DB interview in Variety.com from E3

[Z0mbieBabyJesus]

Perhaps, but not only does it still remain poor communication it contradicts what the devs have said, so which is it? Is everything free or are we still expecting paid DLC content? Guess we just await clarification #FeelinglikeaMushroom.

Free expansion does not have to include premium paid dlc. They can be separate things.

Just out of curiosity for everyone who gets so butthurt over such trivial things, what exactly would change if everything information wise was given, including descriptions of what's included and release dates, vs not knowing?

Reminds me of a bunch of children, angry that mommy and daddy aren't telling them what they are getting for Christmas, just that they are getting a Christmas.

Just be patient. It will come when it comes. Whining won't change that in the slightest.

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

Free expansion does not have to include premium paid dlc. They can be separate things.

Just out of curiosity for everyone who gets so butthurt over such trivial things, what exactly would change if everything information wise was given, including descriptions of what's included and release dates, vs not knowing?

Reminds me of a bunch of children, angry that mommy and daddy aren't telling them what they are getting for Christmas, just that they are getting a Christmas.

Just be patient. It will come when it comes. Whining won't change that in the slightest.

Except unlike the children we actually paid for these 'presents' so don't have to be quite so patient nor are we impolite for asking for clarification.

 

[Vorxian]

Just out of curiosity for everyone who gets so butthurt over such trivial things, what exactly would change if everything information wise was given, including descriptions of what's included and release dates, vs not knowing?

Butthurt is a little step further, but, it is like.. getting your 'free' Millionaires shortcake with the daily coffee, then when you pay, they charge you for your free shortcake as well. You say.. look! it says free shortcake with coffee.. so I got coffee, and you charged me for both.. The barista says.. yep.. that's £5.60 thanks, don't believe everything you read -that's just entices more customers.


Awesome story, I'm proud of that!

 

[bitstorm]

Zac quote:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-LEP-musings?p=6020972&viewfull=1#post6020972

Edit:
Obtained from here and also worth a look at this excellent post:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/397639-Elite-Dangerous-2018-Roadmap-Regularly-Updated

They'll make you wait another 5 years for it. I mean you'll have stopped playing the game by then so it won't matter will it.

Why can't they offer free skins or kits, or other cosmetics while LEP owners wait?

Wasn't the idea supposed to be a roughly an expansion a year? And for the £120 paid we've had one expansion in 3.5 years.

When me and a mate were debating over whether to go for the LEP, my argument was that given what weve seen so far (the initially very high announced expansion prices) I think you can count on Frontier (Braben?) gouging folk for as much as possible, and so the LEP would be worth the investment in the long run.

How naive I was.

 

[CmdrKull]

For the LEP money I paid, I expected to receive: Base Game, Horizons, Space Legs, Atmo World's, Capital Ships, probably 1-2 more surprises.

I am really not worried that they won't deliver space legs and atmo world's, I think capital ships might be what we get in Squadrons, and I bet we'll get 1-2 surprises.

When the expansions come out, I get to beta test them and I don't have to try to justify buying them.

I read the interview, and I thought it sounded like good news for Frontier and good news for Elite. Elite is what made David Braben's career back in the 80s and onward, I have to believe (as one developer commenting on another) that the current Elite holds a special place in his heart, so as long as it's not LOSING them money, I expect they'll actively support it. I mean, the company is NAMED after Elite 2, yet people act like E: D is the forgotten step-child.

 

[Drelthar]

Free expansion does not have to include premium paid dlc. They can be separate things.

Just out of curiosity for everyone who gets so butthurt over such trivial things, what exactly would change if everything information wise was given, including descriptions of what's included and release dates, vs not knowing?

Reminds me of a bunch of children, angry that mommy and daddy aren't telling them what they are getting for Christmas, just that they are getting a Christmas.

Just be patient. It will come when it comes. Whining won't change that in the slightest.

What would change is people would know if the money for the LEP was actually worth it.

If horizons is the only expansion, then why, would anyone have bought the lifetime pass instead of just horizons?

 

[StuartGT]

And for the £120 paid we've had one expansion in 3.5 years.

How naive I was.

Should have paid £93 like me - via rubles and paypal, gotta love fluctuating exchange rates

 

[Vorxian]

What would change is people would know if the money for the LEP was actually worth it.

If horizons is the only expansion, then why, would anyone have bought the lifetime pass instead of just horizons?

Actually, you may be on to something. Could DB have talking from the perspective of a LEP holder? It's still a big misdirect, and a highly questionable claim, but in which case technically he's sort of right. LEP holders will never have to pay for an expansion, just cosmetic stuff... Everyone else has to PAY UP!

Sly dawg, that man.

 

[Ambroza]

Actually, you may be on to something. Could DB have talking from the perspective of a LEP holder? It's still a big misdirect, and a highly questionable claim, but in which case technically he's sort of right. LEP holders will never have to pay for an expansion, just cosmetic stuff... Everyone else has to PAY UP!

Sly dawg, that man.

Er, no, that wouldn't be technically sort of right at all. LEP owners don't get expansions for free... they just paid for them before the rest of us did.

 

[akaliel]

Interesting that Universal apparently approached Frontier, rather than vice versa. Didn't expect that.

Doesn't surprise me, Frontier is pretty experienced with zoo and theme park games. Jurassic World definitely needs some work though, you can tell it had a hard deadline so it could launch with the movie. There are some pretty glaring missing pieces from the game. But they've been pretty good adding in parts of Planet Coaster that were missing.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Thanks for the link

Always interesting to read the word of David

 

[Vorxian]

Er, no, that wouldn't be technically sort of right at all. LEP owners don't get expansions for free... they just paid for them before the rest of us did.

You're right.... I can't really disagree with you.. but.. if I was an LEP member (which I'm not) then i wouldn't have to pay a dime for another expansion..

