Frontier Dev Share News (FDEV)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Video-game developer Frontier Developments PLC posted a widened pretax loss for its first half and reiterated its expectations of seeing revenue double in its full year to GBP19 million.

For the half year to end-November 2014, the company posted a pretax loss of GBP1.9 million, widened from a pretax loss of GBP1.6 million a year before, despite a rise in revenue to GBP7.3 million from GBP5.0 million due to higher operating expenses, as it continued to invest in its self-published titles and its 'Cobra' game engine software.

Self-published titles accounted for 55% of its revenue, compared to 3% in the previous year.

The company's 'Elite: Dangerous' game was released fully to the public in December, after then first half ended, and had around 160,000 pre-orders and early access customers worth GBP8.4 million as at the end of November. The company said revenue from the game in December was GBP5.8 million, including deferred income of GBP2.3 million.

As a result of this, the company expects its full-year results to be skewed towards its second half.

Following the half-year end the company announced it will be developing a new self-published title 'Coaster Park Tycoon'.

"Since the half year was over, we have successfully completed projects with our publishing partners and with the resources that have become available have since announced continued investment in our transition with the start of development of Coaster Park Tycoon [...] in parallel with further development of Elite: Dangerous and a re-structuring of our operations," said Chief Executive Officer David Braben in a statement.

Shares in Frontier Developments are trading down 1.9% at 235.00 pence Tuesday morning.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews

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