Business
Half year trading update
Half year trading update.
About this update from Frontier Developments Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 4411V Frontier Developments PLC 13 December 2013 \n \n\n13 December 2013\nFrontier Developments plc\nHalf year trading update \nFrontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV, \"Frontier,\" the \"Group\"), a leading developer of video games with studios in Cambridge, UK and Halifax, Canada, announces the following trading update ahead of its results for the six months ended 30 November 2013.\nThe business has performed well and Frontier continues to deliver high quality, entertaining games. The Group continues to make good progress in its transition from being primarily a developer of video games for major external publishers into a business which develops and licenses technology to support games for major external publishers, other developers and Frontier's own self-published game titles. As expected, Frontier is seeing a reduction in headline revenue and EBITDA whilst it invests and puts in place the key elements that will facilitate this transition, but the Group is confident that the continued delivery of this plan will result in much greater opportunity and returns.\nFrontier has now raised in excess of £2.1m from over 40,900 backers of Elite: Dangerous and has just released, on schedule, the Alpha Phase One to over 1,400 backers who each paid £200 to participate in this phase of development. In addition, the Group has completed initial integration of the Elite: Dangerous game code with the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality display system.\nIn October 2013 Frontier signed two agreements with Atari Interactive, Inc. relating to the publication of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (RCT3) on new formats and also online distribution of the existing RCT3 and other Atari titles on PC and Mac platforms, which help accelerate the Group's self-publishing and ecommerce plans. \nIn November 2013, the Group successfully completed a title for Microsoft Game Studios in time for the launch of X-Box One - Zoo Tycoon. Frontier's Cobra technology allowed the Group to create the game efficiently and cost effectively, whilst delivering Frontier's outstanding artistic quality and gameplay tailored to the target audience.\nAlso in November 2013 the Group released Coaster Crazy Deluxe on both WiiU and iOS, each sharing the same cloud-based server using Frontier's Cobra technology.\nThe Group continues to have a strong balance sheet...