A few months after its release and Frontier is already ending support for F1 Manager 2022, its racing game managment simulator.
Frontier’s first steps into motorsport simulation with F1 Manager 2022 is an impressively deep game, letting us give Lewis Hamilton the win he deserves, but it turns out it won’t be getting much post-release support.
Merely two months after F1 Manager 2022’s release, Frontier said in a Reddit post that the “next update for F1 Manager 2022 will be the last significant update that addresses player-reported feedback, or suggested changes and additions. Any potential updates following this would be minor patches that do not noticeably affect gameplay.”
Frontier says that it is listening to “key reports and requests” from the community; however, these updates will be seen in upcoming releases and not in F1 Manager 2022.
Frontier tried to reassure fans by telling them interactions between developers and the community wouldn’t end there and that they will always take on board advice and criticism that the community send its way. However, this didn’t seem to quell complaints.
Yellow flag
One key criticism leveled at F1 Manager 2022 is that there are frustrating bugs, such as an issue with overtaking, and there are also problems with the Drag Reduction System, the feature that allows cars to go significantly faster on straight sections of track.
Other issues players pointed out in the comments under the Reddit announcement were the inability to unlap their car when under a safety car, issues with signing up drivers mid-season, and AI drivers struggling to keep up with car development across a season.
Each one of these problems are quite fundamental to a driving game, and so it is frustrating that they won’t be added until a future iteration to F1 Manager.
A season ahead
Fans are understandably less than amused by the entire situation, feeling shortchanged and abandoned, many took to the comment section to speak their mind.
Much of the frustration comes because the dev team is moving on to work on F1 Manager 2023. It appears that while the team recognizes the issues in the game, it will only be addressing them in future releases.
news_on_next_update_and_the_future_of_f1_manager from r/F1Manager
F1 Manager 2022 is Frontier Developments’ first foray into a yearly release cycle, with previous games, like Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster, being single releases that received support long after launch. It’s the nature of this style of release, as with FIFA and Madden, that the team needs to move on to the new title, leaving the old release behind.
A knock-on of that style of release is that the series can become stagnant, with only small updates between releases – as with FIFA. The demand to keep up with the new sporting season and pressure to tick this box will mean that they are unable to spend time tweaking F1 Manager 2022 and making it better. However, for some players, this may have turned them off the series for good.