Elite Franchise Life Ends In December 2021?

xondk

X
Blackcompany said:
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.
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Chairman statement sep 2018
For those not wanting to get the file.
Our long-term ambition to become a global
leader in entertainment remains on plan.
We are scaling up to continue our multi-franchise
success story through the development and
growth of our internal capabilities together
with an expanding use of external resources.
Our proven ability to both launch and sustain
franchises within a self-publishing model,
as well as our long history of delivery and
capability, positions us very well to continue
our organisational development. It is pleasing
to see both Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster
selling strongly in their fourth and second
financial years respectively. This validates
our model of establishing franchises with
enduring appeal rather than for the short
term
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I would love to see where you see the statement about 3 years?
 
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Thatchinho

Thatchinho
Blackcompany said:
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.
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Are these private reports to their shareholders? Or are you talking about something published publicly?
 

EDanaII

EDanaII
@ Thatchinho & babelfisch

It's already been established in the first post of the thread that this is a financial accounting report. Business often use it as a metric to make decisions on what to do next, including whether or not to keep supporting something. That decision might be to kill it, but it might also be to enhance it or change it to extend the life of the product. Which is likely why we are seeing enhancements and possibly a rewrite to the game.

babelfisch said:
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!).
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The only people who are saying the "the world will end" are the ones who don't understand typical accounting practices. Again, it's a metric that helps companies and investors make a decision on what to do next and is not solely about whether or not they kill something or not.


Max Factor said:
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.
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How high is high? Is 10 feet high? Is 100 high? Is 1000 feet high? If I think it's a rewrite with some expansions and you think it's an expansion with some rewrites does that mean we're agreeing? Does it mean we're disagreeing? The devil is in the details...
 

Riverside

Riverside
thistle said:
That's what he's doing, enjoying playing the forum.
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Seems you don't know how the block function works & choose only to make the situation worse for us all.

The forum is free to access, the maintenance costs are fairly low. More of FDev's money can be wasted by making maximum use of the services they rent from AWS. I understand massive activity spikes are the optimal waste of money so make sure you are online when they happen even if you can't be part of it.

I try to be nice thistle, I encourage you to try too. It can always be worse ;)
 
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2plex

2plex
Taimaru said:
Frontier are putting a huge amount of time, effort and resources into the update coming in late 2020.
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LOL, that's what Bethesda and BioWare said too and then they came out with Fallout76 and Anthem.
Never believe in any PR, it's all marketing hogwash.
 

Thatchinho

Thatchinho
EDanaII said:
@ Thatchinho & babelfisch

It's already been established in the first post of the thread that this is a financial accounting report. Business often use it as a metric to make decisions on what to do next, including whether or not to keep supporting something. That decision might be to kill it, but it might also be to enhance it or change it to extend the life of the product. Which is likely why we are seeing enhancements and possibly a rewrite to the game.



The only people who are saying the "the world will end" are the ones who don't understand typical accounting practices. Again, it's a metric that helps companies and investors make a decision on what to do next and is not solely about whether or not they kill something or not.
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That doesn't really make sense, which is making me wonder if there's just a bit of terminology mixing going on.

EDanaII said:
It's already been established in the first post of the thread that this is a financial accounting report.
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The report in question is the FD Annual Report(s). (Oh, and I was part of the original discussion before the recent thread resurrection, and various other previous discussions over the very same thing.)

EDanaII said:
Business often use it as a metric to make decisions on what to do next, including whether or not to keep supporting something. That decision might be to kill it, but it might also be to enhance it or change it to extend the life of the product. Which is likely why we are seeing enhancements and possibly a rewrite to the game.
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OK, so I take it you're not talking about the Annual Report here as that doesn't really fit with what you're saying in that sentence. Maybe that's just terminology again though - what is it you're saying they use as a metric?
 

-VR- Max Factor

-VR- Max Factor
NeilF said:
When will that get written? I believe the ED 100 staff are busy this year and next on something else "significant" ;)
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Agreed. The next expansion to ED.

EDanaII said:
How high is high? Is 10 feet high? Is 100 high? Is 1000 feet high? If I think it's a rewrite with some expansions and you think it's an expansion with some rewrites does that mean we're agreeing? Does it mean we're disagreeing? The devil is in the details...
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It's taken then around 6 years to code for the current game with roughly a 100 person team. And you think they can do a major re-write and produce a major expansion worthy of being bought in two years. Whatever the expansion is, it needs to be compelling enough for us to buy, it won't be small.

Sorry but the logic doesn't add up to me.
 
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Montague

Montague
EDanaII said:
The only people who are saying the "the world will end" are the ones who don't understand typical accounting practices. Again, it's a metric that helps companies and investors make a decision on what to do next and is not solely about whether or not they kill something or not.
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To be clear and to avoid added confusion: the expected lifespan cited in the Annual Report is not used for that kind of metric.

Its only function is to account for revenue raised from the sale of Lifetime Expansion Passes.

When accounting for revenue, "lifetime" cannot be vaguely defined as "for however long the game lasts." It needs a specific schedule.

By December 31, 2021, FD will have spent all of the lifetime pass revenue on game development.

As I recall from when I purchased my LEP, it was explained that the pass money would not be released to FD all at once; instead, it would be doled out over the years to help pay for future development. The Annual Report simply details how they accounted for that.

Unfortunately for my fellow LEP holders, it doesn't mean we'll have received our money's worth in paid expansions by the end of the "lifetime." But it also doesn't mean the game is over at the end of 2021.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
Montague said:
To be clear and to avoid added confusion: the expected lifespan cited in the Annual Report is not used for that kind of metric.

Its only function is to account for revenue raised from the sale of Lifetime Expansion Passes.
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Useful life definitions pertain to the amortization period of the capital expenditure required to develop/produce a given product (in this case intangible assets such as software). Not to the actual physical life of the product thereafter. In many instances the actual life of a product (and often times also its revenues) outlast by far that amortization period. Especially if you add on further capital investments later on, to add on or improve or expand the original product.

The realization of the outstanding LTE deferred revenues is simply tied along the same capex amortization timeline. One can not just wait for ever to realize those deferred revenues, after all the tax man is eagerly waiting too! :) And that does not indicate any information whatsoever about the end of the physical life of the product or the possible expansions that may follow that original amortization period (and that will need to be amortized in their own corresponding "useful life" periods). That information and expansion news are subject to actual commercial decisions by the developer that notifies shareholders and the market when they see fit. As it has just been the case for the next expansion estimated for 2020.
 
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Ignition

I
xondk said:
"Expected" I think is the key word, if Frontier earns a lot from Elite at that time, i'm sure it will continue.
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Its not going to go well for Elite if they release 1 expansion every 6 years.

So if they fail this next "new era" expansion then Elite will be shutdown.
 
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