Game Killed Off 2 Months After Release; Devs Surprised With Subpar Sales
The Formula One racing simulator F1 Manager 2022 recorded a poor debut. The game from Frontier Developments did worse financially than expected. The developers blame „players' price sensitivity” for the game's poor sales.
F1 Manager 2022 from Frontier Developments turned out to be a commercial flop. Despite the warm reception among critics (average rating of 78% on opencritic), the game turned out to be a huge disappointment in terms of revenue.
In a recently published financial report the studio revealed that F1 Manager 2022 sold "only" just over 600,000 copies worldwide. This is lower than the expected result.
Interestingly, in the financial document, the developers stressed that "increased sensitivity of players to the price of the game in times of deteriorating economic conditions" could potentially be responsible for this state of affairs.
The crushing financial report had a significant impact on Frontier Developments' stock market position. The Cambridge-based company's share price fell as much as 40% on Monday. Moreover, weak sales of F1 Manager 2022 caused the developer to lower its revenue and profit forecasts for 2023 and 2024.
Fortunately for the British developer, in the past year only F1 Manager 2022 turned out to be a financial bust. The studio's earlier launches, such as Jurassic World Evolution, Jurassic World Evolution 2, Planet Zoo, Planet Coaster and Elite Dangerous, continued to perform in line with expectations.
Lack of support explains the poor result?
Some gamers did not "buy" the developers' story of "gamers' price sensitivity," pointing out that there was another reason behind the game's poor sales, namely the quick end of support for the title.
After all, Frontier Developments announced in October that it had no intention of supporting the game with any "significant new additions." And although the developers - seeing the panic they caused - promised updates to improve balance and fix bugs, the community felt dejected.
Users of a subreddit dedicated to the game noted that such a quick declaration of "death" (just 2 months after the release) on the part of the developers certainly turned off a large part of potential players from reaching for F1 Manager 2022. This is, of course, a valid conclusion.
Recall that F1 Manager 2022 debuted on August 30, 2022. The game was released on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC.
