DLC20 Discussion (maybe, but why not?)

Of course, the downside to those two would be that I really think once that starts to happen? That's when PZ DLC stops. Right now PZ is the only game they have to provide revenue via new DLC and I'm convinced that's why we're getting a summer DLC. Q2 for Frontier is June through August. There's nothing slated for PC2 yet and JWE3 doesn't release until Q3. They have to fill the gap somehow... And at some point in the fall they'll probably be dropping the last console DLC bundle too.
Not something worth worrying about imo. Why throw away something profitable for relatively low effort? Once they're all in on PZ2, sure, DLC will probably stop, but again, I'm not going to worry about that when either way it means more content.

Personally I view the continued profitability of PZ as a massive win for anyone wanting more DLC. As always, we don't know exactly what will happen, but that coupled with the surprisingly fast announcement of the upcoming DLC pack seems to indicate there are at least a few more to come before DLC wraps up
 
Can we trade? I'd much rather that than what we have currently...

Oh man, we're hitting hurricane season😞
I mean, it's literally dark outside due to the oncoming storm (we get a ton of tropical storms)
Woudn't mind trading, we would only need to trade back before spring, as i don't think most people would endure 30°C in the shadow.

And while we don't have hurricanes on Brazil (for now) seeing night arrives at 2:00 pm isn't news for me.
Nah trust me you dont envy me 😂 . Developed some kind of medical condition in the last 2ish years that causes me to sweat at like extreme levels. In spring, fall and winter its "just" annyoning and little embarrassing. But at summertime i basicly cant leave the house or within minutes i look like i just stepped out of the shower lol
I'm sorry to hear that, i hope you have an air conditioner to at least stay more comfortable.
 
Not something worth worrying about imo. Why throw away something profitable for relatively low effort? Once they're all in on PZ2, sure, DLC will probably stop, but again, I'm not going to worry about that when either way it means more content.

Personally I view the continued profitability of PZ as a massive win for anyone wanting more DLC. As always, we don't know exactly what will happen, but that coupled with the surprisingly fast announcement of the upcoming DLC pack seems to indicate there are at least a few more to come before DLC wraps up
Sometimes I think people confuse "profit" with "revenue." With something like a 96% sustain rate, Planet Zoo could potentially be even more profitable over the next few years without generating any new content in a given year because they wouldn't be paying staff to support its development.

And on top of that, you would be freeing up resources to support development of a new game that (assuming its successful) would eventually add to the library of products you could make profit from (while you still have people buying games you've stopped developing, e.g., PC1, JWE1, and JWE2 are still being purchased by people today and making Frontier money, albeit in smaller increments). It's literally part of Frontier's business model to create a base game with a significant amount of DLC, and then let it sit on the shelf and sell over the years

One thing to consider is that, at this stage, with a new CMS game coming in FY27... They are already working hard on its development. So if that game is, in fact, PZ2 then they're already "all in" on the sequel. And would want to stop DLC to give fans some breathing room ahead of its announcement.

Don't get me wrong, I think it can all go either way. But just because something is generating revenue it does not mean that it's going to continue being profitable or that there aren't ways to make more profit by redirecting resources to other projects.
 
Personally I view the continued profitability of PZ as a massive win for anyone wanting more DLC. As always, we don't know exactly what will happen, but that coupled with the surprisingly fast announcement of the upcoming DLC pack seems to indicate there are at least a few more to come before DLC wraps up
I know it’s not gonna happen, but if we were to continue to get new DLC I would really hope the next two (after this one, and assuming this is a “full year” or maybe next years DLC) would drop the meta wishlist and focus a bit more on where the roster needs a boost.

Yeah call me basic, but a bird dlc would be fantastic especially with the fact we have no waterfowl other than the swan. Give us some boost to the exhibit boxes, maybe with some fish and long requested animals like the cobra. Also give us a rainforest DLC, the Amazon and the Congo could benefit from some more choice picks.

I’m not gonna say Frontier needs to put in more effort, as we can see the bush dog had a ton of effort and outside of the rheas wings most of the new animals look good. Even if the Sifaka didn’t have their specific climbing animations, they do jump on the ground like we wanted. However, like many have vocalized I am also in the camp where I am not so excited for just “more”. Especially because when to comes to the roster Frontier just keeps expanding: The. Exact. Same. Animals. Every. Time. Yes ZooKeeper gave us a great tortoise and the baboon, and the Americas gave us two birds and our second new world monkey. But while I have vocalized this before, and I don’t want anyone to think their animals aren’t welcome, I’m just getting bored and hard to find an upcoming DLC exciting.

In the real world all animals are super cool, but in PZ there are only so many ways I can build a new hoofstock habitat. There are only so many ways I can make a bear or a big cat habitat. In general new species are great, but considering how it can still be difficult to make any indoor rainforests I’m not particularly excited for what can come next.
 
All this talk about summer imma join in. Here in Florida with the humidity added on it’s basically a laser the moment you go outside. You’d think you get relief with the rain and thunderstorms but that just makes it more hot and humid
Florida and southeast Texas be like:
swamp-people-s16-2048x1152-promo-16x9-1.jpg
 
You summer haters are cra. I LOVE sunshine. Must be my California side but I am so happy when it's hot and bright and I can get a tan and tire my dog out quickly in the park, and rise with the sunrise and do morning yoga, and the evenings are long and lovely to spend outside. I just love summer.

Granted I don't have to worry about hurricanes or fire or swathes of mosquitos so yeah, English summer is probably one of the world's most pleasant summers. We also don't have air con though so on days that are 30+ it's pretty exhausting (it's mid-20s atm which is ideal for me).
 
