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Frontier Developments PLC on Monday said it expects a first-half revenue hike, helped by the release of the F1 Manager 2022 racing title and survival game Stranded: Alien Dawn, though it warned on its annual performance.
Shares were down 39% at 610.00 pence each on Monday morning in London.
The video games publisher and developer expects revenue of £57 million for the six months to November 30, up 16% year-on-year from £49.1 million.
For the full-year, however, it no longer expects to meet market consensus forecasts for revenue and operating profit, which stand at £135 million and £19 million, respectively.
Sales across its portfolio were subdued during the key festive period. Frontier also noted an ‘uncertain contribution’ from its Frontier Foundry arm, which publishes games developed by partner studios.
‘The outturn over the five remaining months of the financial year is dependent on a number of variables, including the timing and contribution from the scheduled Foundry releases and the macro-economic environment. The board believes it is still possible to surpass last year’s record revenue performance of £114 million, particularly if one of the upcoming Foundry titles is a conspicuous success.’
Its new top-line guidance is for revenue of ‘not less’ than £100 million.
Chief Executive Officer Jonny Watts added: ‘It is very disappointing to be resetting our financial expectations. We intend to grow the number of our development teams to increase the cadence of new releases, whilst continuing to nurture our existing portfolio, to achieve sustainable growth.’
Looking ahead, the company said profitability in financial 2023 will be ‘adversely affected’ by the revised lower level of sales performance. Looking further ahead into financial 2024, the board has set its expectations for revenue growth at 5% above the eventual revenue outcome for financial 2023.
In September, Frontier had posted a pretax profit of £944,000, down significantly from £19.2 million the year before, while revenue grew 26% year-on-year to a record £114.0 million from £90.7 million.
By Xindi Wei, Alliance News reporter
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