F1 Manager 2022 announced the Last Major Game Update and the Internet Riots

1500x500.jpg
Oh boy, this could've been handled better.

Just 2 months after the release of F1 Manager 2022, the newest title in the racing management subgenre, developer Frontier Developments announced on Reddit that the upcoming update will be "the last significant update that addresses player-reported feedback, or suggested changes and additions". Unsurprisingly, the internet is rioting.

The Announcement​

The Frontier F1 Community Manager posted on the r/F1Manager Subreddit "News on Next Update and the Future of F1 Manager".

It is mentioned what updates are currently being worked on to be pushed in the next major patch, amongst which:
  • visual updates to the car models
  • car parts and liveries visual updates
  • fuel usage during qualifying
  • incorrect "Estimated Race Time" calculations
  • other optimisations
This relatively small list seems to be everything major included in the next patch.

Next up is the big mention that the F1 Manager development team's "focus must move fully onto projects beyond F1 Manager 2022, after this upcoming update."

While working on the next yearly instalment is a good thing, the sheer abandonment of the 2022 edition didn't go unnoticed, but more to that later.

Last but not least, Marketing speak comprises the last 3 paragraphs (half the post).

My Opinion on F1 Manager has Now Changed​

If you read my last blog post-style article on F1 Manager 2022, I said that I really enjoyed the game.

Honestly, this move from developer Frontier Developments disgusts me so much, that I don't think I can play the game with a clear consciousness anymore.

This is why I detest yearly releases and I am very disappointed to have been fooled, thinking this developer would be any better.

I put my hope in this series, thinking it could boost the niche of racing management games in the public light, and it might still do so.

Please, any other developer, do a better job.

What is your opinion on this news? Please, let it out in the comments down below!
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: Bram Hengeveld, Deicide The Light Bearer, jonelsorel and 2 others
About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

More in Other Games

Comments

M
Honestly, I don't mind! Personally I've gotten tired of every game being expected to be a live service that lasts for years on end (which has less promoted good games getting extra longevity and more encouraged half-baked games getting the rest of their time in the oven over the next however many years)
I will admit though, I'm not sure on the state of F1M given I haven't gotten the chance to play it so I could be wrong and it could be GTA Definitive tier broken right now but all I'm saying is it should be fine for a game to be released and considered finished after little to no post-launch stuff, it's what was the standard for decades before the mid-late 2000s so
 
Last edited:
Austin Ogonoski
Hindsight is always 20/20.

I wonder if the devs severely under-estimated the success they'd have with a modern F1 manager game, opting to just focus on a single season and hoped a reasonable number of people bought it.

Turns out that no, they made a great game (this is a good problem to have!), and now they're accidentally locked into a sub-optimal release structure with an unexpectedly large group of superfans who aren't cool with it.

Had time machines existed, maybe it would have been worth shipping the game with a couple different seasons to begin in (say, 1986, 2000, 2010, and 2022). And then treat the game as a live service, continuing to add 2023, 2024, and more classic seasons/tracks.
 
Last edited:
Matthew327
I found the game lacking in many areas from the beginning. The omission of sprint races from the official F1 Manager game was a huge disappointment, and the driver contract negotiations are horrendously dumbed down compared to other sports management titles.

That Frontier completely abandons the game after juft two months confirms my fears that it's another licensed cashgrab. F1M 23 will probably have sprint races and a few new gimmicks, but I expect it will carry over many of the same issues.
 
Matthew327
MaxStokes1 said:
Honestly, I don't mind! Personally I've gotten tired of every game being expected to be a live service that lasts for years on end (which has less promoted good games getting extra longevity and more encouraged half-baked games getting the rest of their time in the oven over the next however many years)
I will admit though, I'm not sure on the state of F1M given I haven't gotten the chance to play it so I could be wrong and it could be GTA Definitive tier broken right now but all I'm saying is it should be fine for a game to be released and considered finished after little to no post-launch stuff, it's what was the standard for decades before the mid-late 2000s so
Click to expand...
"Released and considered finished" would be fine if the game was playable on an acceptable level. It's not.

AI strategy making is horrendous, as is tyre performance and balance of different compounds. AI teams can't properly develop their cars. DRS is absolutely broken, as is fuel consumption.

It's just a mess, and certainly doesn't warrant to be considered "finished".
 
Julian Strasser
Premium
It
MaxStokes1 said:
Honestly, I don't mind! Personally I've gotten tired of every game being expected to be a live service that lasts for years on end (which has less promoted good games getting extra longevity and more encouraged half-baked games getting the rest of their time in the oven over the next however many years)
I will admit though, I'm not sure on the state of F1M given I haven't gotten the chance to play it so I could be wrong and it could be GTA Definitive tier broken right now but all I'm saying is it should be fine for a game to be released and considered finished after little to no post-launch stuff, it's what was the standard for decades before the mid-late 2000s
Click to expand...

