F1 Manager 2022, which launched at the end of August, is the first of four games planned for release under Frontier’s new F1 licensing deal. It put players in the role of a team principal, challenging them to lead their “drivers, engineers and fans to glory in the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship and FIA Formula 1 Constructors’ World Championship”. While F1 Manager 2022 received a decent critical reception at launch, it’s drawn criticism among players for shallow, undercooked features and a significant number of bugs. Many had hoped at least some of these issues would be properly addressed through robust post-launch support, but Frontier has now called time on further development. Announcing the news on the game’s subreddit, Frontier explained, “This 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.” This “last significant update” is said to provide visual updates to car modes for official F1 teams to “further differentiate their look”, and will, among other things, address fuel usage issues during Qualifying sessions, and amend instances of incorrect Estimated Race Time calculations. Frontier says it’s ending post-launch support for F1 Manager 2022 in order “to ensure upcoming F1 Manager projects realise their potential and meet the expectations of both our team and our community”. Steam reviews and comments below Frontier’s post are awash with issues players still feel need to be addressed, but while the studio has made it clear no more major development will be done on F1 Manager 2022, it says it will prioritise unresolved “key reports and requests…from the community…as we create future iterations in this franchise.” Whether the community can maintain its enthusiasm for those future iterations after today’s sudden announcement remains to be seen.
