Frontier signs ‘a major global IP licence’ for upcoming title

Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster developer Frontier today announced that it has signed a “major global IP licence” for an upcoming title. The announcement, made via a regulatory announcement to the City, did not detail the IP name.

Development on the new title is expected to commence later this year, with a two-year development cycle placing its release in late 2021 or early 2022. The licence covers both PC and console versions.

The game will be the second self-published licensed title from the company – though its experience with others IPs is more extensive, having worked with Disney on Microsoft-published Kinect titles. The new title follows the self-published Jurassic World Evolution, which was released in June 2018, and was Frontier’s biggest launch to date, clocking up “one million base game units in five weeks and 2 million base game units in seven months” the announcement said.

After that success, it’s easy to understand why Frontier is looking for other licensed properties to convert. Both Jurassic World 3 and Avatar 3 (working titles) are expected that year, and would potentially fit the studios preferred genres, though that’s purely speculation on our part.

David Braben, CEO, commented: "We are delighted to confirm that one of our future releases will benefit from a major global IP licence. We are excited about our existing franchises and our future portfolio. We will continue to love, support and enhance our existing game franchises as we build new ones."

There are no currently announced titles in development at the studio, that we know of, though support for ongoing titles has always been a major effort for the developer.