A Frontier Developments financial document has indicated that F1 Manager 2025 has been cancelled.
A generic statement from the firm’s 2024 financial year report has been confirmed to refer to the canned game, with negotiations taking place to terminate its Formula 1 licensing agreement early.
“After 31 May 2024 and before the signing of the accounts on 10 September 2024, commercial discussions with an IP partner resulted in the voluntary termination of a contract for a future game before full development started,” the statement read.
A further comment on this by financial services group Zeus Capital confirmed the F1 Manager series’ demise: “The company has confirmed [this] relates to F1 Manager 2025 that would have been released in FY26. As a result, our forecasts no longer include this title, leaving the company more reliant on the success of Jurassic World Evolution 3, due to be released that year”.
Sales failures
It’s a bitter blow to Frontier, but sales of the F1 Manager series have regularly been below expectations since its 2022 inception. The strategy to cut its losses seems a sensible approach given the disappointing performance of another of its flagship IPs in the form of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin.
Frontier also faced a swathe of staff redundancies after posting a pre-tax loss of £26.6m in the financial year 2022-23, with the company’s future health hinged on the success of its upcoming game portfolio.
Despite the cancellation, Frontier’s latest F1 game, F1 Manager 2024, was its most critically acclaimed yet, containing sought-after features like the ‘Create a Team’ mode and more advanced contract negotiation mechanics. It was also reduced in price compared to its two predecessors, with a Nintendo Switch version expanding its horizons further.
The UK developer recently released several significant features for the existing title, which has been warmly received by its community.
In more positive news for Frontier its most recent title, Planet Coaster 2, has been averaging over 5,000 concurrent daily players on Steam since its release, garnering positive reviews.
Traxion has reached out to Frontier Developments for comment.
How do you feel about F1 Manager 2025 being cancelled? Let us know in the comments below.
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I am not surprised. The general extremely poor graphics disappointed me so much when I got this year’s version. You would not recognise any drivers in a line up, it is that poor. There is no decent interaction with any team members or drivers. All a bit long and boring without the visual glory to keep you interested. Commentary is below par and again so predicatable. Shame I love F1 and really wanted to ‘manage’. Guess I was looking for the FM quality in F1… if any company managed that it would be a life long game for many.
Not many people play management games for the graphics, so I wouldn’t rank that as a huge issue personally. I thought the driver models were perfectly recognisable, do you play with the graphics turned up?
It’s a shame as I think ’24 is the best version yet, although it could get bland after a season or two. It’s a decent game but ultimately didn’t sell enough copies, which is sad.
I’m not terribly surprised, because i think the game series base idea and structure are flawed. Here’s why i think that is:
– Instead of yearly published “new game” you could simply sell a base game, with added seasons each year. In this very instance it would be very much justified to sell seasons, which could have all the same updates as the “different games”, as most of the critique on the game involves the repetitive nature of the game. To me it would make much more sense to play each season thoroughly, than to rush through seasons, how on earth could the game not be repetitive if you’re just spamming through it. While it is highly entertaining to return Williams to glory on each installment, it does kinda feel like doing the same thing each year on a “new” game.
– Online multiplayer; oh god yes give me global leaderboards with a chance to play races or even whole seasons against other players; what else could be more engaging than bringing that Williams slowly from the mud against actual players. What else would be more engaging, than instead of building your team to have the best staff and drivers, actually compete for them with other players. Instead of more or less fixed prices we would have an economy based on what people are ready to pay to get their sweet sweet staff and drivers.
– Lastly, but perhaps more importantly, more flexibilty to the way you play. Instead of some silly difficulty setting, make an “iron man mode” game, where skipping and/or speeding practice, qualifying and races is not possible. Perhaps saving available only just after race weekends to discourage save spamming? If there would even be such an achievement, i think it would greatly encourage players to play the game without speeding up or skipping, and no possibility for pausing the game. You know, like in the real world the desicions have to be made in the blink of an eye. Anyone can optimize their play and win every race if using a whole lot of save spamming, but take the hits as they come? Figure out a way to come out of the hole where the more crash-happy drivers will dig you into? And, is it even possible to imagine the satisfaction of getting a podium with an inferior car and driver for example in the rain against a overwhelming grid?
That, to me, is the heart and soul of formula one. The underdog making the most of what they have, like Senna in Toleman back in the 1984, or the infamous 1996 race in Monaco where only three drivers finished, none of them all that highly ranked.
In its current state the F1 manager games are mostly just fan service for those, who want to see their hero take the podium in every race and finish hundreds of points ahead of anybody else. You can literally do that with any car/driver combo if you optimize your game in a few seasons. It is kinda entertaining but gets old real fast. Fortunately you can play the game as you please, but you must have some discipline to be willing to take the hits, and perhaps even lose (or get fired) because of your choices or just dumb luck.