Are there Enough Elite Fans to Fill a Convention Center?

Cosmo

Cosmo
Are there enough Elite fans to fill a convention center and willing to pay a hefty $199 (£156, €188) per ticket for a 2 day event?

There are many old fans of the classic Elite games. However, I think Elite Dangerous lost most of its appeal due to the aging previous-gen graphics and tedious game design with a steep learning curve which results in a small player base. Thus I'm afraid ED cannot attract 39000 fans who would pay that much to attend a premium gathering.

What we need to revitalize the Elite fanbase is an announcement of a sequel that will blow away the competition and once again put Elite at the center of the space sim genre.

Elite V is our only hope.

P.S. what if the ticket fee was 1/3rd $66. Would 39,000 people purchase it? I doubt it.
 
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Riverside

Riverside
Haven't a clue, but the last Frontier party I went to (Cologne Chocolate Factory / Gamescom 2018) was very good. The tickets were free but IIRC I spent about £400 (GBP) getting there, staying overnight & coming back via Eurostar.
Frontier knows how to throw a good party.

I agree that it would be good to have something to look forward to.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Cosmo said:
Are there enough Elite fans to fill a convention center and willing to pay a hefty $199 (£156, €188) per ticket for a 2 day event?
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Depends on the size of the convention centre. Don’t forget they have to pay to get there and for accommodation and food which brings location into the decision.

Cosmo said:
There are many old fans of the classic Elite games. However, I think Elite Dangerous lost most of its appeal due to the aging previous-gen graphics and tedious game design with a steep learning curve which results in a small player base. Thus I'm afraid ED cannot attract 39000 fans who would pay that much to attend a premium gathering.
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I have to say I am astonished that you think that 39,000 computer game fans is considered a reasonable target number, I wouldn’t have thought we were that sociable.

Cosmo said:
What we need to revitalize the Elite fanbase is an announcement of a sequel that will blow away the competition and once again put Elite at the center of the space sim genre.

Elite V is our only hope.
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See the other long thread about sequel or expansions for lots of failure to agree about that.
 

aRJay

aRJay
The biggest conventions I have ever attended have been World Science Fiction conventions known as Worldcons the biggest of those sold around 8,000 memberships for a 5 day event.
 

Cosmo

Cosmo
Banana's_Are_Good_For_You said:
Would i be wrong in thinking thau the sole purpose of this event would be to push for Elite V?
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Well if ED was still popular with a thriving fanbase then it would be easy to gather 39,000 Elite fans to pay $190 per ticket for an Elite convention.
It seems to me that ED doesn't have that strong pull factor anymore. Many (former) players are skeptical to buy another expansion. If that's the case then announcing, showcasing a vertical slice of a sequel should reignite the fanbase. Monthly teasers of development progress on Elite V would boost interest too. Elite is a special franchise and Fdev shouldn't give up on it.

ubermick said:
Just think though. A whole new generation of people to play the game for hundreds or thousands of hours only to then decide it's actually not what they wanted/thought/hoped.
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If Fdev conducts a survey I bet the new generation of gamers, who are unfamiliar with the Elite series, probably think that ED looks old and complicated.
 
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Jmanis

Jmanis
That's ~ $300AUD... considering it's $180 for a 3 day ticket to PAX Aus... well... yeah... even if I didn't have to tack on a flight over and pay crazy UK food prices... oof.
 

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You
@Cosmos
The result will still be the same.
The sad reality is some people won't be happy unless the game is all about them... and they don't care how that affects other playstyles.
These lines were drawn way back in 2015 and these still echo around the forums to this day.
 

Cosmo

Cosmo
Banana's_Are_Good_For_You said:
The sad reality is some people won't be happy unless the game is all about them... and they don't care how that affects other playstyles.
These lines were drawn way back in 2015 and these still echo around the forums to this day.
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During the Kickstarter phase Fdev said they designed ED primarily for themselves. The fans came second. Well the results are clear now.

Elite Dangerous was designed as a difficult, steep learning curve simulation space game. It has a lot of tedious grind (engineers), ok-ish shooter combat with spongy mobs, long travel time in space where players can't stand up from the pilot seat, and an orange-only HUD (changeable with mods). The designers didn't let ED reach it's full potential, because they did not want player run guilds (corporations) with macro-management, territory control, build stations etc. This accumulation of (unpopular) gameplay design choices turned ED into a niche space sim.

The big fanbase that it had a few years ago moved on to other games. Newer, bigger budget, space games showed up on the block and took the leading positions in the space ship game market. These games sold millions more copies, DLC, cosmetics and a lot more total revenue. As of January 2019; ED sold over 4.3 million franchise units. That's a good figure, but ED is not getting major gameplay and graphics upgrades anymore to stay competitive. Fdev knows ED as at the end of its life cycle. They've refocused on other games.
 
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varonica

varonica
Thinking that the popularity of a game is determined by the number of fans willing to pay AU$300 for a ticket to a convention is a bit....well "elitist", don't you think? Even if it was held in my home town and I didn't have to pay for travel and accommodation I still wouldn't pay that much for a ticket and I have thousands of hours in the game and paid for every expansion and beta play opportunity. Working your fans up into a frenzy such that they are willing to pay stupid money for stuff is the realm of conmen, scalpers and fraudsters, no thanks, I didn't even vote for the monorail!
 

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You
Elite dangerous is an Elite game. It's all part of the same franchise. We are but pilots... and it has always been a progression game.
This game is not EVE no matter how much some ppl want that kinda power, while failing to understand others do not.
It's the nature of the beast that you're failing to come to terms with.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Yep, Elite has never been about territory control and guilds. And I don't want any of that. I want what DB said - no heroes, no princess rescues; just a bunch of itinerant pilots struggling to survive in a harsh galaxy. Every step away from that has been the game's downfall imo. Even Jameson, the iconic elite pilot was just a tool of the powers.
 
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