in 2017 2.75 million sales, more then $82 million and still things are coming out at snail speed.

[zombieapocalypse]

I refer you to my earlier 'put up or shut up' statement. No excuses, we need to see what you've got in your next reply.

I can't the VHS is made of elerium-115, too delicate to be played on an earth-bound VCR. It would risk everything. No, no, I can't...

Of course the video also shows Braben break dancing and a monkey eating a cat. Wish you could see it, I really do...

 

[Riverside]

I can't the VHS is made of elerium-115, too delicate to be played on an earth-bound VCR. It would risk everything. No, no, I can't...

Of course the video also shows Braben break dancing and a monkey eating a cat. Wish you could see it, I really do...

What relevance does this have to the 2017 financial statement? Please do risk everything btw, I would be very much in favour of that.

 

[hems303]

As it turns out, more money does not directly correlate to faster development

Totally agree! For proof of this comment lets take a look at that "other" space game/sim: You know.. the one with far more $ or £ garnered from supporting fans, the one with much more time in development so far, the one with so much less to give it's adoring, eager, and overly patient players... and yes I was one of those "supporters", just as I still am with Elite Dangerous. IMHO opinion Frontier and DBOBE have done and are doing their best at providing what "we" all want, whist maintaining a profitable company that will survive whereas perhaps "that other games company" may not with it's continually expanding and unrealistic goals. More money = Faster development..... NO!

(All IMHO) o7

 

[Blackcompany]

Ok, I have a question to Frontier about Elite Dangerous slow development, and it’s the following, Why is it that in 2017 you have passed 2.75 million sales (source: http://massivelyop.com/2017/08/15/elite-dangerous-has-passed-2-75-million-sales/ and your Twitter https://twitter.com/frontierdev/sta...lite-dangerous-has-passed-2-75-million-sales/) (more even in 2018) x $29.99 which is a total of $ $82.472.500 that things still are being developed so super slow. I just have that question and I’m sure many other customers also would like to know, the money is there to expand your dev team to release content faster not to mention the promised content like space legs, planetary atmospheric landings and all the other things PROMISED (back in the beginning when you were still in the crowd funding stage) id really like an answer to this as it should not be possible at this stage of development and earnings by your company.

so yea thx to the people here on the forum that information is clear now and i for sure did not know that was available
https://www.frontier.co.uk/investors/annual-and-interim-reports

Those were SALES. I wonder if they take into account Steam Spy's literally thousands of refunds...not to mention, a ton of those sales were likely at or around $5 USD. Not a great profit margin there, I would wager.

Still, development is unforgivably slow. And a lot of updates really dont add much game play interaction, or stuff to DO, despite the time they take. Its becoming a real problem.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I agree the general message seems to be that ED is a sales success which begs the question why has development apparently slowed rather than increased in pace?

We don't know that development has slowed down as we do not know what is being developed apart from the beyond series of updates.

 

[Blackcompany]

I can just imagine a group of Elite Dangerous players doing DnD (but an Elite Dangerous version).

So can I...on or around week 4 or 5, they'd probably finish character creation...

 

[Lestat]

I think Nejamai want a game that poorly made because it was made too fast and had a load of bugs. I rather have frontier take their time and make the game run smoothly vs Fast and loaded with tons of bugs.

 

[Riverside]

We don't know that development has slowed down as we do not know what is being developed apart from the beyond series of updates.

You are right (as usual), we don't know. I would like to. It is interesting information, we don't see enough of this kind of detail, and I think it would help allay the more rampant paranoia commonly seen on this forum & elsewhere.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

You are right (as usual), we don't know. I would like to. It is interesting information, we don't see enough of this kind of detail, and I think it would help allay the more rampant paranoia commonly seen on this forum & elsewhere.

That I can agree with. But at least we do know they are working on other stuff other then beyond we just don't know what it is yet.

 

[Lestat]

You are right (as usual), we don't know. I would like to. It is interesting information, we don't see enough of this kind of detail, and I think it would help allay the more rampant paranoia commonly seen on this forum & elsewhere.

One thing we don't know. Is all that money going back into Elite Dangerous or going into Jurassic World or planet coaster.

 

[Henri]

Plus..

Wages for ALL staff not just developers etc


Furthermore, if I ask you to do a job as quickly as possible you will make mistakes, if I tell you to take your time, you'll make (hopefully) less mistakes. This game has a 10 year development plan, we're in the 3rd year. Cool your engines.

wait i have to wait 7 more years for Star Citizen?
Can' t they just slap multicrew on it and call it done?

 

[Riverside]

One thing we don't know. Is all that money going back into Elite Dangerous or going into Jurassic World or planet coaster.

