Elite Dangerous has sold 3m copies, Horizons 1.3m (43% of basegame owners)

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
IndigoWyrd said:
Does it make you feel better to know 100% of Horizons owners also purchased the base game?
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Sorry Indigo - I have to put my hand up here...

I bought Horizons when I already had the full pack as I missed the second serial number from Steam... Sorted that and moved it to Oculus, ending up with a spare horizons...

I did the right thing though, bought a second copy of ED base and now have a 'fresh' CMDR learning the ropes in the bubble :)
 

House0fDerp

H
Roybe said:
The 'learning curve' has a downside. As well as the basic design of the game. People either cannot figure out the basics or they figure out that how the game works and both 'nope out'.
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Do most people still buy them separately at this point?

When I got it in was a decently priced bundle. I guess I would have expected most of the non-Horizons owners to be pre-Horizons purchasers.
 

krylite

krylite
Old Duck said:
I'm not sure what you mean by this, unless you're talking about Sony's exclusives stealing the show, as they say. The advantage ED has on the PS4 compared to PC is that there is very little competition - the only game that comes close is No Man's Sky, and having both, NMS is not an adequate substitute for ED. The big disadvantage is that ED feels very much like a PC port, and thus it suffers a number of quality issues on PS4 that PC owners don't have to deal with.

The other potential disadvantage on console is that there are likely more casual gamers playing on console than PC. ED is not a casual game. I've seen negative reviews for ED PS4 complaining that it's too hard to land, LOL. While I'm frustrated with the current quality of the game on PS4, I am forever thankful that Frontier actually took the risk to bring a game like this to the consoles. If anything, I'm worried they might be "watering down" ED in an attempt to reach a broader audience. If that's what it takes for ED to reach the numbers of some of these other games, then I'll celebrate 3 million not because it is big, but because it is small (which means it is focused).
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lol, hey Duck! I saw your earlier posts in this thread, and now this excellent summarized one, and to me you are just sometimes an entertaining "jekyll and hyde" with your sharp observations, criticisms and opinions concerning the game on the forum overall . And of course, thank you so much for "moving on" from the ELB-leather Sig!! Can't tell you how much relief I feel not having to be reminded of the implied vomit-inducing imagery with all due respect and empathy for your 'grief' in your particular case of (graphical?) bugs never (or not yet) having been addressed.

For this particular post, I very much agree and have similar thoughts. ED is so very much a complex game that requires a lot of maintenance and updating with so much potential and placeholder to expand on. You may have heard by now, that the PS4 port of ED took longer than normal and imo, as a result, it delayed Horizons progress for an extended time where Frontier was not as big as it is now and the PS4 success probably helped in some part with Frontier securing major investors such as Tencent and currently a few other venture capitalist funds.

The 3 million sales count while not a top figure of the overall games industry, is still a great figure for the genre niche segment of ED. I think it was only a couple of years ago, a 1+ million count was reported, so it's nice to see ED at least double it's sales count likely signifying the success of attaining lasting value similar to long standing niche sim franchises, ex: FSX, X-plane or Prepar3D. I'd hope it's a great figure for Frontier and their business finances, as their supposed flagship product, and also hope Frontier continues to stay solidly traditional and apart from the current devolved marketing climate of too many game publishers.
 
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krylite

krylite
Blackcompany said:
Except a LOT of those sales would be at, or even below, the sale prices of $14-$19.99.

And let's be honest: without the injection of cash from Tencent last year, Frontier would have been in the negative, as per their own financial disclosure.

That's not "fine" or a good place to be, especially with no big, ongoing revenue source.

I hope they pull through, refocus and make Elite the game we know it COULD be. I just refuse to get my Hopes up.
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Frontier and news media had reported Frontier was financially performing very well with most years since ED's release at little or no debt. There was an article last year I believe, where Braben had stated that the company didn't really need the Tencent infusion to pay off any interest or obligations. The fact that financially Frontier was doing exceptionally well for a small cap game independent publisher was probably a big factor why Tencent and subsequently a few more venture capital and hedge funds decided to invest with Frontier.

Today:

"
'Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster also continue to perform well, as our strategy of supporting, nurturing and enhancing each of our game franchises continues to deliver.'

'I look forward to providing more details about our fourth game franchise, as well as our existing franchises, in the coming months."

http://www.stockmarketwire.com/arti...ng-after-Jurassic-World-Evolution-launch.html
http://www.stockmarketwire.com/arti...broker-note-on-Frontier-Developments-Plc.html
 
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Old Duck

Old Duck
krylite said:
The 3 million sales count while not a top figure of the overall games industry, is still a great figure for the genre niche segment of ED.
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Since I later found out that Nier: Automata has similar sales figures, a game that is very well known on my platform, I'm more optimistic about ED's numbers. Speaking of elephant butt leather, remove the "elephant" and you've got Nier: Automata :D (maybe that should be my new signature...)

Codger said:
As long as the sales are sufficient to keep the game going for a bunch more years, that's all I care about :)
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I've come to this conclusion as well, because I really don't want Frontier "dumbing down" ED in an effort to boost sales. If anything, I'd like to see a bit more realism injected back into the game.
 
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StuartGT

StuartGT
Flowey said:
Doesn't matter if it's 1000$ or 1$, it fits in the P2W description. BTW, that's with a 76% discount.
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Horizons is definitely P2W. Thankfully, a one-off-cost of £4.79 to gain that equal footing plus tons of new features and content. Bargain!

Much better than cash4credits, cash4ships, cash4guns, cash4ammo, etc that other games are unfortunately proud of. Or a subscription costing £5+ per month.

