Does anyone else feel like Beyond is a graceful exit strategy ?

[SAB380]

Kickstarter launch - end 2012
Game launch - end 2014
Horizons - end 2015
Beyond - early 2018

They've launched their game and supported it with multiple updates.
They can argue they've fulfilled their expansion pass by providing multiple updates within the main game and Horizons and Beyond. Many released games have an Expansion pass that entitles you to 2 big expansions.
Beyond will likely go for well over 12 months by the time its done. At the point we'll be about 7 years out from the Kickstarter.
Many other games would have had at least one full priced sequel out by that point.

At that point they can say they've continued to build and support Elite for many years. (The quality of some of the additions are certainly open to question.)

Simple cosmetic upgrades will keep coming as thats just free, easy money.
There will almost definitely be some quality of life improvements that keep rolling out, depending on how well the cosmetics sell.

Does anyone still think we're going to get complex atmospheric worlds and/or space legs?

I'm thinking back to how Frontier handled the offline mode.
Or how they simply closed down the DDF after hyping that so people backed to higher $ levels.
And how the answers to complex additions (space legs) have gotten more vague instead of more specific over the last couple of years.
I expect something similar to their offline strategy here. I don't believe they will let us know that the huge complex additions aren't coming until a fair way after Beyond finishes up - probably late 2020 some time.

Even so, I would say I still got my money's worth.
By the end of Beyond, I'll have played this game on and off for over 7+ years. I can't say that about any other game, ever!

Thoughts?

 

[Safepuppy]

I think their support for the game will stay strong, and I've got a feeling that atmospheric landings will come.
Just not sure when.
Same as you though, I've got my money's worth and still enjoy playing.
Pretty sure this game is going to be around for a good while.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

Don't forget the core game improvements due in Q4. I have big hopes for that.

 

[Arry]

There is so much potential in the future of what F.D. have to offer and in the pipeline, they won't be winding Elite down, for the next decade.

Example: Planet Coaster, could be a DLC for many of the planets, when atmospheric planets come on line.

 

[Adhock]

No.

If it does it's because we're saying goodbye to Horizons and many core aspects are changing. The game is evolving and it won't be the same game we knew when we started playing. Hell it wasn't the same after Horizons ether.

It's a learning experience. And they've already promised what the ending was going to be. They at least need to reach that before they can decide whether or not go to into housekeeping mode only.

 

[Henri]

Been doing atmospheric landings and it's just like landings without atmosphere really, there's some fire and heat and then another flight model that's it.

 

[nickweb]

I think there is kind of a step change in how certain games work these days. Lets look at GTA5 for example. Released in 2013 and 5 years later is still going strong, still selling many copies each week. The main reason it is still popular is because of the additions it's had over the years. True, that it's backed by a multi-million dollar company and it's life cycle will start to diminish once RD2 comes out, but it's been going far longer than games used to live for.

Same thing with Fallout 4 - kept alive by the DLCs for it.

FDEV do amazing things considering their relatively small size, and the updates and improvements keep the game alive. Sure sometimes it seems that progress is at a glacial pace but rome wasn't built in a day. I believe that the really big things like atmospheric landings will come... one day... in a few years... but it'll come.

And don't forget - this game is primarily PC based, thus avoiding the lifespans of game consoles (I'm an Xbox CMDR and hope that I can still play in years to come)

So to sum up. No, I don't think Beyond is a graceful exit strategy, and I don't aim this at the OP personally, but seeing repetitive threads about how the game is dying is really starting to grind on me, people seem to want too much too soon these days.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

I don't believe so. I've been wrong before but I really don't think so.
If it were they'd wind down the events like Frontier Expo and Lavecon participation and visiting all the other live events around the world etc.
Also whilst a free year would be nice way to go for most people it'd really hurt those that bought lifetime passes or otherwise kickstarted for a lot. There's also the question of servers and if the code would be given for modding or sold or whatever.

Finally and most importantly, as of the present Elite is the number 1 earner for Frontier. PlanetCoaster exceeded expectations but is niche. Sure Jurassic World has the potential to be huge but until that's realised keeping Elite burning away is a good plan. There was a massive spike of new players after the NMS flop and lets face it with Star Citizen in the place it is that could go either way which gives Elite a bit more potential.

Personally I think Beyond is a "we're doing well from the micro-transactions on the store. Here's a thank you for the patience waiting for Horizons whilst we built our team and launched Planet Coaster". Expecting more paid DLC towards the end of 2018 and into 2019 back to business as usual... Unless they can make cash from the cosmetics store alone, announce that and give lifetime pass people say 25 free items or whatever and just roll with it on continuous free updates hoping to expand the number of players in the game.

