F1 Manager developer Frontier accused of mismanagement in wake of layoffs

eurogamer.net:

F1 Manager developer Frontier has been accused of mismanagement in a new report in the wake of layoffs at the company.

The process for these layoffs began in October last year, with the poor sales performance of the F1 Manager games believed to be a major contributing factor. In a business update following the layoff announcement, the company said it would be refocusing on simulation games — what it's best known for.

The new report, from GLHF, cites several current and former Frontier employees who collectively paint a picture of poor leadership and bad financial decisions. One source said they had «observed nothing but total and continuing failures of leadership since [joining the company]».

Sales of the F1 Manager series were said to be «very underwhelming compared to management's expectations». The latest, F1 Manager 2023, was described as «a clone of last year's perforce repository with a few extras added, sold at full price» and «an insult to the very small player base».

A major issue with the series is the cost of the F1 licence, with Frontier signing an expensive multi-year deal. «That's actually been the biggest issue seen across multiple titles: uncontrollable spending, poor decisions (such as what licences we pay for, games we make, and what we fund), and then trying to offset it with unrealistic sales expectations, which anyone internally could tell you even early on that we'd never be able to hit,» said one source.

Another admitted that while F1 Manager 2022 sold well for a niche title, «the spend on making the game and securing the licences was so high that we never stood a chance at actually making the money back».

Frontier management allegedly blamed employees for missing sales targets, though the company denied this in a statement to GLHF while admitting sales were «lower than we had expected». «We have not blamed employees for the under-performance in sales —