Frontier announces upcoming layoffs to reduce costs

Developer will enact an organizational review

Marco Wutz | Oct 17, 2023

Frontier announces upcoming layoffs to reduce costs /

UK studio Frontier Developments announced an organizational review on October 17, 2023, to “deliver enhancements to Frontier's leadership and structure, drive efficiencies across the Company and achieve a reduction in annual operating costs of up to 20%.” These cost reductions will be delivered through “a recruitment freeze, spending cuts and, unfortunately, redundancies, subject to consultation.”

Frontier expects to be done with these measures by early 2024, so it seems likely that layoffs at the game developer will be done before the end of the ongoing year. GLHF sources suggest that between 50 and 200 workers will be made redundant by Christmas under this plan.

Frontier Developments has announced substantial layoffs / Frontier Developments

The company cites “a period of disappointing financial performance and more challenging industry conditions” as reasons behind the necessity of this program. An update on the review is planned to be provided in January 2024 and its full effects are supposed to be visible in the financial year 2025.

At the same time, Frontier stated that its existing portfolio of titles is performing in line with the expectations at the moment. Its next release will be that of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, a RTS game launching on November 17, 2023.

Currently, Frontier is expecting to operate at a loss in the financial year 2024. This organizational review’s goal is to “return the company to profit, and create a sustainable foundation for the future.”

Frontier launched F1 Manager 2023 this year and continues to support the game with updates, while also pushing out a continuous stream of DLC for Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution 2 as well as content for Elite Dangerous.

Under its publishing wing, Frontier shipped three games from external studios this year – Stranded: Alien Dawn, Deliver Us Mars, and The Great War: Western Front. Back in June 2023, Frontier announced that it would not continue to act as a publisher under the Frontier Foundry label going forward, as the financial performance of these efforts remained disappointing.

Frontier is not the only UK developer going through trouble at the moment: After Sega canceled Hyenas, the expensive extraction shooter it’s been working on, Creative Assembly is laying off staff members as well.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – campaign hands-on preview

Published Oct 17, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg