F1 Manager

Paul Jeffrey · Mar 14, 2020

Frontier Developments have confirmed a new and officially licensed Formula One management game is in development - with a release expected in early 2022.

It has been a long, long time since we last had an official management videogame for Formula One racing - even if Motorsport Manager gave a it a valiant try with their unlicensed 2014 effort, so anticipation of this new release is sure to be high amongst fans of Grand Prix racing.

Choosing Frontier Developments is also a wise choice, the British studio have already well established itself in the management simulation marketplace with such titles such as Planet Zoo and Planet Coasters, as well as the popular Elite Dangerous space simulation.

Frontier Developments CEO David Braben said:

"We are delighted to announce this multi-year licence deal with F1. F1 is one of the most popular global sporting franchises in the world, and we believe the combination of the F1 brand together with our extensive experience in management games will deliver fantastic game experiences to a wide and varied audience around the world."

"We have achieved great success with our own IP and are proven development and publishing partners for the highest profile third party IP. Both original and licensed IP will continue to be important as we grow and nurture our portfolio."

The deal is reportedly to cover up to four seasonal licensed products, depending on financial and performance criteria being met, and the new IP is not expected to interfere with the current multi-year deal held by Codemasters to produce licensed F1 racing games.

Roll on 2022!

Omer Said · Mar 14, 2020

A F1 manager game made by the Planet series' developers? Sign me up x1000 times!

Can't wait!

Their games are extremely detailed, varied and most importantly very much moddable!

ears · Mar 14, 2020

Planet series? Pah.

ELITE!

Give them the racing F1 game too - we'd get VR then!

Ricoow · Mar 14, 2020

Planet F1, sounds good to me

MarkR · Mar 14, 2020

Fabulous, saw this announced a few days ago. It's great that they've chosen Frontier Developments, the way they built Elite Dangerous was superb, what started out as barebones wireframe space stations and a few ships grew and became masterpiece that game is today. They took the cherished Elite series and made it better than anyone could have imagined. I loved the old Microprose Grand Prix Manager games, hours and hours of fun.

A blast from the past:

I hope Frontier offers a similar backer/Beta programme to ED, I'll be in on day one.

dene11 · Mar 14, 2020

Great news! Motorsport Manager is dead and if they make Football Manager, or Franchise Hockey Manager detailed type of game with full licensed content, it will be excellent. I am curios for type of 3D engine, maybe something like Pro Cycling Manager?

kevintaddo10 · Mar 14, 2020

Simply excited!

RichardHessels · Mar 14, 2020

Involves a lot of bookkeeping and public relations?

Robes · Mar 14, 2020

Now this is cool!

VirtuaIceMan · Mar 14, 2020

I wonder if it'll include managing finances when races are cancelled

BrettSinclair1 · Mar 14, 2020

Not a fan of the "development" (or lack thereof) Elite Dangerous took.
But a modern official F1 manager is great news.

Jugulador · Mar 14, 2020

In this game you will be able to pass 600 hours grinding engineers that make Williams go faster than Mercedes

Ole Marius Myrvold · Mar 14, 2020

Am I the only one thats somewhat unhappy that this didnt end up in the hands of the creators of Motorsport Manager?

They are the only ones in 20 years that have made a good racing manager game.

Jugulador · Mar 14, 2020

Ole Marius Myrvold said:
Am I then only one thats somewhat unhappy that this didnt end up in the hands of the creators of Motorsport Manager?

They are the only ones in 20 years that have made a good racing manager game.

You are not alone, mister.

MarkR · Mar 14, 2020

Aren't Playsport Games more of a mobile games developer though? Motorsport Manager is a superb game on mobile and PC and I'm fairly sure I remember playing it first on my iPad long before the PC version. The PC version is far superior of course with mods etc and from what I've seen on MM2 and MM3 they are pretty much the same content as the DLC packs for the PC game. With nothing on the PC since 2017 and the new MM Online just released it looks like their focus is very much mobile. I could be wrong but that's how it looks.

I also think Frontier will produce something outstanding.

Nick Hill · Mar 14, 2020

This has the potential to be awesome!

There's also a lot of ways to ruin these sorts of games though, so I will be watching for previews and hoping for the best in the meantime.

Ole Marius Myrvold · Mar 14, 2020

MarkR said:
Aren't Playsport Games more of a mobile games developer though? Motorsport Manager is a superb game on mobile and PC and I'm fairly sure I remember playing it first on my iPad long before the PC version. The PC version is far superior of course with mods etc and from what I've seen on MM2 and MM3 they are pretty much the same content as the DLC packs for the PC game. With nothing on the PC since 2017 and the new MM Online just released it looks like their focus is very much mobile. I could be wrong but that's how it looks.

I also think Frontier will produce something outstanding.

Playsport wants to make MM2-PC, their mobile games are a way for them to get money to develop a new PC games. Either that or suddely find some funding.