Elite Franchise Life Ends In December 2021?
- Thread starter Montague
- Start date
-
- Tags
- ark!_the_d00m caves doomed
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
Correct. But that has always been the case, from day 1. Newsletter 29, among other sources, is reasonably clear about that condition.
Last edited:
Yep.
Though given the general nature of these threads, I’m just going to add that there different time periods over which profitability will be assessed. FD are financially strong enough to be able to take a longer term view on things, which means they can invest in longer lead time things, use a payment on delivery model, and look at return on investment over longer periods.
(Which IMHO is good news for ED given that it’s a long term game, has a more than 30 year heritage, with a fan/customer base that also goes back that far, and has various touted future developments which are long lead time items.)
But that's not the point here.
No where have I said anything about whether or not the game is dying. The point was that the prediction of Elites lifetime was a metric used by the FD to report to investors to help them decide whether they should stay or go. Which was my response to IndigoWyrd about whether or not the two were inseparable.You're assuming I'm claiming that all the code needed to be rewritten for something to be a "rewrite". But in my response to you, I clearly said "And that WOULD require a rewrite of some (not necessarily all) of the code base." In today's object oriented age it's quite easy to rewrite only part of the code, especially if your objects are already well designed. And, they don't necessarily need to rewrite the Stellar Forge, or other aspects of the game, just the parts that manage and control instancing, for example.
But we have moved into the realm of pure speculations, so...
Last edited:
Ok, so maybe what’s not clear is why you consider the specific term in question to be how you describe it. The term in question just provides a (now dated) forecast, and what it defines in terms of the finances is the expected period over which the deferred revenue from ED LEP sales will be counted as revenue. That’s a tiny amount comparatively so why would a (generic) investor take it as an indication of whether to leave or not?But that's not the point here.
Now let’s assume that an investor looks at the term in question and reads into it that that is what the game’s lifetime absolutely will be (which would be a pretty odd thing to do, but that doesn’t mean it absolutely 100% would never happen). Why would that be a deciding factor in whether they remained invested or not (bearing in mind that they are invested in the company, not the game)?
But that's not the point here.
No, as far as I know FDEV never told their investors about the predicted lifetime of Elite to help them decide whether they should stay or go.
The whole 'useful economic life' thing is just about book keeping. I am not an expert about this stuff but considering that the whole paragraph is about deferred income I'd guess you need to give a reason why you are deferring income to a later financial year instead of the current. And you can't just defer income indefinitely but need to say when it's going to be recognised as revenue. Frontier said they expect the useful economic life to be at least 10 years (and they said it's a very conservative guess, implying they expect the game will actually run way longer) which is when the deferred income is expected to be recognised as revenue. They also said they are re-evaluating this yearly.
As you can see, nothing of this is telling the shareholders about the lifetime of the game, it's just accounting. Which is pretty dull, I'd like to be a lion tamer rather than accountant.
I hope I didn't get it completely wrong, but it certainly makes more sense than 'the world will end in 2 years, 4 days, 26 minutes and 30 seconds' (that's what the rabbit said!).
Yep, it has been said and explained countless times that it is the recognition of deferred income over the economic life of the game and nothing to do with servers being switched but doom mongers and trolls cannot be reasoned with.
On that decade old bug ridden engine non the less. Oh he is going to have a blast with that community feedback.
But that's not the point here.
You're assuming I'm claiming that all the code needed to be rewritten for something to be a "rewrite". But in my response to you, I clearly said "And that WOULD require a rewrite of some (not necessarily all) of the code base." In today's object oriented age it's quite easy to rewrite only part of the code, especially if your objects are already well designed. And, they don't necessarily need to rewrite the Stellar Forge, or other aspects of the game, just the parts that manage and control instancing, for example.
But we have moved into the realm of pure speculations, so...
Then you just said what I originally replied with. So what was the point. Just agree with me. As I said, with all expansions there is always a partial rewrite of code for it to fit in properly.
So it's not a rewrite, but a partial one just like any other expansion that comes out.
Blackcompany
Banned
In reports to their shareholders in 2018, they claimed expected end of life of Elite is 3 years from now (again, this was 2018). Its public knowledge that even Braben does not expect the game to last beyond 2021.
Are you going to eat your socks if the servers are still running after 2021?
You should probably start with reading their financial reports.
PS
Actually they said 8 rather than 10 years, but that's irrelevant to the point.
'ACCOUNTING POLICIES CONTINUED
Intangible assets continued
Internally generated intangible assets, consisting of direct labour costs, other specific direct project costs and attributable project support costs, are amortised on a straight line basis over their useful economic lives. The estimated useful lives of current development projects are between three and five years. When a self-published game is intended for release on multiple platforms without material content change, amortisation is based on the length of time in which that game is expected to be supported in an unchanged format with a limit of up to six years. Acquired rights are assessed for their useful ‘franchise life’. For Elite Dangerous this is prudently estimated at eight years; within the sector successful franchises normally have useful lives of over ten years. Until completion, the assets are subject to annual impairment testing. In most circumstances amortisation commences upon completion of the asset and is shown within research and development expenses in the income statement.'
https://frontier-drupal.s3-eu-west-...eleases/financial/FrontierAR17-FullReport.pdf
I hope that shows how people are completely misinterpreting everything that has been said, if not feel free to ask.
Last edited by a moderator:
Highly unlikely and borderline negligent for Frontier to plow manpower and money into a 2020 expansion to the game only to shutter it a year later because by then the stock report will be near 4 years old and fairly out of date.
Blackcompany
Banned
Which is why I dont believe they will put any more significant resources into this game. I have a feeling the next announcement will either be Lights Out due to lack of interest, or another delay.
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
Based on the detailed explanations above, your response seems to be highly uninformed.
Why would FDEV stop Elite if by 2021 it continues to return a reasonable profit after the 2020 DLC launch?
Have you any actual argument or response for this post in particular?: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ecember-2021?p=7476048&viewfull=1#post7476048
Not really?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS33cyq6Z_A&t=21m00s
D.Braben: "[Elite] may well be never ending. People have said said sort of 8 years, 10 years but actually it could end up, I am hoping it could be a lot longer than that..."
As from day 1, the main limiting factor will be the commercial success and profitability of Elite. If the game and its expansions continue to return a decent profit it is quite probable the game will continue growing (and assuming no other technological barriers or limitations etc leading to a drastic change of course).
Last edited:
I hope it keeps going until my great great.... decendants can order a Krait V3575 and have it actually land in the back paddock.
Last edited: