Full report:
Copy pasta of sections mentioning Elite Dangerous:
This major new expansion suffered some initial connectivity problems in the first few days of release, in part due to record player numbers, but primarily due to a fault that took 36 hours to track and rectify. Some players have also reported other issues, such as performance in terms of frame rate. We have achieved some success already with a series of client and server side updates, and we will continue to work hard to address the wider issues and turn sentiment around on the game.
Odyssey represents a huge investment in the future of Elite Dangerous, with an ambition to match - the whole of the Milky Way galaxy to the millimetre scale with billions of planets to explore. We are confident that through continued updates and engagement with our community, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will provide many hours of enjoyment to millions of players over many years.
Later in calendar 2021 we will bring our multi-platform Elite Dangerous community back together when Odyssey comes to PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
Looking ahead we are hoping to transition back to more office-based working later in calendar 2021, subject to government guidance and the safety of our staff. In the first instance, this will be a planned phased return to using the studio on an ad-hoc basis, followed by a transition to a hybrid office/home working model which we plan to adopt for a trial period of approximately 6 months. We believe this will resolve the collaboration challenges from exclusive home working, whilst also providing our staff with the flexibility to enjoy both the efficiency benefits and the personal benefits that home working can provide.
We are proud to have achieved record annual revenue in FY21 from continued global engagement with our four existing major self-published titles, without a new franchise release. It's testament to the support of our well-established player communities and our model of post-launch content, as well as our ability to reach new players on existing and new platforms. A record numbers of players have engaged with Frontier games in the last twelve months.
Our passionate and dedicated staff have worked diligently through the challenges posed by coronavirus and home working. I'd like to say a massive thank you and well done to all at Frontier for their hard work and resilience.
Our most recent major release, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, is a huge step forward in the game, and the mixed initial reaction to the PC launch on 19 May was obviously disappointing. Connectivity issues were a problem, particularly for the first 36 hours post-release, and caused poor experiences for the majority of players, together with a number of other issues. Elite Dangerous is a game of enormous scope - simulating the entire Milky Way. Odyssey is an upgrade of exceptional ambition - allowing players to walk on habitable planets, to engage in first person combat and exploration, and to interact with the galaxy at a human scale rather than a space craft scale. Realising that ambition (which I have wanted to do since the 1980s!), has proven even more challenging than we expected, but the fundamental systems are now in place, and an increasing proportion of players appear to be enjoying Odyssey as we hoped they would. We are working toward not only resolving Odyssey's issues but also further realising our vision for what the Elite Dangerous experience can become.
As we start our next financial year our target is to grow sales by over 50% above the record revenue just achieved, through the launch of Jurassic World Evolution 2 - a major sequel for our biggest game to date, the performance of our existing portfolio, including the console release of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, new paid and free downloadable content across our titles, and at least three new titles from our excellent external development partners published by Frontier Foundry, including Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, announced just a few days ago."
Copy pasta of sections mentioning Elite Dangerous:
HIGHLIGHTS
- Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, our major expansion for the iconic space game Elite Dangerous (2014), released on PC on 19 May 2021
ELITE DANGEROUS: ODYSSEY
The launch of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey on PC on 19 May 2021 heralded the start of a new era for the definitive space simulation. Odyssey allows players to touch down on newly accessible planets with light atmospheres; to explore, engage in combat and trade, take on missions, and work together or alone over their surfaces with complete freedom from a first person, feet-on-the-ground perspective.This major new expansion suffered some initial connectivity problems in the first few days of release, in part due to record player numbers, but primarily due to a fault that took 36 hours to track and rectify. Some players have also reported other issues, such as performance in terms of frame rate. We have achieved some success already with a series of client and server side updates, and we will continue to work hard to address the wider issues and turn sentiment around on the game.
Odyssey represents a huge investment in the future of Elite Dangerous, with an ambition to match - the whole of the Milky Way galaxy to the millimetre scale with billions of planets to explore. We are confident that through continued updates and engagement with our community, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will provide many hours of enjoyment to millions of players over many years.
