Frontier Developments Share Discussion Threads

[sogoesit] 29/9/2020 09:50

Price action indicates expectation of something positive by the market... warranted or unwarranted!

[arja] 28/9/2020 11:16

comments appreciated pinkfish . I normally just trade a stock or sometimes hold a very short time with CFD using the chart and this one is a NOR situation as you know . thanka again

[p1nkfish] 28/9/2020 11:08

Indicative of expected growth and so long as they grow at the necessary pace then OK. You are unlikley to find a growth rate like FDEV is capable of at anything like a reasonable p/e anyway. Best was to get in early in that case and take the risk they don't grow but the comfort of a low p/e. Pay your money, take your choice. Dyor & good luck.

[arja] 28/9/2020 10:23

lovely looking chart and NOR . But I always feel wary of buying as such a high prospective p/e . Is that not a concern in this case ?

[p1nkfish] 26/9/2020 10:06

Fledgling, excellent illuminating post. Thank you.

[sogoesit] 26/9/2020 09:33

Thanks for feedback Gents.
Appreciate the views.
Have a good weekend.

[p1nkfish] 26/9/2020 08:46

Outsourcing, farm out modules perhaps.

[p1nkfish] 26/9/2020 08:46

I think the outsourcing is extra labour, which is a bottleneck. A spec is written and the "grunt" to deliver the spec is via outsourced labour. No strings just more horsepower when needed to speed up growth. Tools used, could be FDEVs own or product delivered in a format that can be integrated.

Acquisitions - more headcount or nascent titles? May even be enhancing the FDEV publishing capabilities for all I know.

Sounds like a strategy that needs opportune time to execute on.

So long as caution is the word then sounds OK to me and could help accelerate FDEV.

[sogoesit] 26/9/2020 04:30

I read the following in the latest Annual Report, by Braben, page 9, last paragraph:
“We will also continue to explore opportunities for commissioning (outsourcing the majority of development of Frontier games to other developers) and enhancing the Group’s franchise portfolio or capabilities via acquisitions.
The group has considered a number of possible acquisitions, but so far none has met our valuation, product alignment and culture fit thresholds.”

Firstly, in the first part, what would he mean in a practical strategic sense (the para. is written in a section titled “Our Strategy and Business Model”)? Does this imply handing over/licensing COBRA to an outsourcer along with other IP? And, surely, this conflicts with the narrative that, so far, the company has a business model to do all development in-house which it sees as a strategic strength? Or, does he just mean, once developed and launched, the “nurture”; part of an IP franchise is hived-off to an outside developer (or possibly disinvested from the Group as a unit)? Surely, this conflicts with a strategic “strength̶1; to retain people and departments in-house not least for synergistic reasons across other franchises/products?

Secondly, he then goes on to mention “... enhancing .... portfolio or capabilities via acquisitions.” in the same breath. This is a contradiction in terms. We (in my experience) know that Braben can be unclear when writing/articulating about strategy for games scheduling in the past but this looks totally muddled to me.
What’s the point of outsourcing if, at the same time, there’s a strategy to make acquisitions?
Maybe he intends to outsource in one business domain and acquire in another?
But, if so, why doesn’t he explain which these different domains are and separate his discussion?

I’m confused. Anyone care to explain what might be going on here, strategic intentions wise?

[phowdo] 17/9/2020 17:19

Worth noting that Epic do pay developers for these "free" promotions as a means to get their storefront in front of more gamers.

Free this week is "Stick it to the man!" which is an interesting choice considering their legal tussle with Apple ;)

[pob69] 14/9/2020 09:39

With thanks to "Quality Share Surfer" on Twitter this is an extensive read and contains companies including FDEV, BVXP, and GAW

The Makings of a Multibagger
An Analysis of the Best Performing Stocks over the Past 5 Years
The Alta Fox 2020 Summer Intern Class Project:

[phowdo] 11/9/2020 19:10

Was that the one with Giorgio Moroder?

[mad foetus] 11/9/2020 19:06

Phil Oakley very positive about FDEV in the IC podcast today

[adamb1978] 11/9/2020 17:03

Hi PepSiman

Looking at the sales:
- Chairman has sold 60k out of c.350k shares, leaving him with 290k, which is worth over £6m. So I'm happy that he still has skin the game!!

- CFO/Secretary sold all the shares from the options, around £4.7m pre-tax. Its high in value but I guess a lot of CFOs aren't minted like chairmen often might be. I'd had liked to see him selling a bit fewer though I guess he still owns £400k

- 'Chief Creative Officer' has pocketed around £2m, so nets just over £1m post-tax, and still owns around £500k. I'm guessing he might has less in capital than the CFO and arguably he's just cleared his mortgage and got some cash for school fees in the bank.

So overall, I'm not bothered about the Chairman's sale. The other two, well I'd have liked to see them sell slightly fewer but its hard not to think that we'd all de-risk our own lives in a similar position particularly as they probably aren't on high salaries relative to the value of the shares. I don't see it changes my view on FDEV as an investment and happy to continue to run.

Adam

[pepsiman1] 11/9/2020 16:44

Today's 2 RNS.
So share options were exercised, the shares were sold and then bought back to be re-used next time someone exercises options?!

[eelanguilla] 10/9/2020 20:51

Elite is quality ... end of (from an experienced gamers view) . Some/most of the other games will bring more rewarding (financially) dlc content as well as sales revenue. It snowballs from there given a proven track record which we have.

[energeticbacker] 09/9/2020 15:41

The Group has major platform launches for existing titles planned in the current May 2021 financial year and confirmed that it is on track to deliver record revenue of £90m to £95m – we anticipate upgrades as befits the mighty valuation!

More on the Investor's Champion website.

[18bt] 09/9/2020 07:25

Results look at top end of expectations on EBITDA and cashflow. V strong statement of what has been achieved in the year and what is to come. The market will no doubt be perverse given the run up prior to announcement.

[mark4231] 08/9/2020 14:47

Interesting, particularly since they've developed and released Planet Coaster since RCT3 times. From memory FDEV developed the original RCT3 and it was published by Atari. Then there was some argument about sales numbers and RCT3 was eventually pulled from Steam. Presumably FDEV now have the rights to RCT3, so they can do this.

Also, last week, Planet Coaster was announced for the Mac - coming November.

I'm losing track of all the games that FDEV are involved with now, and which platforms they're on/going to be on!