we have several ASA updates planned over the coming months. Starting in May is the upcoming Fantastic Canes Season 1 Expansion Pack. Then in June 2026, we plan to release ARK Tides of Fortune, a new ASA DLC. In tandem, we also expect to officially launch the ASA remake of Ark Genesis part one, which will allow us to recognize approximately 11 million in revenue deferred from revenue balance at time of release. Beyond Ark, we released three new indie titles over the past few months. These include Echoes of Elysium on Steam Early Access, Survivor Mercs 1.0 version, and Above the Snow. We also unveiled two new indie titles in development, Dead Party and Gabi Game. While we are pleased with the consistency and stability ARK provides and the steady expansion of our indie portfolio, we are particularly focused about our broader diversified pipeline for the next several years. For many years, ARK has served as the foundational IP of our business. Our long stated strategy has been to build on that foundation and scale into a fully integrated developer and publisher capable of supporting multiple franchises at once. The investments we have made in our organizational development teams over the past several years have been made with that clear goal in mind. The three AAA titles currently in development represent the next major step into that strategy. Each is built with a production scope, depth, and marketing skill required to potentially compete in the same tier as ARK, and each is designed for a multi-year lifespan. As discussed on last quarter's call, these games have now entered the final phase of their development cycles. These three titles are not designed to compete with one another. They address distinct audiences and markets. For the Stars is a global intergalactic experience built around a phased gameplay vision. Nanyin Sutra Immortal and Nanyin Sutra Wushu are based around our historical success with an established IP and a strong user base with our previous launch of Eiji Wushu that has held a stronghold in the Chinese market. This edition represents a two-product strategy on that foundational IP. I will now walk through each individually. Beginning with For the Stars, we recently released a new developer diary featuring perspectives from key designers, engineers, and new pre-alpha gameplay footage alongside unreleased concept art. The game is being built around a vast universe with a strong emphasis on world building that generates an effectively limitless number of solar systems that players can explore and inhabit over time. Development is structured in phases. The initial phase focused on the single player and four to six player co-op experience. The long-term vision evolves the experience into an MMO style ecosystem where large numbers of players online can interact within a shared universe. At a high level, For the Stars is designed as a galactic-scale conquest and grand strategy experience, drawing comparisons to titles like Eve. However, the moment-to-moment gameplay emphasizes hands-on exploration, construction, and progression, evoking the feel of the title No Man's Sky and satisfactory blended together. This combined gameplay experience aims to balance strategic depths with accessible, engaging gameplay that appeals to both hardcore and mainstream audiences. We have a slate of additional announcements planned for For the Stars throughout the year and look forward to sharing further updates as development progresses towards launch. Turning now to our two-product IP strategy with Nyan Sutra Immortal and Nyan Sutra Wushu. The Nian Sutra IP has a large and loyal fan base in China. Its predecessor, Eiji Wuxiu, accumulated more than 85 million registered accounts across PC and mobile and defined the Wuxia genre. The Wuxia genre is characterized by content centered on martial arts, heroes, and ancient China. Fans have been waiting for the next chapter in this franchise for more than a decade. We believe the addressable market for these two titles is substantial. The Chinese gaming market remains highly attractive and many international publishers are consistently seeking meaningful entry points into the audience. Snail Games is historically well positioned. We hold established IP that is beloved with a historical proven user base and development capacity to deliver at scale. Laiyan Sutra Wushu is the closest sequel to the original Age of Wushu game and will return to the core Wushu genre in-universe. The title will replicate the MMORPG model and is intended to directly address long-standing demand from fans over the past 15 years. The title is being built on Unreal Engine 5 with the goal to deliver a cinematic masterpiece that portrays the ancient China wuxia setting at a level that has not previously been achieved in the genre. We expect to deliver more information during Gamescom later this year. Nayan Sutra Immortal will take a different approach around the cultivation genre. Cultivation is a wuxia-adjacent sub-genre focused on the progressive development of supernatural power over time. It is also one of the fastest-growing categories across the broader martial arts space. Nayan Sutra Immortal aims to leverage the existing IP to deliver a new cultivation genre experience that aligns with current gaming trends and preferences in China. The game is also being developed on the Unreal Engine 5. More information will be unveiled during Bilibili World and China Joy events later in the year. The two-genre strategy is intentional. It broadens the addressable audience for the 9-yen sutra IP within China by serving both longtime fans of the original Eiji Wushu and 9-yen IP, alongside a new generation of players drawn to the cultivation and martial arts genres. We believe this approach can support a multi-year to multi-decade lifespan across both titles and meaningfully expand snail games beyond the art franchise. Taken together, the combined potential of these three titles is unlike anything Snail Games has worked on since ARK. As we move through final development, we believe Snail is approaching an inflection point within the next several years to define Snail Games as a multi-franchise developer and publisher. In support of this strategy, I would also like to note that earlier in the month, we amended the exclusive software license agreements for ARC Survival Ascended. Under the amended terms, annual licensing fees will be reduced by 6 million annually going forward. We intend to reinvest the savings into the business with a particular interest towards development of the upcoming titles I have just described. The future is bright, and we look forward to sharing new information across our games in the pipeline while continuing to deliver new immersive content and experiences within ARC. Thank you for joining us today. I will now turn the call over to Heidi to discuss our financial results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2026. Heidi?