Later in calendar 2021 we will bring our multi-platform Elite Dangerous community back together when Odyssey comes to PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
TRADING
Trading in the final months of the financial year included the ongoing performance of the existing portfolio and the initial revenue contribution from the launch of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey on PC on 19 May 2021. Building on the performance in the first half of the financial year and the important December festive period, sales of both base game units and paid downloadable content ("PDLC") in the remainder of the financial year helped to deliver provisional unaudited total FY21 revenue of approximately £91 million, which is a company record, and was achieved without the launch of a major new franchise.CORONAVIRUS
Working exclusively at home continues to be the norm for the majority of our talented team, who continue to manage admirably through the challenges posed by coronavirus. The greatest challenges which we have experienced from exclusive home working tend to relate to the collaboration of staff on large projects, particularly in their later stages, such as previously noted for Elite Dangerous: Odyssey where we took the difficult decision to delay and split the PC and console releases.Looking ahead we are hoping to transition back to more office-based working later in calendar 2021, subject to government guidance and the safety of our staff. In the first instance, this will be a planned phased return to using the studio on an ad-hoc basis, followed by a transition to a hybrid office/home working model which we plan to adopt for a trial period of approximately 6 months. We believe this will resolve the collaboration challenges from exclusive home working, whilst also providing our staff with the flexibility to enjoy both the efficiency benefits and the personal benefits that home working can provide.
OUTLOOK
Having just delivered record annual revenue of approximately £91 million in FY21, we are well positioned to grow significantly in FY22 through the ongoing performance of our existing game portfolio and the first results of our scale-up strategy delivering an exciting line up of new games, new platforms and new PDLC. The line-up for FY22 includes:- Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will be coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles later in calendar 2021 following its release on PC in May 2021
- PDLC for a number of titles, including a roadmap of engaging content for Planet Zoo that will build on the six packs already available, and an ever expanding catalogue of items for Elite Dangerous.
- Our existing game franchises - Elite Dangerous, Planet Coaster, Jurassic World Evolution and Planet Zoo
David Braben, Chief Executive, said:
"We are delighted to reveal Jurassic World Evolution 2 as our next major internally developed game release. We are excited to unveil to the player community of our largest commercial success to date the significant gameplay enhancements and innovations that we have been able to create to make this new experience even more compelling that the original.We are proud to have achieved record annual revenue in FY21 from continued global engagement with our four existing major self-published titles, without a new franchise release. It's testament to the support of our well-established player communities and our model of post-launch content, as well as our ability to reach new players on existing and new platforms. A record numbers of players have engaged with Frontier games in the last twelve months.
Our passionate and dedicated staff have worked diligently through the challenges posed by coronavirus and home working. I'd like to say a massive thank you and well done to all at Frontier for their hard work and resilience.
Our most recent major release, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, is a huge step forward in the game, and the mixed initial reaction to the PC launch on 19 May was obviously disappointing. Connectivity issues were a problem, particularly for the first 36 hours post-release, and caused poor experiences for the majority of players, together with a number of other issues. Elite Dangerous is a game of enormous scope - simulating the entire Milky Way. Odyssey is an upgrade of exceptional ambition - allowing players to walk on habitable planets, to engage in first person combat and exploration, and to interact with the galaxy at a human scale rather than a space craft scale. Realising that ambition (which I have wanted to do since the 1980s!), has proven even more challenging than we expected, but the fundamental systems are now in place, and an increasing proportion of players appear to be enjoying Odyssey as we hoped they would. We are working toward not only resolving Odyssey's issues but also further realising our vision for what the Elite Dangerous experience can become.
As we start our next financial year our target is to grow sales by over 50% above the record revenue just achieved, through the launch of Jurassic World Evolution 2 - a major sequel for our biggest game to date, the performance of our existing portfolio, including the console release of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, new paid and free downloadable content across our titles, and at least three new titles from our excellent external development partners published by Frontier Foundry, including Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, announced just a few days ago."
