Planet Zoo, Elite Dangerous, and Warhammer 40k Chaos Gate Daemonhunters developer Frontier is announcing two new titles at the end of the month, in a showcase livestream on January 31.
According to a press release, this livestream will be the first of many, as the developer is planning a series called Frontier Unlocked, which will show off “exclusive content and gameplay deep dives”. The inaugural one of these, coming up next week, will reveal Elite Dangerous content for 2024, give us a closer look at XCOM-like Chaos Gate Daemonhunters’ console release, and unveil two brand new games.
Exactly what these new games will be is anybody’s guess, but there are plenty of clues to draw from, and the evidence points in one direction only: they’ll be new management games, and at least one will probably be something in the ‘Planet’ series.
We hold that Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin is better than you think – check out our Realms of Ruin review here – but the fact remains that the studio’s recent RTS was a significant sales flop. In a business update released November 27, 2023, Frontier announced it would be refocusing on its “creative management simulation” games and no longer pushing out into “adjacent genres”.
Furthermore, the studio’s FY23 financial results report reveals that “the development of further CMS games continues” and that one is planned for release in FY25 (April 2024 – April 2025) – another for FY26.
We can be relatively confident that, barring a sudden rug pull, another management sim game or two are on the way, but will they be sequels, or something altogether new? Almost a decade and five years old respectively, Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo could both use an update. While the latter game is still receiving DLC at the moment, it’s become a running joke how much better the DLC animals look when compared to those from the base game.
However, it’s also notable that Frontier filed trademarks for a load of different ‘Planet’ games back in 2018. These include: Planet City, Golf, Railway, Prison, Transport, Hospital, and Soccer.
You’ll have to tune in on January 31 at 10:00 AM PT to find out for sure. Until then, why not read our guides to the best grand strategy games. For those who prefer to take things slow, we also recommend these top tier turn based games.