Frontier Needs Money (new Dev Update from Michael).

[Lord_Crazy]

The board game website I frequent allows all sorts of user content to be added. Obviously the owners cannot check it all for copyright, inappropriate pictures, etc.

Sony Online Entertainment is doing that on PlanetSide 2 : the store is full of very cool user-generated content, so vehicles and players don't all look alike. The choice is huge, most of the creations elected by the team are awesome, and it brings money to the game and the content creator

 

[JasonDL]

So, if the choice was a 6 month exclusive for the XBox with the feature coming to PC/Mac after that, together with FD getting a wheelbarrow-full of cash against no wheelbarrow, and the content is on all platforms at the same time, you would prefer the empty wheelbarrow?

I am pretty sure I would have wanted the wheelbarrow full, even if I wanted the thing that was exclusive. Given that I have no interest in CQC, the wheelbarrow wins, even if it is only partly full.

You're talking about a time exclusive. what I'm talking about is exclusive that you can only get on consoles period.

 

[Gédéon_Lecanard]

I still say Frontier should do this.
Release a template for each ship that can be opened in an image editor
People design the paintjob and save it to a specified format
They send the paintjob to Frontier who check it for copyright and legal issues
(let's say there's no more work to be done on it at this point other than making it work for that ship) They then put it in their store

Benefits:
*More paintjobs for different ships - saves Frontier the work of designing the paintjobs
*Community feels invovled
*Frontier make money from selling them

I'd say win-win all around. I may not be up to Mobius' standards, but I have made content in this ^^^ way for a game (Myst Online Uru Live), and you can go play it right now and use my content.

Fully agree, too. There are pretty neat texture artists out there, I'm sure we would see some really great skins before long.

I certainly hope xbox players will like the game, and PS4s too in the near future. I just wish we could get rid of machine based exclusivities (timed of worse, PC/mac/consoles/mobiles/fridges whatever) all toghether. Another problem is: I love what Frontier is doing with Elite, and I'm not thrilled at all seeing them somehow forced (to some extent) into going in the Xbox market the MS way. I wish they could keep the freedom they had so far with the PC version, and that working with MS won't force them into making a glorified shoot-em-up.

 

[Lord_Crazy]

There is a release on fridge too????? Finally! I can play and keep my beers cold!

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

I remember reading somewhere they didn't know yet whether we would play together, console update being one of the reason. Besides, MS and FD already have previous experiences together, and with and more game like ED or MMO on XBO, maybe we could expect some positive changes regarding certification?
I say wait and see.

It's not so much about playing together. That will be difficult but PC / MS would be the best choice...if it can be sorted.
Anyways,
In BF, MS had timed exclusives yet things didn't happen any sooner...but they weren't compatible either.
I'm just trying to let you guys know there will always be a delay.
If they can reduce that then great but I wouldn't expect a big fundamental shift in the times involved.
If they can half it I'll be impressed.

If they can get both systems compatible then maybe...


It's not a big issue to me but I don't want ppl thinking that it's just gonna happen.
Wouldn't be fair on FD and parties involved.
Just trying to keep it real.

And I agree, let's just see what happens.

 

[Lord_Crazy]

It's not so much about playing together. That will be difficult but PC / MS would be the best choice...if it can be sorted.
Anyways,
In BF, MS had timed exclusives yet things didn't happen any sooner...but they weren't compatible either.
I'm just trying to let you guys know there will always be a delay.
If they can reduce that then great but I wouldn't expect a big fundamental shift in the times involved.
If they can half it I'll be impressed.
And I agree, let's just see what happens.

It's not a big issue to me but I don't want ppl thinking that it's just gonna happen.
Wouldn't be fair on FD and parties involved.
Just trying to keep it real.

Oh OK I see. yes you are right. Personally I am OK with waiting a bit. The one week beta we got for 1.3 was kind of a joke: spending more time on testing before release would probably be a good thing.

 

[Gédéon_Lecanard]

There is a release on fridge too????? Finally! I can play and keep my beers cold!

Beware, though. Read the minimal fridge specs before getting that version. It can run pretty hot at times.

 

[SteveLaw]

They will in a CG.

I rarely play CGs and when I do its for the narrative not the reward. And if others pay to do better then we all get higher rewards anyway. So no worries there.