Thank you, Peter, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today as I review our financial results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2026. We entered 2026 with renewed momentum. The encouraging trends we saw coming out of Q4 2025, along with the strong business fundamentals we highlighted have carried into 2026 as expected. Our Q1 performance reflects that momentum. and we believe we are well positioned to sustain this trajectory, supported by the robust pipeline Peter outlined. Net revenue increased 35.7% to 27.3 million compared to 20.1 million in the same period last year. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to an increase of 4.2 million and 2.1 million in revenue related to ASA and Bellwright respectively, and a 2.5 million increase in deferred revenue recognized during the period, offset by a decrease in revenue from Art Mobile and ASE. Net income increased 210% to 2.1 million compared to a net loss of 1.9 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to an increase in net revenue of 7.2 million and a decrease in total operating expenses of 300,000, partially offset by an increase in provision for income taxes of 1.6 million. The increase in cost of revenue of 1.4 million and a decrease in total other income of $500,000. Epidemic increased 173.3% to $2.4 million compared to a loss of $3.2 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to an increase in net income of $4.1 million and an increase in the benefit from income taxes of $1.6 million. Total units sold increased 42.6% to 2.2 million compared to 1.5 million units in the same period last year. Primarily driven by an increase in sales of all franchise IPs of 500,000 units and bell rise of 200,000 units. Appeared online at the outset of the call, ASA units sold was 1.4 million for the three-month end period. The winter sale event supported a spike, which includes a sale of both the ASA base games and also the Lost Colony DLC. Bookings increased 21.1% to $26.9 million compared to $22.2 million in the same period last year, primarily driven by stronger sales promotions in 2026 compared to 2025. tailwind momentum of the December 2025 Art of Lost Colony DLC release and Bell Drive's highly regarded content update in late 2025. Lastly, as of March 31st, 2026, unrestricted cash was $14.3 million compared to $8.6 million as of December 31st, 2025. To review our detailed financial statements, please refer to the earnings press release and the Form 10-Q file with the SEC. Our robust ARC pipeline will be the foundation for sustainable performance throughout 2026. Looking ahead into the next few years, we foresee our revenue mix to evolve alongside the releases of key titles, including for the start, 9th Century Immortal, 9th Century Wushu, As Peter outlined, we believe these titles have a meaningful upside, and we remain bullish about their potential. We have several gaming events lined up throughout 2026, and we look forward to sharing additional updates on these titles over the course of the year. We remain focused on the fundamentals of snail's business, We believe continued execution on ART and realizing the potential of the three affirmation titles will propel SNAIL to deliver heightened results and shareholder value. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will not open the line for Q&A. As a reminder, some answers during Q&A session may be answered in Chinese by our CEO before being translated into English. Operator, please proceed.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. You'll hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. If you would like to remove yourself from the queue, press star 11 again. We ask that you wait for your name and company to be announced before proceeding with your question. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question of the day will be coming from the line of Michael. of Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and congratulations on a good quarter. A couple of questions. Across your overall game pipeline, it looks like 2026 has a lot of content that's coming up. I was wondering if you can dive into the content game and DLC roadmap for the rest of the year, and if I can just add on to that, what is the expected cadence of ARC-related content releases over the next 12 months And which launches are viewed internally as the most important catalyst for bookings growth?

Thank you, Michael. That was a great question. I'll give further question to Peter again.

