Agreed. I was initially dismissive of the thread’s complaint as I view the use of ARX to get 3 months of access before general release as a clear workaround to the LEP, but if the monetization model changes to the point the LEP holds no future value that is a pretty slimy business move. I don’t think the purpose of such a change is motivated in nullifying the LEP, but rather the LEP a casualty of a changing environment, but don’t find a lot of relevance in that as an excuse to what I would view as a mistreatment of customers.
LIFETIME Expansion pass, and Python Mk2
- Thread starter Viaharo
- Start date
I'm have a LEP and this really does not bother me. If it were an "expansion" maybe but its not, its some assets.
I'd rather support FDEV and have a game I've loved playing than get upset on a payment I made nearly a decade ago and only £20 or so at that.
This. As another LEP holder, I never thought that it would extend to additional ships, as long as those ships are purchasable using in game credits as well at some point.
In the classical sense "expansion" is a major addition of gameplay to a game. Starcraft Broodwar was the first expansion I was pining for back then. Story, new mechanics, new factions, new tech tree etc. With digital distribution we got the smaller things as DLC, like "horse armour", puny cosmetics for giving your cash in advance interest-free. The terms have been washed out in meaning over the years with "micro"transsactions. Later we got "seasons" with vague descriptions of what they would maybe entail, but money upfront was still appreciated. And then EA cancelled their shiny SW Battlefront early when it didn't meet expectations and the season was a bunch of minimum effort stuffthat satisfied the vague descriptions. Expansion in ED is Horizons and Odyssey.
A single game item isn't an expansion as a rule - it's microtransaction.
The three month delay on being able to use a ship (unless you pay up) tied to an update with 4 ships planned to be released makes me wonder if the idea of seasons was shot down at an Fdev meeting about monetization possibilities, with what we are beginning to see being some sort of seasons-lite alternative dressed up as an optional choice to get "early access." Assuming the next three ships are rolled out in the same fashion, that is 4 quarters bringing in revenue in the same way 4 seasons might, without the burden of actually implementing seasons or having to deliver enough to justify a season payment structure.
Neither option for "season"-based releases really worked for Frontier.
Horizons (sell a large expansion, then deliver it): massively delayed, committed to named features long before they knew if they were practical, little opportunity to retune early stages until the whole thing is done
Odyssey (deliver a large expansion, then sell it): also massively delayed, lots of upfront expenditure on features which then absolutely have to sell extremely well, little opportunity to even gather data for retuning until its too late
A more incremental model where they make and sell smaller features might work out for them - though "one ship for £10 for three months" seems to be optimistically-priced.
On the 7 May the Python 2 will be a paid update. No doubt there are numerous ways to try to pretend that isn’t the case, but it is a fact.
Whether Frontier need the money in 2024 isn’t really a factor in an agreement made in 2013.
I consider it equally self-evident that it's not the kind of update that was included in the LEP. Exactly the same way new paints have always been 'paid updates', even for backers and LEP holders. Frontier clearly meant the "Season" type major content updates, and clarified the product descriptions to reflect that by the time it was being called the "lifetime expansion pass".
You may have an different idea of what you're entitled to with your backing purchase. An argument can be made that the vague statements in the original $90+ tier includes more than the LEP. Frontier probably isn't going to be receptive to that, so your only recourse would be legal.
We're all excluded from that three month unlock, unless you want to part with the ARX. The only advantage that we have we're probably got ARXs left over from playing the game for years, which mean that some of us could probably unlock it.
I asked via ticket way before any CM replies on the matter and or my own thread.
So, what I'm reading is LEP buyers had their purchase silently ditched three years ago.
That and, of the things in that that are actually expansions, it's barely hit parity in cost. I don't count any of the skins in this because frankly, I'd be asking for a refund if someone took a life expansion pass and turned it into a glorified skin pack.
I'm going to suggest that those who are just buying the game won't have a reserve of ARX to use.
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i am not bothered about the 3 months personally tho i respect those who are. i am bothered about the buying engineered items for cash and i am very bothered about zero rebuy for cash ships. that is what F2P games generally do and i can forgive it with those as they dont charge a fee to play.
but LEP wise.............. if i was confident there would even be more paid expansions for Elite Dangerous then i would not be worried about the value of the LEP...... but this whole move which is completely at odds with what we were told the micro transactions would be in this game , screams to me of FD trying to get a last chunk of change out of the game, not as a platform to enable work on the next great expansion. I hope i am wrong however.
so far depending on what you paid for your LEP, you may already be in the black, it may be just about breaking even, or if you made the choice to buy the horizons LEP, that is at least 1 more premium DLC out of breaking even.
I dont think buying a DLC pass and expecting it to save money over all is an unreasonable expectation, tho i know some people here suggest that is crazy.
but LEP wise.............. if i was confident there would even be more paid expansions for Elite Dangerous then i would not be worried about the value of the LEP...... but this whole move which is completely at odds with what we were told the micro transactions would be in this game , screams to me of FD trying to get a last chunk of change out of the game, not as a platform to enable work on the next great expansion. I hope i am wrong however.
so far depending on what you paid for your LEP, you may already be in the black, it may be just about breaking even, or if you made the choice to buy the horizons LEP, that is at least 1 more premium DLC out of breaking even.
I dont think buying a DLC pass and expecting it to save money over all is an unreasonable expectation, tho i know some people here suggest that is crazy.
Two things, My Lord, must ye know about the new ship. First, it is… a ship! And second, it is…
new!!
Well, well, well.
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