Ok, so FD have committed now its the 3rd Party Tools too.
So you the developers can now promise that if FD commit, you will commit that these sites and tools will continue to be developed till the end of Elites development ( 7 more years going by DB ).
No leaving the tools, when a new game comes out that you move to play.
You commit to the player base that these tools will stay online line and bugs and new features will be added while Elite is still running.
Let see if you commit too the users of your 3rd party tools.
You seem to misunderstand. FD did not commit to the 3PDs because they owe them anything, they did it because their *customers* made it clear that they were very likely to step away from this game (and very likely would have long ago) if these sites didn't exist. FD knows this, they're not blind or stupid. At the end of the day, for them, it's about money. That's not cynicism, that' reality. For the 3PD's, however, what they do is *purely* a labour of love, and thus they have no incentive or reason to promise anything to anyone. Do they want people to enjoy their sites and thus the game? OF COURSE, otherwise these tools wouldn't exist. Do they have any responsibility to promise these sites will live forever? Sorry, 'fraid not.