Steam Numbers Now

[Stealthie]

Said it before but the simplest barometer of player-interest, for me, is that fact that half of the people on my friend-list haven't logged in for more than 6 months.

Sad really 'cos most of 'em were people who I used to do thargoid-related stuff with a couple of years ago and, back then, there was a lot of excitement about where the thargoid story was headed.
Now, apparently, the answer appears to be "nowhere" and the people I knew, who were interested in that stuff, obviously aren't playing any more.

 

[WinterKing2112]

But maybe fewer and fewer to no microtransaction sales between now and then. With a drop in player momentum over time could this encourage Frontier and their investors to figure ED a dying duck.

playing devil's advocate here.

Sales are steady according to another thread where someone actually knew the numbers (I think it was the "ED is underrated" thread), so no worries for ED!

 

[Old Duck]

Can Fdev maintain player interest until 2020?

Suppose it depends on how you define "interest".

I am still on the forums because I'm interested in the concept of ED, but I haven't played the game in some time now, and I don't see that changing until 2020. These new "Interstellar Initiatives" are a big yawn to me, and I've lost the will to play a bug-ridden half-baked game when I have so many better games on my PS4. Thing is, ED is the best space game available on my platform, so here I am, patiently waiting to see if Frontier can salvage their IP come "New Era". I highly doubt any worthwhile changes (including long-overdue bug fixes) will be made to the game before then...

 

[WinterKing2112]

Elite will never "die".
It is never going to be DOOMED.

Why?

Because there's hundreds, likely thousands of people who will keep playing no matter how poorly, slowly, and half-bakedly developed it is.

Because "I play in VR and i just like to fly my spaceship around". A memorable experience.

A not so memorable videogame.

I don't play in VR but I do like flying my spaceship around!

 

[WinterKing2112]

The games not dead.
Every time I kick it, it moves!

Moans in pain too....

 

[WinterKing2112]

Said it before but the simplest barometer of player-interest, for me, is that fact that half of the people on my friend-list haven't logged in for more than 6 months.

Sad really 'cos most of 'em were people who I used to do thargoid-related stuff with a couple of years ago and, back then, there was a lot of excitement about where the thargoid story was headed.
Now, apparently, the answer appears to be "nowhere" and the people I knew, who were interested in that stuff, obviously aren't playing any more.

I have yet to see a bloody thargoid! Where are they?

 

[Viajero]

Said it before but the simplest barometer of player-interest, for me, is that fact that half of the people on my friend-list haven't logged in for more than 6 months.

Sad really 'cos most of 'em were people who I used to do thargoid-related stuff with a couple of years ago and, back then, there was a lot of excitement about where the thargoid story was headed.
Now, apparently, the answer appears to be "nowhere" and the people I knew, who were interested in that stuff, obviously aren't playing any more.

Do you know roughly how many hours those players had so far in Elite?

 

[babelfisch]

I have yet to see a bloody thargoid! Where are they?

Checked under the bed and in wardrobe, no sign of Thargoids.

 

[The Replicated Man]

Some people like me, log in and fly around for 5 mins, then realize I can be slaying Draugr in Skyrim instead of blazing my own trail.

Then I close Elite and bring something else up.

As far as content goes, the forums are the last frontier.

After 4000 hours or more, there is nothing in Elite, other than PvP (which is stale) that is keeping me coming back.

Hopefully in 2020 this will change.

 

[Stealthie]

Do you know roughly how many hours those players had so far in Elite?

Dunno really, at least half of them were flying spendy ships and knew what they were doing, though, so I'd assume they were vet's.

Half a dozen of them are/were forum "faces" who may or may not still be posting here but apparently aren't playing the game, for certain.

 

[Stealthie]

Some people like me, log in and fly around for 5 mins, then realize I can be slaying Draugr in Skyrim instead of blazing my own trail.

Heh, I've been doing that for the last couple of weeks.

Alas, I've just got to the part where I have to visit the Soul Cairn and that was enough to drive me back to ED.

 

[deckroid]

I love the #gamesdead posts. Folks have been proselytizing the demise of ED since early 2015. Yet here we are.

Also... those Steam numbers are what's known as soft statistical analytics.

 

[Viajero]

Dunno really, at least half of them were flying spendy ships and knew what they were doing, though, so I'd assume they were vet's.