FY25 financial update just dropped. Nothing major for us, but Frontier had significant revenue and profit growth with 77% of total revenue coming from PC, PZ, and JWE! PC2 seems to be doing okay, PZ revenue grew 2%, and the JWE franchise had 96% sustain.

It's cool seeing that PZ revenue is still growing. But it's also important to note that much of that, at this point, is driven by console and once they catch up with the console DLC its pretty likely we see a dip.

Nothing on any new content for PC2 or PZ was referenced, though it may have come up in the presentation. Only new content highlighted in the report is JWE3 (which makes sense, because the hype on that one is is strong) though they do mention they have an "exciting roadmap of future games and content" but that could mean anything.
Thanks for sharing the good news - great summary! Sounds like we can expect a full year of DLC since PZ is still seeing growth, that's incredible! I'm so happy our favourite game is still doing so well all these years along 🙂 I wonder what they're cooking up for us? 👀
 
Why throw away something profitable for relatively low effort?
I do want to say that we shouldn't confuse what we "feel" as being low effort with it actually being low effort.

Models, animations and textures are the parts that we as end-users focus on a lot because that's the part we get to see but that's literally just one part of DLC development. There's research, both for stuff ingame and market research, there's internationalization, there's QA, there's a big chunk of project management, there's marketing, etc.
Development in general is such an iceberg situation to anyone outside of the field/team that's developing it that it's easy to make assumptions about the costs and the effort going into it; but without having inside information we have literally no clue if they're making these packs on a lower budget than they were before.

It's not that I'm denying that there's more reused animations and probably more reused models bases than before, and obviously our free updates have downsized drastically; but at the same time the first is also a direct result of the extensive library they have right now and it could also very well be that part of the budget is now reallocated to also support the console releases. There's no way of knowing really.

All I'm saying, we should be really careful with things in the line of "PZ is making easy money right now" (phrased more drastically than you did obviously but it's a common sentiment); because whilst we see the revenue we have no information on the budget side of things.

Once they're all in on PZ2, sure, DLC will probably stop, but again, I'm not going to worry about that when either way it means more content.
As @AndyZoos already pointed out, if PZ2 is the CY26 CMS game then they're most definitely already far into development. We can all agree that there's going to have to be a gap between the last DLC and the sequel, so I think it's fair to say that that gap is approaching. How many DLCs we'll see between now and that gap is honestly up in the air and I can really see it go either way. If they make enough money on other stuff they can afford to make the gap wider and get some goodwill, but if they don't then they're going to make the gap as short as possible.

But I do agree with you here, it's nothing to worry about especially as it also means that if PZ is still doing well that the sequel also has a lot of market potential. People still seem to really like this genre and Frontiers take on it, so that's good for those who still enjoy that!

but that coupled with the surprisingly fast announcement of the upcoming DLC pack seems to indicate there are at least a few more to come before DLC wraps up
This however I'm going to refute because the same exact scenario happened to JWE2 at the end of development. The two last packs came about as fast after each other as these two seem to be, so if that is anything to go by that might not be the good news some are hoping for haha.

Basically TLDR; I think that both scenarios are an option. If Frontier is comfortable enough with profits of PC2 and JWE3 then I think it's not entirely unreasonable that the current game ends at 20 DLCs and that resources get allocated to the sequel. If PC2 and JWE3 aren't profitable enough, they are for sure going to keep using PZ to boost their sales.
 
I am definitely not a summer person either - I naturally have a body temperature about a degree lower than normal, so anything above 25 degrees Celsius is just too hot. It gets to the point where I need to keep the fan in my room running almost constantly between May and early October.
 
My fiancee relentlessly mocks me because my favorite time of year is like, mid-October through early January. The days here in New England are typically warm enough for me to not require a coat until December but the nights always get chilly enough to feel "cozy." And then it doesn't get bitterly cold until later in January and throughout it all we have a run of holidays to spice things up!

The part that trips me up with Planet Zoo is that, sometimes I'll have these builds going that take longer than planned... And then the season changes and I feel suddenly uninspired because of the world around me... "I just spent the summer creating this lush, tropical feeling space with tons of water features an--oh no! The leaves outside are turning gold, orange, and brown. Time for a vibe shift!" :ROFLMAO:

This new pack dropping in what feels like late June might honestly be a blessing for me. Because I won't be able to mess with it too much before I go on vacation (London and Scotland). And I always come back from those trips feeling super inspired by everything I've seen with new reference shots, etc.
 
Damn, I am the opposite. I am like a lizard, always basking in the sun whenever I can with a cold drink in my hand. 😂 At winter I get the most horrible depressions. I love snow, but since it is snowing like 2 days a year here, it is just cloudy and ugly weather all winter. However the most cozy game sessions are at long winter evenings.
I do not usually play much at summer as my computer always sounds like it is going to melt. 🙄
 
Damn, I am the opposite. I am like a lizard, always basking in the sun whenever I can with a cold drink in my hand. 😂 At winter I get the most horrible depressions. I love snow, but since it is snowing like 2 days a year here, it is just cloudy and ugly weather all winter. However the most cozy game sessions are at long winter evenings.
I do not usually play much at summer as my computer always sounds like it is going to melt. 🙄
I'm with you girl! We can toast our lizard bellies together 😂

I get so miserable in winter too. It is so long and it's the dark that bothers me the most. No sunlight for months and when spring finally comes I am the colour of ghosts and just as depleted 😭
 
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