Bring on the DOOM!

[Exterminatus93]

I see it like this:

Elite Dangerous overshadows the other Fdev IP

Fdev has a very serious problem internally

Elite Dangerous is the only fdev IP affected by this internal problem.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Is that a bayonet that barely even clears the barrel?

It's not a bayonet, it's a grappling hook.
Not a realistic suggestion but I wanted to stay in keeping with the eternal doom that is on the forum at times.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

1) I'd never be surprised to see Frontier be purchased by another company.

but...

2) Frontier only have one valuable franchise of any note, which is "Elite".
3) Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster are kinda ok, but probably not the sort of franchise anyone would pay big money for.
4) JWE, F1 and Warhammer are all licenses, Frontier do not own the franchises. These licenses can be granted to any other company at any time for similar games. Again it's probably not something anyone would deliberately go out of their way to purchase Frontier for (although I could be wrong).

The only real reason I can see anyone purchasing Frontier, is to obtain the already established infrastructure.

 

[Rubbernuke]

1) I'd never be surprised to see Frontier be purchased by another company.

but...

2) Frontier only have one valuable franchise of any note, which is "Elite".
3) Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster are kinda ok, but probably not the sort of franchise anyone would pay big money for.
4) JWE, F1 and Warhammer are all licenses, Frontier do not own the franchises. These licenses can be granted to any other company at any time for similar games. Again it's probably not something anyone would deliberately go out of their way to purchase Frontier for (although I could be wrong).

The only real reason I can see anyone purchasing Frontier, is to obtain the already established infrastructure.

Its valuable as a reliable (?) licensed game production house and Planet...franchise- I suppose a bit like its wilderness years before Elite.

It would be darkly funny if Elite went the way of Tomb Raider in that FD were bought out and the Elite License went somewhere else.

 

[angusmadmac1]

I'm not - I'm quite happy making a joke of things...

And consoles have not had silence for half a year - every other day until the Christmas break the console crew were badgering CMs for information and being told the same thing they had been told the day before... Do get it right!


Despite the wish of console players to know more, it there is no information to give, there really is no information to give, is there?

(which, of course, supports all of the wild speculation above even better, if ED is EOL, well...)

Added: I have ED on PS4 too. Last year I was told (along with anyone who bothered reading the announcement) that console development had been stopped until the issues with the PC version of EDO were resolved, then the console version would be considered once more (note that at no point did DB say that it would happen).

If I could understand that, and not require constant reassurance that 'something' is happening - even after being told to wait - why do a few others have an issue in comprehension?

Not constant reassurance or at least from me . The question asked was what is optimised ? Not if or when for console release .
Just something that I could look forward to . It's getting there .
The silence has allowed all sorts of theories from both sides and in the middle . But nothing concrete from the main crew . I understand that's it's not even good enough for consoles and to be truthful I had given a year + before I would see anything EDO related for console , now I am thinking at least another year if at all ?

 

[SCiARA]

It's interesting - I googled this after reading your post, and there was a short article in the technology section of the financial times.

At the end of the piece, they mentioned a rumour about a joint bid from Sony and Microsoft being compiled. Apparently the scope for the FD catalogue of games is of interest for both current and future development.

I don't know enough about economics to personally comment, but it seemed like a good suggestion, especially as the IP with some of the catalogue that FD own is huge.

Will be intriguing to see how this story develops into the next print edition, which isn't far away, so I have the section bookmarked now!

can you post the link plz

 

[PRORABBIT67]

And they have Taco tuesday don't forget that.

 

[Rat Catcher]

The question asked was what is optimised ?

But that question is irrelevant to the original statement.
It was very explicit in that when the PC version was to their satisfaction the console 'roadmap' would be revisited. I'd suggest that while further 'updates' are scheduled that the original statement holds true and that EDO is not considered optimised.

You are intelligent, is the answer not obvious?

 

[Bottom Hat]

can you post the link plz

When I'm home I'll dig it out.

 

[Bottom Hat]

You are intelligent, is the answer not obvious?

Man, if I had a quid every time I heard that.

Well, my mum says it.