And let's not mention the huge macrotransactions that some games utilise to milk their customers.... wow! :eek:
 

Shinji Ikari

Shinji Ikari
StuartGT said:
Horizons is definitely P2W. Thankfully, a one-off-cost of £4.79 to gain that equal footing plus tons of new features and content. Bargain!

Much better than cash4credits, cash4ships, cash4guns, cash4ammo, etc that other games are unfortunately proud of. Or a subscription costing £5+ per month.

And let's not mention the huge macrotransactions that some games utilise to milk their customers.... wow! :eek:
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Once more, that's the discounted price. The actual price is $30. Also, they could try and offer new content without an incredibly powerful feature in it.
 

StuartGT

StuartGT
Flowey said:
Once more, that's the discounted price. The actual price is $30. Also, they could try and offer new content without an incredibly powerful feature in it.
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The actual price right now is £4.79 - see, right here: add to cart, and you only get charged £4.79.

Pro-tip: when an expansion is three years old and regularly on-sale, don't pay "full" price for it.
 

Blackcompany

Banned
B
krylite said:
Frontier and news media had reported Frontier was financially performing very well with most years since ED's release at little or no debt. There was an article last year I believe, where Braben had stated that the company didn't really need the Tencent infusion to pay off any interest or obligations. The fact that financially Frontier was doing exceptionally well for a small cap game independent publisher was probably a big factor why Tencent and subsequently a few more venture capital and hedge funds decided to invest with Frontier.

Today:

"
'Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster also continue to perform well, as our strategy of supporting, nurturing and enhancing each of our game franchises continues to deliver.'

'I look forward to providing more details about our fourth game franchise, as well as our existing franchises, in the coming months."

http://www.stockmarketwire.com/arti...ng-after-Jurassic-World-Evolution-launch.html
http://www.stockmarketwire.com/arti...broker-note-on-Frontier-Developments-Plc.html
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Again, check Frontiers own financial disclosure for 2018. Tencent was the ONLY thing keeping them from a net loss last year. I dont care what Braben said. Braben has SAID a lot of things. He has yet to deliver a single one of them, but sure, he has said them. Read the financial statements. Penalties for lying there are much stiffer.
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
I bought mine at the first ever $15 steam sale. Proud first sale steam player. End of 15 i think, though include an obligatory lag of trying to dock backwards, not succeeding and giving up until stumbling on obsidian ant.

The p2w argument is technically true but was only valid when people were still legitimately playing without horizons. Now its completely stupid.

Yeah on player stats.. i've sat back and observed so many passionate fans of elite rage quit the game because of incompatibility with some patch or design decision from frontiers game design committee. I shrugged my shoulders every time and didn't care. Now its my turn i think i need to speak up. I'm barely clinging onto elite, and only because i've spent hundreds in cosmetics over 3 accounts. If it wasn't for that its so bad i would have put it in long term storage day after patch launch. If you're not in the bubble you have to jump and bluescreen, jump and bluescreen. You have to see a blue screen as soon you drop if you want to do anything further. This is objectively miserable. No way this was designed by a player.

Yeah my time looks like its coming too it seems.

Out of those millions, the bulk of player attrition would have come from sandbox, ie no single player campaign. I wonder how many of the remainder frontier have driven off by their 'we are the only right' game design attitude.

Lastly, if the pw2 argument can be suggested to be no longer valid today, the fact that cosmetics have to be repurchased over multiple accounts is also literally anti consumer. As a kickstarted barely beta product, they can be forgiven. Millions of sales, console platforms and years later they're doing it deliberately. Mr Brabens innocent enthusiasm doesn't pass.
 
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VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
NeilF said:
Well, let's see how this year's atmospheric landings DLC does first...
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Rubbish! The new era will be Powerplay 3.0 with CQC in game! :p

Old Duck said:
a vast server infrastructure like ED's BGS requires.
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BGS is not the problem if remember the presentation correctly. The instancing is.

aRJay said:
Remember historically Horizons wasn't available to all platforms.
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Well, as of this year it now again isn't, right Mac users? :p

Flowey said:
Well, there it goes, roughly half of the players have a significant advantage over others.
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Seriously? After all these years(!!!) actually I have to repeat it in caps: AFTER ALL THESE YEARS someone still plays Elite without Horizons? Without PLANETARY LANDINGS? Then they don't care about the game, period. It was on sale numerous times, and also it is hardly bank breaking, even a kid with meagre allowance could save up to own one pretty quick. Planetary landings give you nice vistas, and there is fun with SLFs to be had as well... Not to mention FSD, thruster and shield upgrades. And mass reduction... Sorry, buying horizons is a no brainer. Buying "stuff" from the store on the other hand... not so much, in my opinion.
 

Shinji Ikari

Shinji Ikari
StarLightPL said:
Seriously? After all these years(!!!) actually I have to repeat it in caps: AFTER ALL THESE YEARS someone still plays Elite without Horizons? Without PLANETARY LANDINGS? Then they don't care about the game, period. It was on sale numerous times, and also it is hardly bank breaking, even a kid with meagre allowance could save up to own one pretty quick. Planetary landings give you nice vistas, and there is fun with SLFs to be had as well... Not to mention FSD, thruster and shield upgrades. And mass reduction... Sorry, buying horizons is a no brainer. Buying "stuff" from the store on the other hand... not so much, in my opinion.
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I never said it wasn't a no brainer, I'm just saying that FD should be careful not to add OP things to a season expansion, BTW, if those who don't buy horizons don't care about the game then 43% of people who have bought ED don't care very much about it.
 
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