Awkward question that really needs an answer
- Thread starter lilikin
- Start date
I had a look in my Frontier account and I've not bought anything from the store since late 2015 so it seems my "subscription" has seriously lapsed.
I do hope Frontier dont cut my account off.
People being confused is a lot of the reason why these threads get as long as they do.
At this stage I can’t even tell if it’s T.j’s fault or not...
Why are we talking opinions?
There doesn't need to be anything but facts in this discussion.
Facts are that it is the revenue from microtransactions that keeps the servers online. Continued monetary payment by the players, whether you choose to call it a subscription or a microtransaction, enables that.
Not tying the next season of content for ED to any monetary purchase or product means that the development of that season of content is 100% reliant on the continued monetary payment of the players. Making no commitments, especially financial commitments to the customers, means that FDev are free to cut planned features as they see fit based upon how well the microtransaction store is doing.
That financial foundation for the future development of the game is not acceptable in my opinion. Not given FDev's track record.
Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
Always.
Aha, a trick question! The answer is (a) (b) and (c)
Also, be grateful ... FD didn't go bust so you are onto a winner still
:S and on the merry-go-round we go...
I've posted this before when it's been mentioned. On Frontier's site there was a timetable for release of the individual Horizons updates. The dates are gone now because as each update was released, the 'release date' was changed to 'Available now' but when the season was originally announced it said:
2.1 - Spring 2016
2.2 - Summer 2016
2.3 - Autumn 2016
2.4 - To be announced
Here is the page concerned as it stands today with the dates gone: https://www.frontierstore.net/eur/games/elite-dangerous-cat/elite-dangerous-horizons-dlc.html/
and here is a forum post from February 2016 which links to it and quotes what dates were shown at that time: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ajor-patches?p=3531095&viewfull=1#post3531095
I refuse to believe that anybody with a bit of sense can look at the original release timetable and seriously argue that the fact 2.4 was shown as 'to be announced' rather than as 'Winter 2016' meant that it wasn't supposed to be a year-long season, despite the fact that when I last posted this, it was actually prompted by someone who will remain nameless trying to suggest exactly that. Not when there are four updates in total, the first three were scheduled to be released one in each quarter and that if the same schedule was maintained for 2.4, it would have meant 2.4 - Return of the Thargoids being released around Christmas 2016, an entirely fitting holiday season release for such an iconic element of the game's lore.
My own expectation at the time I bought Horizons was that it was a one-year season of updates. Most people's expectation was that and based on the information available from FDev it was an entirely reasonable assumption. As there was no indication at the time that the season pass model was going to be dropped, it was an equally reasonable assumption that another similarly paced season would follow because as far as we knew the season pass model was the one chosen for ongoing updates. As you say that doesn't preclude updates to the game after 2.4 which were not paid updates and I assumed that there would be some updates to the base game (not paid for) after 2.4 as well as the next 'season', in the same was as every update in 2.0 to 2.4 has included some updates for non-Horizons owners.
Frankly (and I'm NOT directing this at you Yaffle because you did say that you just couldn't remember one way or the other) anybody who can look at that and perform the mental gymnastics required to try to convince people that Horizons was not originally supposed to be delivered over a calendar year is flat-out shilling.
Note - I'm not even remotely salty about the fact that it wasn't. Obviously I'd love updates to be released faster, I guess most people would, but I paid for four updates and I got them. I don't have an LEP, so I don't have to worry about whether I'll be getting less content than I anticipated due to Horizons taking two years, so I'm OK with it all. I also think the people who have been suggesting that the LEP will suddenly stop giving them access to any future paid content are hysterical cranks. None of that changes the fact that it's disingenuous at best for people to try to argue that Horizons was supposed to be anything other than four updates released during the 2016 calendar year at the time it was originally sold.
Oh now you're just being silly.
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Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
.... because people often confuse opinions with facts.
Indeed.
.... which, expressed as a fact, completely omits the revenue from new players buying the base game and Horizons.
Well if he doesnt like the foundation of his sub then he knows what to do.
No, that's your opinion, but you do seem to confuse the two regularly.
Sales from Frontier titles are what keep the servers running. The sales of cosmetics probably keep them going in biscuits.
neither.
now i have an awkward question for you that doesn't really need an answer: what's wrong with your search button?
just saying because you must be around the 50th guy asking the same question, it's been debated over and over again. well, nevermind: 'beyond' is not a season. is more like frontier accepting that horizons was a bit floppy and that the game has still severe issues, and trying to ... 'make it right'. it's kind of an 'off seasons' update. now, what they also have said is that seasons model is over. they have not clarified what exactly will substitute them, but we will surely know at some point. while we don't, means there's nothing to release, and i guess your confidence in them hasn't dropped so low that you really think they are going to take your money and run. that's ofc not absolutely impossible, but i guess it's on no one's mind ...
Which amounts to what, when the game is sold through Steam on a $7 sale?
A lot of gross income, very little net profit. New copies of the game being sold are a small fraction of the income of the overall game. The fact that FDev put it on sale for so little on a third party platform indicated exactly what they're counting on the players doing.
Finding the microtransaction store, and making further purchases, which then incentivizes players to keep playing because of a sunk cost fallacy.
Seeing as how this game does not require an active subscription to play it (fact), I must agree with this assessment.
Selling the game is where they make their money- and the fact that the game has been active well over 3+ years now, they continue to sell "optional" cosmetics and so forth in the store.
So in terms of "success" I'd say apparently their "financial base" must be pretty successful.
are they? any reliable source?
What exactly is your endgame here? What do you want and why? People to storm Frontier’s premises and set fire to the servers that aren’t there because Citizan Smudge has some poorly defined gripe?
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Only Frontier know how many copies were sold in the sale (both on Steam and the official store) - then there are the copies of Horizons and the CMDR Deluxe Edition to take into account.
Can you point out in any official published data where it states that "new copies of the game being sold are a small fraction of the income of the overall game", please?