Half a dozen of them are/were forum "faces" who may or may not still be posting here but apparently aren't playing the game, for certain.

A few hundreds of hours worth at least I presume.

 

[ThatSmileyGuy]

 

[Old Duck]

A lot of stock is placed in how many hours a player invests in this game. Growing up as a country boy, I've probably spent more hours shoveling manure than I have playing Elite Dangerous. So, are you sure you want to use hours invested as a metric of a game's current state?

Recently I finished Rise Of The Tomb Raider, a very fun game with a clearly-defined ending. I know I put way less time into ROTR than I have in ED, yet I was left feeling more positive about ROTR than I currently do about ED. As for hours played, companies don't care about that - they care about dollars spent. Frontier makes the same $$ selling a game that never leaves the cellophane as they do a game that's played for 10,000 hours, cosmetics notwithstanding. If anything they may save money the less people actually play their game, due to server costs.

So what ultimately matters is a player's overall impression and whether that player will encourage his / her friends to buy a game or warn them away. Right now I would not recommend ED to any of my friends on PS4, despite the many hours I played it in the past, because of the state it is currently in. ROTR, on the other hand, I would definitely recommend to my friends.

As for cosmetics, I don't think these are tied to hours played, though obviously an active player is a potential customer whereas a nonactive player is most likely not.

 

[Stealthie]

A few hundreds of hours worth at least I presume.

Not sure what you're implying there, TBH.

For sure, I guess some people will just "burn out" (much as I dislike that term) but, OTOH, people who are still playing after several hundred hours are probably more likely to keep playing indefinitely - unless something radically changes their attitude to the game.

Personally, I think a game is likely to be healthier when it's got a hundred vet's still playing than it is if it's got 500 newbies playing.
It's probably not as good for FDev's bank-balance but it's certainly preferable for the players.

Besides, if FDev intend to carry on promoting the multiplayer aspect of the game, it needs player retention to accomplish that.
It's no good (for multiplayer) having a massive turnover of new players when half the people on your friend list haven't been playing for months.

 

[Sergio Smegolia]

I love the #gamesdead posts. Folks have been proselytizing the demise of ED since early 2015. Yet here we are.

Also... those Steam numbers are what's known as soft statistical analytics.

Thanks for giving me a new word.

You gotta love steam stats threads.

 

[amigacooke]

More from a personal perception based on forum topics, people who used to be active in the forums going quiet recently, etc. Everything just feels "meh" lately around here, but this very well could be personal burnout / boredom.

Maybe the forum is dying, but the game is doing great?

 

[The Replicated Man]

Heh, I've been doing that for the last couple of weeks.

Alas, I've just got to the part where I have to visit the Soul Cairn and that was enough to drive me back to ED.

Yeah that part gave me a bit of a headache due to the gloomy atmosphere. I am currently working on acquiring all dragon priest masks actually

 

[Viajero]

Not sure what you're implying there, TBH.

For sure, I guess some people will just "burn out" (much as I dislike that term) but, OTOH, people who are still playing after several hundred hours are probably more likely to keep playing indefinitely - unless something radically changes their attitude to the game.

Personally, I think a game is likely to be healthier when it's got a hundred vet's still playing than it is if it's got 500 newbies playing.
It's probably not as good for FDev's bank-balance but it's certainly preferable for the players.

Besides, if FDev intend to carry on promoting the multiplayer aspect of the game, it needs player retention to accomplish that.
It's no good (for multiplayer) having a massive turnover of new players when half the people on your friend list haven't been playing for months.

Not implying anyhting, just trying to understand better.

Assuming your friends have been playing indeed for over a few hundreds hours then there is little that need to be said or justifed if they decide to stop playing, to be honest. No need for any kind of explanation, whatever their reasons are. Few games manage to get a player´s attention span for that amount of time.

The point is rather to look back at your OP on this, which I queried initially, and realize that there is a missing element in your very particular personal benchmark for game interest:

Players of all sorts come and go in games. In the case of Elite the concurrency and sale figures suggest that the active population size of Elite is quite stable or even has increased slighltly progressively since the start. There are players that stay with the game, players that leave the game for good, others leave and then return after a while and there are also... new players joining. This cycle is constant and new players a year ago may be vets now etc etc. This last group in particular, new players, you have fully missed in your op I think, and it is the main reason you can not really judge just based on your old friends.