REG - Frontier Dev PLC - Trading Update

Frontier DevelopmentsAnnouncement

22/11/2021 07:05

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RNS Number : 0441T  Frontier Developments PLC  22 November 2021

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
(https://opencritic.com/game/11576/jurassic-world-evolution-2/reviews) 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 (http://www.frontier.co.uk/)

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