It's going to be one of those comments that make everyone do a Chris Rock face:

 

[Patrick_68000]

Er, no, that wouldn't be technically sort of right at all. LEP owners don't get expansions for free... they just paid for them before the rest of us did.

Yes, but It all depends on the duration of the game and the number of expansions to come

 

[playfuldreamer]

I'm not surprised Braben misspoke. He hasn't been around in a while so he's probably clueless as to what's going on with the game.

Now that he's come out into the light where we can see him, let's hope he starts addressing the current state of the game.

 

[Devari]

I am really not worried that they won't deliver space legs and atmo world's, I think capital ships might be what we get in Squadrons, and I bet we'll get 1-2 surprises.

You honestly think we're going to be seeing proper atmospheric landings on Earth-like worlds and space legs? After we got handed a buggy, unstable, minimum viable product with multicrew that hasn't been expanded or improved during the past 14 months since 2.3 launched? You actually think we're going to see any of those other far more ambitious and complex features properly developed at this point?

I read the interview, and I thought it sounded like good news for Frontier and good news for Elite. Elite is what made David Braben's career back in the 80s and onward, I have to believe (as one developer commenting on another) that the current Elite holds a special place in his heart, so as long as it's not LOSING them money, I expect they'll actively support it. I mean, the company is NAMED after Elite 2, yet people act like E: D is the forgotten step-child.

That's your argument? The name of the company?

Sorry but Braben doesn't even seem to know Elite well enough to realize that he did, in fact, charge players $45 USD for Horizons only a year after charging $60 USD for the base game. He can't even recall that players have paid money for Horizons and thinks we got that expansion for "free".

Think about that for a second. He's been so disconnected from Elite that he apparently can't remember that we collectively paid substantial amounts of money for an expansion only a year after he released the base game.

If that doesn't tell you that he's been completely absent from the game's development since basically the kickstarter then I really don't know what to tell you here.

 

[SAB380]

Good god, people, take a breath.
This was a fluff interview and he was doing some quick promotion as the face of the company.
He obviously lied about all expansions being free since it requires a fair bit of explanation about Horizons and it’s updates compared to the base game updates. His point was more around their financial model is to make revenue via vanity items.
We don’t need to pretend he forgot, or that he’s so far removed he doesn’t know.

 

[Devari]

Good god, people, take a breath.
This was a fluff interview and he was doing some quick promotion as the face of the company.
He obviously lied about all expansions being free since it requires a fair bit of explanation about Horizons and it’s updates compared to the base game updates. His point was more around their financial model is to make revenue via vanity items.
We don’t need to pretend he forgot, or that he’s so far removed he doesn’t know.

It makes no sense for him to intentionally lie about something like that. It is widely known by anyone who plays Elite that Horizons is a paid expansion and it would make zero sense to try to pretend that players haven't paid for an expansion that FD was very obviously selling and continues to sell.

The only explanation that makes any sense is that Braben has been so disconnected from Elite development that he doesn't even remember what they were doing at the time Horizons was released. It's quite likely that he didn't really care where their revenue actually came from at the time because he was probably too busy trying to figure out how to move on to the next project, i.e., Planet Coaster, as quickly as possible so that he could make the company more profitable to investors. This wouldn't surprise me in the slightest given that basically every single video he's done about Elite has basically zero relation to the actual gameplay they've developed and nothing he talks about actually relates directly to the current state of the game. It's entirely plausible to me that shortly after the kickstarter he told the development team "hey I have some cool ideas" and they were only able to implement a fraction of those due to some combination of lack resources, disorganization or mismanagement and literally walked away from it after that point.

The idea that he would intentionally lie about having actually sold a product rather than providing it for free, however, is quite simply too ludicrous to even consider here.

 

[Mengy]

It may be that there is a lot of indecision in FD at the moment about how the game should be funded in the future.

I don't think FD is indecisive about how to monetize going forward, I just think they aren't talking about it for whatever reason.

Then again, if they know, would there be any tactical advantage in broadcasting it ? It seems that in the games world, everyone has an eye on everyone else and what moves they will make next.

I can't honestly see any tactical advantage in keeping the strategy a secret. It's probably doing more harm than good due to reducing customer confidence. I personally would think they'd want to broadcast what the new method would be.

The only real reason to keep it a secret is if the new strategy will have a negative impact on consumer confidence. Like if the game was going free to play for example, where monetizing would happen by selling new content away piecemeal like cosmetics and ships and such. I could see why they would want to keep THAT a secret...

 

[Rafe Zetter]

Interesting that Universal apparently approached Frontier, rather than vice versa. Didn't expect that.

Them and half the game dev companies on earth in all probability.

Don't forget that FDev PAID FOR the licence to make the game - so they made the best bid for the deal - but the way DB says it - he's making it sound as though Universal GAVE IT to FDev, and never considered anyone else for it.

The way he phrases things to mean something other than the truth, he should have been a politician.

 

[killminster]

I can't honestly see any tactical advantage in keeping the strategy a secret. It's probably doing more harm than good due to reducing customer confidence. I personally would think they'd want to broadcast what the new method would be.

The only real reason to keep it a secret is if the new strategy will have a negative impact on consumer confidence. Like if the game was going free to play for example, where monetizing would happen by selling new content away piecemeal like cosmetics and ships and such. I could see why they would want to keep THAT a secret...

I think this quote from the interview sums up the reasons for FD's sometimes frustrating silence on developments.

So when we’re reviewing things there’s a lot of stuff that looks plug-ugly, but we don’t care if the gameplays there. It could be white boxes. But you can’t show that stuff outside of the studio, or outside of the industry, because people would say “oh god, what’s that? It looks like [swear filter].” (laughs)