General / Off-Topic Frontier financial interim results

[Barking_Mad]

Im no good at maths, but it looks ok. ED still in a healthy state, selling well. Pay rises to all the devs

https://otp.tools.investis.com/clie.../regulatory-story.aspx?cid=1725&newsid=974597

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Interesting bits - revenue is up, profit is a bit down (more games, more teams, more spending), FD indicate that PS4 sales will carry rest of the financial year till 31st May 2017. This is very interesting angle, because FD points out PS4 sales and *boxed* sales of consoles have provided considerable input for game.

And yeah, all numbers are good even with FD spending money on Beyond, premium content and JWE. Next financial year will be carried by JWE, which basically means FD have time to work on ED stuff (Q4 and premium content) and they don't have pressure to release early.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Im no good at maths, but it looks ok. ED still in a healthy state, selling well. Pay rises to all the devs

https://otp.tools.investis.com/clie.../regulatory-story.aspx?cid=1725&newsid=974597

Wait, what? That's not off of Steam. It has to be made up. Everyone knows that Steam is the only reliable source of information, and that Elite gave off its Death Rattle months ago.

"Frontier has a proven track record of world-class video-game development in many different genres on many different platforms, delivered over multiple decades, using its own COBRA engine." - That thing the OP linked

I'm going to have to add that to my list of snarky replies.

 

[Chris Simon]

But, but.... Elite should be dying.

 

[Sir.Tj]

doomed?

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

It's all lies.

Steam stats say otherwise!

All praise steam stats!

FD is doomed. ED is doomed!
Steam is rubbish, but all praise Steam stats, anyway!!

(Well done FD!)

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[LeoBartlet]

Yay first financial thread of the year!!!!!

Not the last given the repetition on the forum.

 

[Ambroza]

It's all lies.

Steam stats say otherwise!

All praise steam stats!

FD is doomed. ED is doomed!
Steam is rubbish, but all praise Steam stats, anyway!!

(Well done FD!)

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

I get the joke, but the Steam stats are actually looking better than they ever have before. We recently broke an all time record for average concurrent players over a 30 day period in January.

 

[Sylveria]

And I'm betting this thread won't get nearly as much "attention" as the "ED is dying!!!" type threads, either.

Because, you know.... facts.

Much easier to spread conjecture and misinformation. Facts aren't quite as juicy and exciting.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

What worries me is the fact that FDev is making less profit and is investing less. The total cash flow as it is described there is on an all-time low, meaning that (if the trend continues) FD will be at a neutral balance with next to zero cash flow, eventually leading to losses.
However, what is remarkable is the sudden icnrease in total net balance which may indicate near future plans for a single big investment (like a new HQ *caugh*).
We can conclude that, financial wise, FD is floating well above the zero level and has some spare backup to play with. Client-Server architecture, FD?
I'd pay monthly!

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

And I'm betting this thread won't get nearly as much "attention" as the "ED is dying!!!" type threads, either.

Because, you know.... facts.

Much easier to spread conjecture and misinformation. Facts aren't quite as juicy and exciting.

Yep. That is likely. Saying that we haven't had many ED is in maintenance mode lately.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

What worries me is the fact that FDev is making less profit and is investing less. The total cash flow as it is described there is on an all-time low, meaning that (if the trend continues) FD will be at a neutral balance with next to zero cash flow, eventually leading to losses.
However, what is remarkable is the sudden icnrease in total net balance which may indicate near future plans for a single big investment (like a new HQ *caugh*).
We can conclude that, financial wise, FD is floating well above the zero level and has some spare backup to play with. Client-Server architecture, FD?
I'd pay monthly!

There is also the fact that they will be launching a new game in the summer which will boost profits.

 

[Stewart_]

But we are constantly being told on these forums, and ( toxic ) reddit, that sales of Elite were poor and FD are about to abandon ship!


Given FD have ported ED, and therefore Cobra engine, I'm surprised there's still no Planet Coaster for PS4.

Yep. That is likely. Saying that we haven't had many ED is in maintenance mode lately.

