Last checked at 22 Nov 2021 07:00
22 November 2021
Frontier Developments plc
Trading Update
Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV, "Frontier" or the "Company"), a leading developer and publisher of videogames based in Cambridge, UK, provides an update on trading for the current financial year FY22, the 12 months ending 31 May 2022.
Our well-established titles, including Jurassic World Evolution, Planet Zoo, and Planet Coaster, continue to perform well, as new players come to those games and engage with both the base game and with paid downloadable content, while sales of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey have been more muted so far in FY22.
Our latest multiplatform game, Jurassic World Evolution 2, was released as planned on 9 November 2021 on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation®4 and Xbox One. The critical and audience reception from launch has been very positive, thanks to the hard work of our talented people across our development, publishing and support teams. Our player community are enjoying the enhancements we have made, as well as the new content that we have introduced, building on the strong foundations of Jurassic World Evolution. Game reviews are very good - the scores compiled by Opencritic show 44 reviews at the time of this update, with a Top Critic Average score of 80.
Pre-order sales of Jurassic World Evolution 2 were encouraging, with unit volumes on each platform comparable to the levels achieved by Jurassic World Evolution in the run-up to its release in June 2018. However, sales of the game over the initial period following its release have been lower than expected on the PC platform. We believe this is potentially a short-term effect from a more crowded release window than expected, with a number of other highly anticipated titles launching in the same window. Simultaneous release on PlayStation and Xbox consoles of both digital and physical versions went ahead smoothly, and console sales numbers are largely as expected.
We continue to project Jurassic World Evolution 2 to overtake Jurassic World Evolution in terms of revenue in its first 12 months from release. We believe the initial PC sales are primarily a phasing issue, where we expect further significant sales around Christmas, with excitement strong on PC (with over 440,000 on the Steam wishlist). Sales in the first 12 months will also benefit from the launch of the Jurassic World Dominion film in June 2022.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 will be our biggest release and our largest revenue contributor in this financial year FY22, the 12 months to 31 May 2022. Based on the lower initial PC sales noted above and the under-performance of Odyssey in the financial year to date, we are prudently updating our revenue guidance for FY22 to £100 million to £130 million. The wide guidance range is indicative of the variability of outcomes across our whole portfolio as we approach the important holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas).
We will continue to closely monitor sales performance of all of our games over the next six to eight weeks, and expect to provide a trading update early in the new year.
Looking further ahead, excitement is building for our first F1 management title in 2022 and we look forward to delivering our Warhammer: Age of Sigmar real-time strategy game in the future. We also have exciting titles to come from our games label for third party publishing, Frontier Foundry, which is making good progress. FAR: Changing Tides and Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters will be releasing later in this financial year and a number of great unannounced titles are coming in the future.
David Braben, CEO and Founder said "A massive thank you to everyone involved with the launch of Jurassic World Evolution 2. Whilst initial sales on PC have been lower than we targeted, the game is already being enjoyed by around half a million players across all platforms, and showing very strong critical and player reviews. We are confident that it's another terrific addition to our great portfolio of games. Frontier's future looks strong and our portfolio continues to grow."
Conference call for analysts:
Frontier will host a conference call with analysts at 09.00 am today. To participate please contact Tulchan Communications at frontier@tulchangroup.com for details.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The person responsible for making this announcement on behalf of the Company is Alex Bevis.
Enquiries:
Frontier Developments +44 (0)1223 394 300
David Braben, CEO
Alex Bevis, CFO
Liberum - Nomad and Joint Broker +44 (0)20 3100 2000
Neil Patel / Cameron Duncan
Jefferies - Joint Broker +44 (0)20 7029 8000
Max Jones / William Brown
Tulchan Communications +44 (0)20 7353 4200
Matt Low / Jordan McCulla / Olivia Lucas
About Frontier Developments plc
Frontier is a leading independent developer and publisher of videogames founded in 1994 by David Braben, co-author of the iconic Elite game. Based in Cambridge, Frontier uses its proprietary COBRA game development technology to create innovative genre-leading games, primarily for personal computers and videogame consoles. As well as self-publishing internally developed games, Frontier also publishes games developed by carefully selected partner studios under its Frontier Foundry games label.
About Jurassic World Evolution 2
Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a major sequel to Frontier's highly successful Jurassic World Evolution which builds upon the ground-breaking and immersive 2018 management simulation. Jurassic World Evolution 2 introduces a compelling, new narrative campaign, incredible new features and awe-inspiring new dinosaurs brought to life with captivating authenticity. Together with expanded construction and more customisation options, the result is an even bigger, better and authentic Jurassic World game.
Frontier's LEI number: 213800B9LGPWUAZ9GX18.
www.frontier.co.uk