Hey, Michael. So, just to recap, we definitely have a lot in the pipeline this year for the ARIC franchise and also some of our other internally developed IPs. The number is around 11. Anything from, you know, three new teams for our Survival Ascendants Fantastic Team Season Pass Pack. Bob's True Tale will have another pack coming out. ASA Genesis Part One. We also intend on releasing, re-releasing, I should say, ASA Survival of the Fittest, our esports mode for ASA. a project called ASA World Creator. And, of course, in December, we're going to be releasing ASA Dragotopia. Along with that, Bellwright will have its console ports arrived this year for both PlayStation and Xbox. And we have an internally developed project named Gobby Game that was mentioned earlier. And those are our internal projects we're working on. Along with that, we have six additional licensed IPs. that we'll be releasing throughout the year.

Great. In terms of Salty TV and the short film business, can you briefly explain where we sit on that in terms of the short video business and the number of videos produced and maybe some insight onto the future outlook for that line of business?

Absolutely, and I'm glad you asked that question. It is definitely a market segment that is wide open, and we're really trying to take advantage of the timing on this. So the Salty TV app today has launched over 49 IPs. And these are IPs that we've developed internally. In 2026, in total, the number of IPs has grown to 279. We've done this through licensing and other acquisition channels. This represents a 5.7x growth in terms of content. As far as subscribers go, While subscriptions are not the main payment model, it is one that we're very proud of. We had over 6,000 subscribers that have adopted to Salty TV's subscription model, and these subscriptions are either half year or a year long. Total downloads of the app itself, over 400,000 across iOS and Android. And this data is through May 12th, 2026.

Sounds like it's off to a good start. And then a couple of quick ones here. What level of development spending should investors anticipate in 2026 as the company advances its AAA pipeline? When should we start to see operating expenses moderate after the current development cycle?

Thank you, Michael. As you know, for the company, it's actually while we're working on multiple projects, we are cost conscious. We try to, we're not spending extra significant amount of money while we're building all these kind of different projects, different DLCs. Company is remaining as, you know, we don't spend as much on the cost side in regards to the operating expenses. And on top of that, Michael, that LCO, which actually Mr. Haixi wants to add on top of the Saucy TV side of the business.

Saucy TV, we are not only a party, but we have a very important strategy, which is a combination strategy. So this year, we will launch two interactive games. Because our games are relatively large-scale, we developed them ourselves. So in terms of short-term revenue, our means are insufficient. So this is also an important reason for us to do short-term and interactive games. So now the interactive games, basically our internal development period is 7 to 8 months. And the current two games, we are relatively confident that we can use more than 1 million copies.

For Salty TV, actually, the product is not just the vertical drama. More importantly, we're also trying to adopt a strategy where we're combining the dramas with the interactive themes. So this year, we're looking to release two interactive themes. For our internal AAA gaming projects, they are more large-scale, and then they are worked on by internal development teams. So in terms of the short-term revenues, maybe we're still looking to improve our strategy, and that's also one of the reasons why we are trying to look into the business line of vertical dramas as well as the interactive games. So for these two interactive games, the internal development cycle might take around seven to eight months. And we have high confidence into the performance, potential performance of these two interactive games once they release. And then we're looking at one million units of production. Both of these interactive games will be released around Q3 this year.

Great. Thanks for the other color. If I could put one more question in. Can you please provide a quick update regarding the stablecoin business, specifically the number of states that you're applying to and any general updates on that business?

Yes. So this is Peter again, and I'll give you an update on our stablecoin business. The USDO coin is definitely moving from building phase to launch phase readiness. We've been working on the platform infrastructure. It's pretty much functionally complete across wallet management, on-chain minting, on-chain burning, blockchain transfers, and KYC verification covering both enterprise and individual flows. Internal testing of the full digital marketplace is currently underway. On the compliance side of things and licensure, You know, the money transmitter license application is actively progressing across multiple states right now. KYC AML vendor selection has been approved by the chairman and CCO with some subcontracting in progress. Integration is already built and operational. Our compliance framework is being finalized in coordination with legal counsel ahead of launch. Distribution-wise, we're positioned across three distribution channels operating in parallel. First of all is the Noise Digital Warehouse. It's, you know, Noise is getting a new addition. It's going to be our proprietary gaming digital goods platform with USCO integration for purchases and sales. It will serve as our first go-to-market launch for USCO. Additionally, we have CryptoATM Network with a functional prototype already built for internal testing as we target real-world on-ramps for U.S. deal purchases, so sooner or later we'll likely see, you know, some crypto ATM machines deployed across various locations in the country.

Great. Thanks for the update. Thanks for taking all my questions.

Thank you. This now concludes today's program. Thank you so much for joining. You may now disconnect.