Its not about being live service. Its about fixing glaringly obvious issues.
 
Damage Inc
I'm not surprised, got on board with Frontier for the Elite remake and loved it, then after a while big names left and new additions to the game were ****. **** moderators on the forums too. Company can go Fk itself.
 
FinFan
So this will work then like the F1 racing series. Instead of updates they release a new game every year for about 60 € ?
And again I feel I made the right choice not to buy instanly upon release.
 
4nDr01D3
I honestly don't understand what people were expecting... Its issue is written in its name, it's f1 manager 2022, next year there will be a new F1 manager 2023 and so on... It's an yearly release game so it carries the same problems as F1 2022, fifa 2022, Madden which is short development time, few updates and minor new features and additions.... Year after year, after year!
 
P
Not surprising, when a game includes the year in its title you can usually expect such things. So let's hope F1 Manager 2023 will address the issues players have, and if not it will be in 2024 ; )
 
Fineraft
I enjoy it. Yes it's not perfect, I know but I never really expected it to be. Frontiers also makes Elite Dangerous and that game as well has some hickups, to say the least. It's a small company and nothing like EA or Codemasters. It's a shame thag nowadays people expect the world from companies and demand all kind of things. Yes, we are customers but people forget how many "live service games" are **** and even worse than this, and still people buy those. And the guy who wrote this article in first place, be glad we got something like this. Most called the idea of a management game dead anyways. And learn to not expect the world from a small comapny or look into the history of it before fantasising everything.
 
pz666
Being a former fan of the F1 series and a fan of motorsports in general this year has been terrible from an F1 simulation point of view...

EA went and scrambled Codemasters work even further and what could of been a great management game for many has been released with so many bugs and undercooked features that it's underwhelming without mods...

I'm glad I got to try both for free, if I had paid for either experience I would of refunded because they are yearly titles...

I've had my fill of yearly releases in sports... Give me a live service anytime... At least there's hope that the bugs will be worked out in time... Where with the yearly games there's bugs that have been present for half a decade or more in each yearly release... And the experience of those yearly releases gets cramped by more and more micro-transactions making the overall feel far more of a cash grab than a piece of art that artists have poured love into...

And as far as Frontier goes, they have given me many decent management experiences, so the fact they fell short here is probably far less on them and far more on the licence and release schedule they agreed to...
 
K
I played it for a short time and asked for a refund. It just didn't do anything for me. Lots of eye candy but the playing experience itself was... meh.
 
T
Premium
4nDr01D3 said:
I honestly don't understand what people were expecting... Its issue is written in its name, it's f1 manager 2022, next year there will be a new F1 manager 2023 and so on... It's an yearly release game so it carries the same problems as F1 2022, fifa 2022, Madden which is short development time, few updates and minor new features and additions.... Year after year, after year!
Click to expand...
My expectation is that the game would be updated and perfected at least until F1 manager 2023 release. Not for them to abandon it after 2 months.

Edit: And just because it has the year doesn't mean they have to release one every year. PGA 2k is a perfect example of this. releasing a new game every couple of years.
 
Last edited:
G
Knowing this is frustrating. We know that most games today are not fully released, they always release and there are a flood of fixes, then you buy a game and the developer announces that they will leave it in this **** that was released.
 
S
MaxStokes1 said:
Honestly, I don't mind! Personally I've gotten tired of every game being expected to be a live service that lasts for years on end (which has less promoted good games getting extra longevity and more encouraged half-baked games getting the rest of their time in the oven over the next however many years)
I will admit though, I'm not sure on the state of F1M given I haven't gotten the chance to play it so I could be wrong and it could be GTA Definitive tier broken right now but all I'm saying is it should be fine for a game to be released and considered finished after little to no post-launch stuff, it's what was the standard for decades before the mid-late 2000s so
Click to expand...
I agree on live services, but there's a big difference between "not a live service" and "abandoning a game after two months."

You saying it was "standard" in the mid to late 2000's is WILDLY inaccurate.

Sure the rise of the live service is a pestilence on gaming, but when games like Terraria are still receiving content updates (and FREE ones no less) a DECADE after release, it's not too much to ask for needing three figures to count the days a game you buy receives support for...
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Julian Strasser
Article read time
2 min read
Views
13,113
Comments
25
Last update

Share this article

What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

  • Better graphics/visuals

  • Advanced physics and handling

  • More cars and tracks

  • AI improvements

  • AI engineering

  • Cross-platform play

  • New game Modes

  • Other, post your idea

Results are only viewable after voting.
See comments…
Back
Top