Console Update

[denispage]

Looks at @denispage 's thread on the subject, it makes sense, and I give him the benefit of the doubt, at least, he doesn't seem to be purposefully trying to mislead anyone. i mean if he's wrong about something, I'd tack that up to an honest mistake not some attempt to lie.

Actually it's even worse than that, Fdev no longer considers developing games, as a profit center, this is why Braben is trying to make the company into a publisher because that will generate more profit for the company than anything else. I mean look how EA exploded, say what you want about their business practices but them going from developer to publisher allowed them to explode in size. And sadly, this is the path Braben has his company on, he wants to publish to make the money, and game development becomes simply a side project at that point, that only really costs money but allows the company to make games on occasion and still call it self a Game Developer.

It was a business decision. They could make it happen in new gen consoles, but we don't know the player base on consoles, if I had to bed, it's low and there is no business case to make them to continues.
It's sad for the consoles players, but it's better for the product ELITE.
Now, they can focus and release more and more content.

Let's see.

 

[Exeider]

you can still enjoy playing in the horizons.

for the time being, canceling ALL console development, means ALL console development, meaning there are likely no new patches for the console from here on out and it costs money to run games on MS and Sony's networks, I honestly don't think they will be on the actual platforms themselves for more than a year, and that's being generous. I expect console server shutdowns occurring within 2022. Because why else would someone continue to pay for something they are abandoning.

 

[The Atlas]

Personally I prefer not to attribute maliciousness when stupidity, incompetence, or even Murphy himself could explain it.

sorry if that came out wrong, i wanted to mean that
they are a company, professionals, i don't assume they are doing that from the goodness of their hearts or good intentions, they are doing their job, i can't simply look the other way when a mistake this big happens cause "they had the best intentions".

 

[Kayrox]

It was a business decision. They could make it happen in new gen consoles, but we don't know the player base on consoles, if I had to bed, it's low and there is no business case to make them to continues.
It's sad for the consoles players, but it's better for the product ELITE.
Now, they can focus and release more and more content.

Let's see.

I'm with you here but I still think they should not leave console player in the dark, the least they can do is allow save transfer from consoles to PC.

 

[Retyu Ranger]

Greetings Commanders,

Elite Dangerous is a game close to my heart.

Over the last several months, we have been wrestling with the best way to move forward, and it is with a heavy heart we have decided to cancel all console development.

We appreciate this news is not what our console community were hoping for. This was not an easy decision to make, but it was made with the long-term future of Elite Dangerous in mind.

Not a huge surprise. Sorry for all of the console players out there. GIVE THEM AN EASY WAY TO TRANSFER PROFILES TO PC!!! ASAP!! It is the absolute ONLY thing to do for that community. Full stop.

 

[Chorda]

for the time being, canceling ALL console development, means ALL console development, meaning there are likely no new patches for the console from here on out and it costs money to run games on MS and Sony's networks, I honestly don't think they will be on the actual platforms themselves for more than a year, and that's being generous. I expect console server shutdowns occurring within 2022. Because why else would someone continue to pay for something they are abandoning.

"Elite Dangerous will continue on console as it is now together with critical updates, but we will focus on new content updates on PC on the post-Odyssey codebase."

They're still supporting Horizons on console, it just won't be getting the coming Odyssey content updates.

 

[Exeider]

It was a business decision. They could make it happen in new gen consoles, but we don't know the player base on consoles, if I had to bed, it's low and there is no business case to make them to continues.
It's sad for the consoles players, but it's better for the product ELITE.
Now, they can focus and release more and more content.

Let's see.

And given the fact that Elite in it's entirity is no longer profitable, check the steam numbers for example. I don't expect this trend of "Minimally viable product" to change simply because they are doing away with console development. What's going to happen is they are going to continue the way they have, and in 6 months, you're going to be, what? you guys did away with consoles, WHY aren't things improving? Because again, developing games in it of itself is no longer a profit center for Fdev, it's a cost center.

 

[Exeider]

"Elite Dangerous will continue on console as it is now together with critical updates, but we will focus on new content updates on PC on the post-Odyssey codebase."

They're still supporting Horizons on console, it just won't be getting the coming Odyssey content updates.

Critical updates means to physically keep it running on the console, not content or even bug fixes. and honestly, I wouldn't bet even that will last the year.

 

[ubermick]

Even Yamiks sounds hopeless and not using his usual expressions ...

Source: https://youtu.be/jxqgAnaLvRM

Yep.

Content creators rubbishing the game since their little "roundtable". Concerted efforts by players to review bomb it, and drive Frontier's share prices down. Constant insults of their employees incessantly on the forums. Developers and CMs getting threatened and harassed on their personal social medias.

Every single person with a soapbox decided to pile on.

And now, their share price HAS tanked, Odyssey's been more or less blacklisted by gamers, the noisy section of the community got what they wanted.

Likely one of the side effects of all this is that Elite, going forward, now has a massively reduced budget. And cutting consoles probably came down to that. Not that they don't want to (again, see Kay Ross' tweet as evidence of that) but that the choice to do so was taken away from them.

Absolutely not saying that they're "victims" in any of this, certainly not letting them off the hook by releasing this FAR too early. @The Atlas is bang on saying this went from a hurried alpha to full release FAR too soon, and that was wrong.

But lads like Yamiks, D2EA, Hawkes, and all the others who are now moping about did their part too.

 

[Marigold Ipswitch]

you can still enjoy playing in the horizons.

The fact that this keeps getting repeated by a minority here is kind of annoying. If you don't see that this is a deathknell to the console community in the long run you really didn't pay attention to what horizons did to other platforms.