IIRC there was a statement on that, although I don't remember where.

The general plan was to use one game to fund the next, and those two games to fund a third (and so on I guess). I remember interpreting the first game as ED, the second as Planet Coaster. The third would be Jurassic World, although I don't think we knew about that one at the time.

This isn't directly related to the amount of resource each game is given though, or whether those budgets are increasing (as one might expect) or decreasing (if ED is treated as the cash cow).

 

[Ian Skippy]

Ok, I have a question to Frontier about Elite Dangerous slow development, and it’s the following, Why is it that in 2017 you have passed 2.75 million sales (source: http://massivelyop.com/2017/08/15/elite-dangerous-has-passed-2-75-million-sales/ and your Twitter https://twitter.com/frontierdev/sta...lite-dangerous-has-passed-2-75-million-sales/) (more even in 2018) x $29.99 which is a total of $ $82.472.500 that things still are being developed so super slow. I just have that question and I’m sure many other customers also would like to know, the money is there to expand your dev team to release content faster not to mention the promised content like space legs, planetary atmospheric landings and all the other things PROMISED (back in the beginning when you were still in the crowd funding stage) id really like an answer to this as it should not be possible at this stage of development and earnings by your company.

so yea thx to the people here on the forum that information is clear now and i for sure did not know that was available
https://www.frontier.co.uk/investors/annual-and-interim-reports

You buy a game, not future development. What they do with the money aint your business. If they want to blow it on coke and dancing ladies, its their call.

 

[Riverside]

You buy a game, not future development. What they do with the money aint your business. If they want to blow it on coke and dancing ladies, its their call.

I bought future development with my LEP. Maybe I actually bought FDev some biscuits and a new building?

 

[AbsinthSvK]

You dont need to be money manager to see this game is not primary for company. Money are probably lost.

 

[Lanceor]

The reason that it seems so slow is that no game studio can possibly create content faster than players can imagine it or consume it. Game development takes time - a lot of time. It takes only seconds to imagine a simple new game feature, but to actually code it may take one person days or weeks.

Frontier is putting out two major and a dozen minor updates for Elite Dangerous each year - this is not disimilar other major game studios. If you look around, I'm sure you'd find other space games with much bigger budgets and slower releases (or are stuck in development hell).

Finally, I'm always left mystified when those with absolutely no game development experience try to teach Frontier how to run a game studio and develop a game.

 

[metascrawl]

What relevance does this have to the 2017 financial statement? Please do risk everything btw, I would be very much in favour of that.

Thanks for holding zombieapocalypse's feet to the fire on this. The parties, the fifties, the VHS tape and all the other Videodrome stuff - I can't believe he expected us to take it all seriously.

 

[metatheurgist]

There is no correlation between income and speed of development. If there was, a certain other game would've been released 2 years before it's kickstarter. Speaking of blowing money on coke and dancing girls.

 

[Riverside]

The reason that it seems so slow is that no game studio can possibly create content faster than players can imagine it or consume it. Game development takes time - a lot of time. It takes only seconds to imagine a simple new game feature, but to actually code it may take one person days or weeks.

Frontier is putting out two major and a dozen minor updates for Elite Dangerous each year - this is not disimilar other major game studios. If you look around, I'm sure you'd find other space games with much bigger budgets and slower releases (or are stuck in development hell).

Finally, I'm always left mystified when those with absolutely no game development experience try to teach Frontier how to run a game studio and develop a game.

Let's put 'Beyond' to one side for now, 2018 is still young & the first deadline FDev set has not yet passed.

The schedule for Horizons was for an update each quarter for the first three, the fourth was unspecified. While the implication was that it would be complete by the end of 2016 (with 2.4 possibly being slow release into 2017 as it turned out to be), the reality was that 2.1 was significantly delayed, with corresponding apologies & assurances that it was because they wanted to 'do it right'. 2.2 & 2.3 were also delayed (ie the gaps between them were more than one quarter) with no corresponding explanation or apology. In the end Horizons took two years to fully release.

So I understand and agree that things take time and longer than people might want them to, but when compared to deadlines set by FDev themselves it still doesn't look good.

There's no particular reason to believe any of Beyond will be delayed past the schedule FDev set, but if they are many will not be at all surprised.

Personally I'm waiting for more info on what comes after Horizons/Beyond. Premium content. I would like to know what's going on.

 

[Riverside]

Thanks for holding zombieapocalypse's feet to the fire on this. The parties, the fifties, the VHS tape and all the other Videodrome stuff - I can't believe he expected us to take it all seriously.

I don't think he/she expected anyone to take it seriously