Frontier Developments has issued a trading update following poor launch sales of its real-time strategy game Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin.
Realms of Ruin launched on November 17 and promised eye-catching RTS gameplay set within Games Workshop's Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe.
According to SteamDB, Realms of Ruin Steam concurrent players peaked at 1,572. At the time of this article’s publication, just 129 were playing on Valve’s platform, and Steam's Realms of Ruin user review rating is 'mixed'.
Shares plunged nearly 20% on the news, in which Frontier admitted week one sales of Realms of Ruin were “lower than expected”. However, Frontier insisted it will “evolve and support” the game with post-release content, including premium DLC, and so it “expects sales to build over time”.
The Cambridge, UK developer has endured a tough year, with a number of recent games failing to set tills alight. Last month, Frontier announced an organisational review of the business that included a wave of redundancies, subject to consultation.
Frontier is the veteran studio behind 2014’s space sim Elite: Dangerous, Zoo Tycoon, Planet Coaster, and the Jurassic World Evolution games. In recent years, it’s released two F1 Manager games, as well as Realms of Ruin. Frontier also published games from external developers under its Frontier Foundry label, including Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, Deliver Us Mars, and FAR: Changing Tides.
In January, Frontier said it planned to lower its original sales expectations for the fiscal years of 2023 and 2024 after its games underperformed during the 2022 holiday season. F1 Manager 2022, which launched in August 2022, was singled out, with "lower than expected" sales of 600,000 across console and PC. At the time, Frontier said there was "increased player price sensitivity" amid larger concerns of a global economic recession.
Then, in June, Frontier announced the closure of its Frontier Foundry subsidiary and a plan to concentrate on its own universe of curated games, admitting to "disappointing" financial performance across its third-party portfolio. F1 Manager 2023 launched in July but is thought to have similarly underperformed.
In this latest trading update, Frontier said it is refocusing on creative management simulation games (CMS). “Frontier's move to diversify its game portfolio during the last five years, including through third-party publishing and new games in 'adjacent genres', has not delivered the anticipated success,” Frontier said. “As a result, the Company has refocussed on CMS games which have delivered stronger and more predictable returns through Frontier's expertise and leadership in that genre.”
Frontier said its four CMS games (Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, Jurassic World Evolution, and Jurassic World Evolution 2) “continue to perform well” and have each achieved over $100 million of gross revenue with a combined total of over $500 million. All four games achieved profitability within one month of release and delivered over 100% return on investment within 12 months of release, the company added. The three games which have been in the market for four years or longer (Planet Coaster, Jurassic World Evolution and Planet Zoo) have all achieved a cumulative return on investment of over 250%.
With this in mind, Frontier has confirmed three future CMS games, with one releasing in each of the next three financial years. Alongside this it will continue to develop and support its existing portfolio of games, including Elite Dangerous, F1 Manager, and Realms of Ruin.
Frontier adjusted its outlook off the back of Realms of Ruin’s poor performance, saying its previous expectation of around £108 million in revenue for the current financial year will not be achieved. Instead, it expects to bring in £80 to £95 million, but this depends on a number of factors. Frontier expects to make a loss of around £9 million for the financial year, but that’s if it makes the upper-end of its expected revenue. The “organisational review”, as Frontier puts it, continues.
Looking further ahead, Frontier said it expects to break even in the next financial year, off the back of money coming in from existing games, revenue from the CMS game due out, and a 20% operating cost reduction from layoffs. Frontier insisted it remains well capitalised, with a cash balance of £20.5 million. That cash figure excludes the fee from Microsoft for F1 Manager 2023 entering the Game Pass subscription service during October.
Chairman David Wilton is out, with Ilse Howling stepping up. Frontier boss David Braben said it had been a “turbulent and difficult year” for Frontier.
Jonny Watts, Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am pleased to confirm a third creative management simulation game on our development roadmap. I am confident that our renewed focus on CMS will return Frontier back to profitability, deliver stimulating games to our players, and provide rewarding opportunities for our people. I'd like to thank our people and our shareholders for their patience and support as we go through a challenging period of change."
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