People do not know what 'maintenance mode' means. Otherwise they wouldn't be spewing their crap when FD have a featured roadmap for 2018.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Given FD have ported ED, and therefore Cobra engine, I'm surprised there's still no Planet Coaster for PS4.

Control issues I'd imagine, also audience issues. I don't know many park or top down builder games that actually ported to the consoles very well and almost zero that were massively successful... It's rather niche... JWE on the other hand may just break that trend with the expected audience.

 

[Sylveria]

But we are constantly being told on these forums, and ( toxic ) reddit, that sales of Elite were poor and FD are about to abandon ship!

Given FD have ported ED, and therefore Cobra engine, I'm surprised there's still no Planet Coaster for PS4.

People do not know what 'maintenance mode' means. Otherwise they wouldn't be spewing their crap when FD have a featured roadmap for 2018.

That's because they use "maintenance mode" as a synonym for "dying", instead of looking at the facts and seeing just because FD is focusing on improving core game it doesn't mean in any way that the company or the game is "suffering".

Having said that, at the end of the day- FD has a clear advantage in the Space-Sim arena. They have an actual released game, a pretty massive customer base, and enough development funding to really accomplish a great deal. But they're not going to hold this advantage forever. In this, I agree with the sentiment that it's "now or never" time for FD- either they choose a course of action and put some effort into really making it all work together, or they're eventually going to end up losing their advantage to a competitor who will do what they won't. One in particular has had a 5-year head start and is watching and learning from FD's example... and I'm sure keeping close tabs on the course of development (and the lack of).

Sure, ED has a "niche" carved out... but it may indeed be overshadowed by others who are willing to do the work FD isn't willing to do. I'm in no way a "naysayer", as many can attest to- but I am by nature a realist.

 

[Ninj]

Oh you white knighting forum dads. Impotent rage must follow.

 

[iFred]

Beyond this we are working on plans to further scale up our business to accelerate the frequency of our major releases".

THIS Quote by DB is the most interesting thing here. It makes me looking forward to the next years regarding the further development of Elite (which hopefully benefits from that decision).

 

[RagingxPenguin]

Don't tease me..

That's mean

 

[drakhyr]

What worries me is the fact that FDev is making less profit and is investing less. The total cash flow as it is described there is on an all-time low, meaning that (if the trend continues) FD will be at a neutral balance with next to zero cash flow, eventually leading to losses.

FD have said in their past results that their cash flow is extremely lumpy, as it is dependent on new game or DLC releases. The only new release during the six months covered by these financial statements was the Planet Coaster Spooky Pack. There won't be a really big cash inflow until JWE releases in the summer - which they probably expect to earn enough to tide them over until the next big release some time in 2019.

One of the key benefits of FD expanding and work on more games is to even out the cashflow, so that at least one of the franchises is doing a major (paid) release each accounting period.

Given that FD have enough cash on hand to cover their expenses for the next 18 months even if there weren't any sales, and do have a major product in development for release within the next six months, I don't think the cash situation looks at all worrying.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

What worries me is the fact that FDev is making less profit and is investing less. The total cash flow as it is described there is on an all-time low, meaning that (if the trend continues) FD will be at a neutral balance with next to zero cash flow, eventually leading to losses.
However, what is remarkable is the sudden icnrease in total net balance which may indicate near future plans for a single big investment (like a new HQ *caugh*).
We can conclude that, financial wise, FD is floating well above the zero level and has some spare backup to play with. Client-Server architecture, FD?
I'd pay monthly!

Revenue is up, but profit is down. This is usually an indicator that a company is investing in growth/development. In this case, most of that is probably related to development of the new franchise.

One day, ED will end but I don't see any indication that it will be any time soon, especially not so long as it is profitable enough (along with PC), to fund another franchise. Can't make new games if there isn't sufficient income from the existing ones.

I think the sign ups for the DW2 expedition are one indicator of a healthy ED. For over 1,000 to sign up so quickly to "press J" for 16 weeks shows a lot of interest for one of the game's core experiences.