"Why is it a deathknell?" You may ask.

People want to stay in relevant content that will get cared for. They want a shared experience with their fellow commanders. This will therefore accelerate either full on quitting by a huge chunk of the player base and it will cause a massive migration to PC. Console open was already fairly sparse. This is going to just make the world feel even more sparse and stagnate. It is going to make the BGS part of the game even more frustrating due to lack of ability to retaliate in open. It's going to make the game less fun, simply by moving a large chunk of the community, not just the lack of content. The writing is literally on the wall. I give it two years tops maybe three if they let us have new ships which is really unlikely given their binary all or nothing mentality to console.

 

[tanner1ie]

Sounds like another share price drop in the off. One doesn't lose a third of their player base and get off lightly.

A cynic might imagine that they're doing this deliberately to drive down the price, so a third party can buy the company cheap, reverse this decision and bring out "next gen" versions of the game and "save" it from the hands of Frontier, but I just about doubt that! .

 

[Crusina Luachra]

Understandably people are going to have strong emotions about this, please however when replying keep it civil and within the forum rules.


Thanks all.

Nah. If you screw over people like you should expect it.

And that is 100% what they are doing. Screwing over thousands upon thousands of people.

You don't get to do that without strong words.

Deal with it.

 

[Exeider]

The only mistake I think fdev made was launching elite on consoles.
If they had continued to focus on the PC, there would not be this horde of perpetually dissatisfied whiners now.

If you think that's been their only mistake, then clearly you haven't been paying attention these last few years.

 

[Crusina Luachra]

We are exploring options for transfers but at present have nothing to announce.

No.

You WILL do it. After spitting the face of every single console player for everything they have ever done for you.

The very least you can do is transfer their saves over. Completely intact.

Of course, I say that but you've already decided none of us matter. Not surprised if you don't ever at any point, never lift a finger into your "looking for solutions" and just ignore it.

 

[thistle]

For the first part, that's what's an alpha and beta phases are for, first mistake was to rush from alpha to final(that wasn't an alpha at all)
For the second part, announcing before developing, knowing the platform shortcomings is yet another mistake IMO, a huge one.


Anger? yes. But due to false promises? no. They would be open with their community, which they always should be, when possible.
Now they have a deserved anger, due to 10 months of waiting(or radio silent if you prefer) just for the info that development for consoles is dropped.

Yes i do agree with you that is not easy, but they are a company, not an indie studio with 4 members, they know what they are doing, or they at least should know.

And sorry if i don't follow the "best intentions" line, we have a saying here that could be translated like "hell is full of people with the best of intentions"

Yes, like "the road to hell is paved with good intentions", unintended consequences despite trying to do the right thing. I'm not sure that means I would criticise the attempt to the right thing, in this case announce EDO for all the ED platforms 2 years ago. Not realising it would end up where we are today, and certainly not intending it.

A much longer testing period, alpha beta etc, would have made the difference with the pc release, I agree. Would it have led to the game making it to consoles? Who knows.

 

[NinjaClarinet]

Console compatibility has been an albatross around the neck of many, many PC games. Without fail, quality and user interface suffer in the name of consoles. This is a (rare) good decision for the game. I wish -more- game companies could put aside their greed for the larger market share and commit fully to their chosen platform, be it console or PC. It makes for better games.

 

[Santa de Lapland]

Will Horizons on console continue to influence the game universe on Odyssey/ PC? Can console players still affect the BGS, tag systems, make marke in the in game universe still? Will Horizons on console still have events and Community Goals and rewards for continuing to play the game? Trying to get clarification for friends and fellow players @Bruce G @Paul_Crowther

As I understood ED:Horizons will carry on with consoles as now, you can be in same instance with PC players, have Fleet Carriers that also PC Odyssey players can see, tag planets they will see, and change states and owners of the systems that affect also Odyssey...

You just won´t have Odyssey, because obviously even new consoles can not run it, as some rather good spec PC´s even can not run it at 60 FPS on Ultra settings. (though I can very well with my i7-10700 / 3060Ti).

 

[Crusina Luachra]

Console compatibility has been an albatross around the neck of many, many PC games. Without fail, quality and user interface suffer in the name of consoles. This is a (rare) good decision for the game. I wish -more- game companies could put aside their greed for the larger market share and commit fully to their chosen platform, be it console or PC. It makes for better games.

I hope the game never gets better just out of spite for people like you.

 

[HeatherG]

Don't slander fdev! odyssey was a great addition. if it didn't live up to your expectations, that's your problem. just don't play it.

People are allowed to air they're "disappointment" in this news. As long as it's within the rules.

 

[Shadowslip71]

Yep.

Content creators rubbishing the game since their little "roundtable". Concerted efforts by players to review bomb it, and drive Frontier's share prices down. Constant insults of their employees incessantly on the forums. Developers and CMs getting threatened and harassed on their personal social medias.

Every single person with a soapbox decided to pile on.

And now, their share price HAS tanked, Odyssey's been more or less blacklisted by gamers, the noisy section of the community got what they wanted.

Likely one of the side effects of all this is that Elite, going forward, now has a massively reduced budget. And cutting consoles probably came down to that. Not that they don't want to (again, see Kay Ross' tweet as evidence of that) but that the choice to do so was taken away from them.

Absolutely not saying that they're "victims" in any of this, certainly not letting them off the hook by releasing this FAR too early. @The Atlas is bang on saying this went from a hurried alpha to full release FAR too soon, and that was wrong.

But lads like Yamiks, D2EA, Hawkes, and all the others who are now moping about did their part too.

Pretty certain Fdud are more than capable of rubbishing their own games.