I'd have about tree fiddy.

 

[DrinkyBird]

Someone remind me to get popcorn when I go shopping tomorrow morning.

An update on this: went shopping a couple hours ago, they didn't have any popcorn. Unbelievable. It's as if nobody who works at Asda plays Elite.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Man, if I had a quid every time I heard that.

Well, my mum says it.

I'd have about tree fiddy.

Yebbut... she knows it goes straight over your head, but the nice tone makes you feel good...

 

[Rat Catcher]

I'd never be surprised to see Frontier be purchased by another company.

They have been very good at making a profit - it is true. (apart from a couple of profit warnings in the past half-year or so, of course) But recently have managed to release 2 products that should have been very profitable, and may have been if they were of a standard of production needed to be considered reelease quality.

Even in the last interim report there was an insistence that EDO's launch issues, and subsequent 'failure' to sell were a result of 'connection issues', not incredibly poorly produced product.

With this in the company's recent past, I'd be quite surprised if another company were seriously considering a buy out, unless they consider the current stable of IP and licensed IP to be able to provide a return on the buyout. Sadly, the EDO expansion has generated a good deal of negative reviews, it would be difficult for a purchaser to justify the expense in both purchase, and the outgoings needed to repair both IP and its reputation, couple that with it being a very niche game, it doens't bode well for this particular IP.

 

[nemolomen]

Space Flight Simulator 3310. Bring it on, Microsoft!

S

But would we need a high end grafix card to run it?

 

[Rat Catcher]

But would we need a high end grafix card to run it?

No, a 5090 or 8900 XT and a couple of 64 core CPUs with 2 TB of DDR18 memory should do fine...

 

[DrinkyBird]

But would we need a high end grafix card to run it?

So long as it doesn't require you spend half your "play"time downloading a hundred million terabytes of content before you can actually do anything...

 

[Viajero]

Well, FDEV product portfolio and financial health seems quite solid even after the disappointing EDO sales and initial figures for the latest JWE. So if prospective buyers believe the share price is low enough to make it attractive I would not be surprised if FDEV "changed hands". Even DB at some point may want to retire I suppose.

 

[SasaThargoidsHunter]

But that question is irrelevant to the original statement.
It was very explicit in that when the PC version was to their satisfaction the console 'roadmap' would be revisited. I'd suggest that while further 'updates' are scheduled that the original statement holds true and that EDO is not considered optimised.

You are intelligent, is the answer not obvious?

It’s the same statement which the community get from Arthur, and every head is exploded in the meantime, so we can arguing in this situation in the same way like in the console case. They told you that they working on it, so stay calm. And was is the impact? The community is understandable arguing speculative things

 

[VR jefranklin18]

1) I'd never be surprised to see Frontier be purchased by another company.

but...

2) Frontier only have one valuable franchise of any note, which is "Elite".
3) Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster are kinda ok, but probably not the sort of franchise anyone would pay big money for.
4) JWE, F1 and Warhammer are all licenses, Frontier do not own the franchises. These licenses can be granted to any other company at any time for similar games. Again it's probably not something anyone would deliberately go out of their way to purchase Frontier for (although I could be wrong).

The only real reason I can see anyone purchasing Frontier, is to obtain the already established infrastructure.

The big elephant in the room is the joint ownership of Elite IP with Ian Bell (or at least the company he licensed that to). They have demonstrated a willingness to stir on a regular basis, so any sale of FDev and ED will probably have to deal with them.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am no Mystic Meg but I would be really surprised if Braben doesn't retain some stake in ED.

 

[Rat Catcher]

It’s the same statement which the community get from Arthur, and every head is exploded in the meantime, so we can arguing in this situation in the same way like in the console case. They told you that they working on it, so stay calm. And was is the impact? The community is blown out of dissapointmend

Of course some of the community will behave as if the sky is falling... They didn't get the response they Spice Girls'd.*
My comment is 100% accurate - others have added their own Spice Girls* to it over the past 9 months.

*Re: "Wanna"
*re: "I'm not - I'm quite happy making a joke of things..."

Edit: Clarity