In a press release intended for shareholders, the Cambridge studio, whose recent poor results have already pushed it to undertake a restructuring, does not see life rosy since the launch of its real-time strategy game. If Realms of Ruin has done relatively well in the press (the Gamekult test will be online this week) sales to date are below expectations, recognizes Frontier. A finding that is unfortunately not surprising given the low number of evaluations published on Steam after 10 days of marketing, not to mention this not really high peak of 1,572 simultaneous players at launch. Frontier wants to remain positive by noting that the month of December is approaching and that the game will be supported by an additional content program. But let’s be clear, this launch appears weak compared to Frontier’s habits.
What would games be without Frontier?
After cutting short its ambitions as a third-party game publisher by shelving the Frontier Foundry label, David Braben’s studio can no longer afford to give free rein to too much experimentation. The stated objective is therefore to refocus on the core business, namely construction and management simulations which have allowed the studio to develop strongly while maintaining its independence. “ Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, Jurassic World Evolution and Jurassic World Evolution 2 continue to perform well and have each grossed over $100 million, for a combined total of over $500 million. All four games achieved profitability within a month of release and generated over 100% ROI within 12 months of release “, explains Frontier.
In fact, the studio’s new goal is now to release a construction and management simulation during each of the company’s next three fiscal years. All without abandoning its other games still in activity which are Elite Dangerous, F1 Manager and Realms of Ruin. In the meantime, the disappointing launch of the latter invites a new assessment of the objectives for the current fiscal year, whose turnover is expected to fall between 92 and 110 million euros against a target of 124 million euros previously. Operating income remains expected to be around 10 million euros in losses. Frontier is currently restructuring to reduce operating costs by at least 20% and return to profitability by spring 2025.
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