Planet Zoo, Elite Dangerous, and F1 Manager developer Frontier hit by layoffs

Frontier has become the latest studio to be hit by layoffs after a move to “refocus on its core strengths.”

The developer has made the likes of Planet Zoo and F1 Manager, but will now see an unspecified number of workers lose their jobs following disappointing financial results, Gamesindustry.biz reports.

Investors were told of the decision on Tuesday, Oct. 17 as part of a trading update, which marks the start of an organizational review that aims to “reshape Frontier”—with a key aim being to reduce operating costs by up to 20 percent.

To achieve that goal, the UK-based developer is freezing recruitment, cutting its spending, and making redundant a yet-to-be-revealed number of staff, with the review set to be concluded by early 2024. This follows 2023’s trend of numerous studios being hit with layoffs.

The news comes off the back of the disappointment of F1 Manager 2023, which had lower-than-expected sales at launch, but will not affect upcoming titles like Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, which is set to launch on Nov. 17.

While both entries in the F1 Manager series had disappointing sales, Planet Zoo‘s release in 2019 achieved great success as the spiritual successor to the Zoo Tycoon series and has been continually supported with free updates, as well as paid DLC.

In total, Planet Zoo has seen 15 DLC updates so far in its life cycle that have added new animals and habitats to the game, as well as fan-requested features like aquatic animals, career mode scenarios, and more.

Since starting to publish its own games in 2013, Frontier’s catalog also includes Jurassic World: Evolution and its sequel, Elite Dangerous, and Planet Coaster.

Prior to that, Frontier developed games for publishers including Microsoft, Sony, Atari, and others, including Zoo Tycoon, Kinectimals, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Screamride, and Tales From Deep Space.