 

[GIBSONJR]

The day Frontier wants money from me on a monthly base ED is dead for me. Expansions and DLC to pay? I don´t know. They made BIG money on ED to say the least. More than many others who made big games.
Many things aren´t done that have been in there in the past (we all know).
Frontier is still debugging the Beta and the biggest thing that has been added is PowerPlay. That was their choice. I like the idea of PowerPlay but as of yet it doesn´t work quite well IMO.
But anyway when No Man´s Sky comes out there will be a bigger, maybe better game out there - but at least it will be THE most competiting game to ED.
I don´t want to keep Frontier happy by putting in money just for debugging and stuff.
I love ED and I so much enjoy every hour I spend playing it but don´t let this game die because it turns into **g EVE.
I am happy to buy some textures for the ships and stuff like that but Frontier has to watch extremely carefully not to squeeze out the money from their most loyal fans - the players.

All the best,
Robin

 

[Barking_Mad]

From figures it looks like they've sold circa 700,000 copies of the game. By April sales were over 500,000 copies. Since then they've sold another 190,000 on Steam. I suspect Mac copies aren't that great, but there's those to add in. If cqc is reviewed well I think the game will do well on Xbox regardless of players views on the main part of the game.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Oh OK I see. yes you are right. Personally I am OK with waiting a bit. The one week beta we got for 1.3 was kind of a joke: spending more time on testing before release would probably be a good thing.

I guess I'm kinda new and enthusiastic, whereas you're a bit jaded it seems. I can understand that, really because I've been there. I also don't get the original backers thing so much because I wasn't party to it but I try to glean stuff off the forums as to what went on, what was promised etc.
Things like this get resolved through communication so keep on doing.

Look man, I'm not here to bust your balls as such.
I'm just saying what I feel.
I'm all ears regards the forums and was just saying my thing regarding certification and such.
I haz no beta...but does it make what I say less valid since I've been gaming for close to 40 years?
I have beta tested quite a few games in my time and some have failed so hard...so I get how annoying it is.
CTE tested BF4, now on BF Hardline...trying, no one in BFH so lol. C'est la vie. EA FTW
Stand your ground though and fight for what you believe in and what you want the game to be.
If there is no try, there will only be fail.
Keep it steady.


And yea, Beta testing is kinda a joke, it's more about stability than anything else.
Everything else gets hotfixed after from feedback yet that's where my concern lies on a big release...when XB1 drops, how long do we wait?
Because I will tell you now, we will be waiting a lot longer for fixes.

 

[Tradesman]

Sooner or later money for the game will stop.

 

[knowles2]

Hmmm, I welcome the x-box players in all honesty, its good to have it on all platforms and media types. It makes sense. I also agree with the comments on pay to win and subscription.
What I can't fathom is that until this update I thought Frontier were effectively rolling in it. They reported higher than expected pc sales, they ran the £13,000 race to Elite, the Nvidia giveaway competition and had a successful kickstarter. I thought they had too much money if anything so this is quite the surprise for me...

I mean the prizes and that will have brought some people into the game but I can't imagine they got £13,000 of new players directly from that competition, seems odd to me..

my 2 euros.

They are also undertaking investment with a new ip and continue to build out there online store and other stuff. They also still haven't started to license their game engine which was suppose to be a major revenue earner. I also suspect their server costs are higher as well and aren't yet being covered by store sales of ship skins as initially planned.

I'm looking forward to see what Frontier accounts look like when they are publish, which I think is around September time, then we will know how the game is doing.

 

[Chummy62]

I remember playing Frontier Elite 2. I was so excited when I discovered Elite Dangerous was in development. Now you need to understand that I had been a subscriber to Blizzard's World of Warcraft game for over four years. If you do the math, that works out to $720.00 over a four year $15.00 a month subscription. Having things available in the on line store is great! Bringing in new player bases on different platforms is great! Keeping the lights on and developing new content takes a steady income stream which a store simply can't do. If the sales number turns out to be 500,000 then a little quick math of a subscription based game would be $7,500,000.00 per month. While my first experience with Elite was a box with a floppy disk, I was not expecting a "box" when I purchased the game this time. I would be glad to pay a monthly subscription. I was expecting the "Blizzard" model to be employed. Why would you do something different when this has been proven successful? That much income per month helps bring in more talent which pays forward in broader development and better content. Want to say right now that the team at Frontier has clearly demonstrated they are some of the best artists, musicians, coders and all to have accomplished so much. I believe we have a great game already and want nothing less than the same results Blizzard has for the folks at Frontier Development. While I can only dream of giving FD a check for $7,500,000.00 a month, I truly can afford to give them a monthly subscription of $15.00. Where do I sign up to make arrangements to start now? You can't argue with the math.

