How Frontier Developments boss Jonny Watts created a gaming monster

The UK video game industry can be considered a new sector among investors.

But for Frontier Developments chief Jonny Watts, making games encompasses his entire professional life, and even the years before.

The Wirral-born 53-year-old’s promotion to the top job in August has been a long time coming.

He joined the company in 1998, four years after it was founded by British video game pioneer David Braben, and despite his mother’s claim that he would “never make a living making video games.”

Like his predecessor, Watts is an evangelist for the UK gaming sector, employing around 24,000 people and generating a turnover of £7.2 billion in 2021 – making it the second largest market in Europe and the sixth largest in the world .

This success has been replicated in Frontier’s results. The company posted record revenue of £114 million for the year to the end of May 2022.

It has been boosted by its library of notable titles, including Jurassic World Evolution 2, which allows players to build a park full of dinosaurs like the one in the movie franchise.

Frontier’s work has received praise from those outside the industry, with its dinosaur models being praised by Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

“The games industry is amazing and a real success story for the UK,” said Watts from his office in Frontier’s glass-fronted headquarters on the outskirts of Cambridge.

But despite recent successes, the industry faces a challenge alongside other forms of entertainment. The tightness on the cost of living has forced many to reassess whether to jump on the latest game or streaming subscription.

But Watts is unfazed. Video games are “really high-quality entertainment,” he says, meaning demand is likely to continue despite a looming recession.

‘People don’t go to the pub or the cinema because it’s too expensive, but jump on it online [play games and] socialize with their friends.’

There is also a looming takeover threat as UK video game companies have been snapped up by bigger international rivals in recent years.

Last year, tech giant Microsoft agreed on a £50 billion mega merger with Activision Blizzard, the creator of the first-person shooter franchise Call Of Duty and the online fantasy role-playing game World Of Warcraft.

But Watts is again undeterred, highlighting Braben’s 33 percent stake in Frontier as a likely bulwark against any opportunistic bids.

The company is also backed by Chinese giant Tencent, the second-largest shareholder with an 8.6 percent stake.

But Watts does not rule out that he himself will be on the trail of acquisitions. Frontier recently acquired Canadian developer Complex Games for £8.3 million in cash following a collaboration between the two companies on the gothic sci-fi game Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, which was released in May.

“We’re very ambitious, we want to grow,” says Watts, though he’s tight-lipped when asked what other companies are on his radar. Becoming the head of a major video game company seemed like the natural path for Watts.

He started making games in 1985 while still in school. After studying zoology (due to a self-confessed fascination with dinosaurs) and then computer science at university, he was hired by Sensible Software, an early creator of video games in Chelmsford.

He joined Frontier in 1998 and rose through the ranks before being named to the board of directors as chief creative officer in 2012, a position he would hold for ten years until his promotion.

Watts was also present for most of Frontier’s expansion, highlighting that when he joined the company, the company had eight employees — it now has about 800.

Unfortunately, Watts’ mother never lived to see him become CEO.

But he says his parents bequeathed him a mantra of “do good,” which he tries to embody in his role and pass on to colleagues.

It’s a prosperous time for the video game industry.

The industry saw tremendous demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, as those trapped indoors during the lockdown increasingly turned to games as a way to beat boredom.

The sector is also seeing an increasing diversity in its customer base. Watts says the stereotypical video game player — a young man sitting in front of a computer in a dark room — is no longer tenable.

“I think gaming has become a lot more inclusive,” he says. “I have two daughters, ages 22 and 24, who play video games.

“The early adopters were [men in their bedrooms].

“But that changes quite quickly. Gaming is 55 percent male and 45 percent female.

I think that is absolutely brilliant. In a few decades, the whole world will be playing games. My mother-in-law tells me she’s on level 750 in Candy Crush.”

Given his previous status as creative officer, it’s no surprise that Watts describes how Frontier looks at expanding into “adjacent” genres from its core focus on management-style games.

A product of this is Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar, an upcoming real-time strategy game where players command armies of fantasy soldiers based on the miniatures developed by Games Workshop.

Watts was responsible for creativity and continues to like to pursue ideas, although as CEO he now has to consider the company’s performance.

“I’d make any game under the sun,” he says.

“But the hardest job I have is saying no to great ideas. We are a company and need to understand if those games will be successful.

“Just being a great game doesn’t mean it’s going to sell.”

While Frontier and the industry are going through tough times – both from cost-of-living pressures on consumer spending and the threat of possible rival attacks – Watts prefers to focus on the brighter side of the thriving industry.

“There are threats in every business,” he says.

“But as chief executive, it’s your job to make that a chance. I am an eternal optimist.’