 

[knowles2]

And yea, Beta testing is kinda a joke, it's more about stability than anything else.
Everything else gets hotfixed after from feedback yet that's where my concern lies on a big release...when XB1 drops, how long do we wait?
Because I will tell you now, we will be waiting a lot longer for fixes.

This is one reason why I believe that after CQC is release and PS4 and probably Nintendo NX get their exclusivity content. The PC will get content first and we will test it out and Frontier will patch it up before it is then sent to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for certification and release.

- - - Updated - - -

I remember playing Frontier Elite 2. I was so excited when I discovered Elite Dangerous was in development. Now you need to understand that I had been a subscriber to Blizzard's World of Warcraft game for over four years. If you do the math, that works out to $720.00 over a four year $15.00 a month subscription. Having things available in the on line store is great! Bringing in new player bases on different platforms is great! Keeping the lights on and developing new content takes a steady income stream which a store simply can't do. If the sales number turns out to be 500,000 then a little quick math of a subscription based game would be $7,500,000.00 per month. While my first experience with Elite was a box with a floppy disk, I was not expecting a "box" when I purchased the game this time. I would be glad to pay a monthly subscription. I was expecting the "Blizzard" model to be employed. Why would you do something different when this has been proven successful? That much income per month helps bring in more talent which pays forward in broader development and better content. Want to say right now that the team at Frontier has clearly demonstrated they are some of the best artists, musicians, coders and all to have accomplished so much. I believe we have a great game already and want nothing less than the same results Blizzard has for the folks at Frontier Development. While I can only dream of giving FD a check for $7,500,000.00 a month, I truly can afford to give them a monthly subscription of $15.00. Where do I sign up to make arrangements to start now? You can't argue with the math.

The problem with the subscription model is only WOW and Eve have made it work and are earning a substantial amount of money from. Countless games have failed to make the subscription model work and many more have abandon the subscription model and turn towards free to play model. Even WOW is moving away from the subscription model and on to more free to play funded by a store model.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

This is one reason why I believe that after CQC is release and PS4 and probably Nintendo NX get their exclusivity content. The PC will get content first and we will test it out and Frontier will patch it up before it is then sent to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for certification and release.

No other consoles are confirmed besides XBO and PS4.

 

[Chummy62]

You will need to provide some evidence that Blizzard is abandoning the subscription model as my quick search online came up with nothing. I did see it mentioned as something they are considering as they move on to other games like "Hearthstone". But they are not pulling the plug any time soon. We are at the beginning of the game cycle for ED not the end like WoW. A 7,100,000 player base provides a monthly income of $106,500,000.00 at $15.00 a person. I believe you misunderstood that Blizzard is considering retiring WoW for other subscription based future games. They have 5 games with 2 under development.

 

[Eggtastico]

I very much doubt you could have a subscription based model with console owners.
XBox owners already pay for access to xbox gold to be able to play online, etc.
Cant expect people to pay twice.

I remember there was a big issue between EA & MS (or Sony) for the consoles & certain EA Sports games.
Which was about ingame revenue.

 

[knowles2]

The board game website I frequent allows all sorts of user content to be added. Obviously the owners cannot check it all for copyright, inappropriate pictures, etc. But they built a little 'moderation' system where other users get to see the proposed content and vote on it. Only content with enough positives, and with a high enough positive to negative ratio gets through. FD could implement a similar system so that most of the onus of validation is on us, not them.

Check out Planet coaster website. They will be releasing something called Guess designer that will allow people to design their own guest characters and staff that will show up in every copy of the game. There also the idea you be able to visit other theme parks as well and perhaps share rides you design, all of which would require moderation.


I did start a thread on this asking if Frontier was planning to put into this into Elite Dangerous, I would even pay a ten or fifteen quid to get hold of such tools. It would also be fun if such tools allow us to build buildings for colonies and new modules for outpost stations. But it got put into the Dangerous Suggestion forum and forgotten.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=158993

- - - Updated - - -

No other consoles are confirmed besides XBO and PS4.

None of the other consoles on the market could run the game.

 

[KamiruPL]

Optional subscription with a few exclusive skins for random ships as a reward for supporters would be ok.