 

[Ebel]

I don't know. I enjoy the game very much and frankly have spent far more over time on silly "extras" in the store. Perhaps having looked at their income stream that is where the most profit is. I hope the game continues on for a good long while. Now if we can just get them to let us have our gold rushes....

 

[Adhock]

Unless they can make cash from the cosmetics store alone, announce that and give lifetime pass people say 25 free items or whatever and just roll with it on continuous free updates hoping to expand the number of players in the game.

That's actually a fair point.

The only time you'll be able to convince me the game is dying and it's truly time to jump ship.... when the updates go free and their inventory of cosmetics expands ridiculously rapidly into a "Collect them all!' mentality.

At THAT point... that's when I'll make my own "Graceful Exit".

 

[Ebel]

I don't believe so. I've been wrong before but I really don't think so.
If it were they'd wind down the events like Frontier Expo and Lavecon participation and visiting all the other live events around the world etc.
Also whilst a free year would be nice way to go for most people it'd really hurt those that bought lifetime passes or otherwise kickstarted for a lot. There's also the question of servers and if the code would be given for modding or sold or whatever.

Finally and most importantly, as of the present Elite is the number 1 earner for Frontier. PlanetCoaster exceeded expectations but is niche. Sure Jurassic World has the potential to be huge but until that's realised keeping Elite burning away is a good plan. There was a massive spike of new players after the NMS flop and lets face it with Star Citizen in the place it is that could go either way which gives Elite a bit more potential.

Personally I think Beyond is a "we're doing well from the micro-transactions on the store. Here's a thank you for the patience waiting for Horizons whilst we built our team and launched Planet Coaster". Expecting more paid DLC towards the end of 2018 and into 2019 back to business as usual... Unless they can make cash from the cosmetics store alone, announce that and give lifetime pass people say 25 free items or whatever and just roll with it on continuous free updates hoping to expand the number of players in the game.

Yep, I really do think the micro transactions are very good and you still have the sale of the game to new players or old farts like me that need another account.

Would be nice if our silly "cosmetics" were good for any account we had....just saying

 

[Ian Skippy]

Considering they already confirmed there will be follow-up paid-for expansions, I am going for... no.

 

[Devari]

Does anyone else feel like Beyond is a graceful exit strategy ?

The issue here is that there's nothing "graceful" about Beyond. FD clearly hasn't learned anything from the mess we got with Horizons because they've creating an even bigger mess with Beyond.

So far with Q1 we're getting:
Engineering "resets" with more ridiculous nerf-buff extremes and with FD falling back on level caps and grindwalls yet again to avoid adding meaningful content.
Needlessly convoluted C&P which does nothing to prevent griefing and where you can just switch to a different ship to avoid consequences or just pay fines that many players can easily absorb.
Designing ships with major flaws such as giving us the Chieftan with ridiculously excessive drift when this never should have made it past the early design stage.

It's just more of what we got with Horizons, only this time they're adding a massive new set of problems on top of inadequate game mechanics that weren't functioning properly to be begin with. What little dev resources they have are being wasted making a bad system even worse rather than fixing the game's problems. Adding more complexity and problems on top of an already flawed system is exactly the opposite of what I was hoping for with Season 3.0.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Beyond will likely go for well over 12 months by the time its done. At the point we'll be about 7 years out from the Kickstarter.

Yeah, considering that the first part will be done faster than scheduled, that seems a very logical conclusion. No bias there at all.

The issue here is that there's nothing "graceful" about Beyond. FD clearly hasn't learned anything from the mess we got with Horizons because they've creating an even bigger mess with Beyond.

So far with Q1 we're getting:
Engineering "resets" with more ridiculous nerf-buff extremes and with FD falling back on level caps and grindwalls yet again to avoid adding meaningful content.
Needlessly convoluted C&P which does nothing to prevent griefing and where you can just switch to a different ship to avoid consequences or just pay fines that many players can easily absorb.
Designing ships with major flaws such as giving us the Chieftan with ridiculously excessive drift when this never should have made it past the early design stage.

It's just more of what we got with Horizons, only this time they're adding a massive new set of problems on top of inadequate game mechanics that weren't functioning properly to be begin with. What little dev resources they have are being wasted making a bad system even worse rather than fixing the game's problems. Adding more complexity and problems on top of an already flawed system is exactly the opposite of what I was hoping for with Season 3.0.

Common man, dont hold back, tell us what you really think of ED. You've been very mysterious about it the last few years.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Common man, dont hold back, tell us what you really think of ED. You've been very mysterious about it the last few years.

Lol, I think I said somewhere once that constant hate or love looses it's impact after a few hundred posts and turns into "oh them again".

There's quite a few people on the forum (probably 40-50) I can read a title and a forum name and usually guess what they are going to say before I read their comment <- Both those who criticise and praise the game + developers.

 

[WR3ND]

Considering they already confirmed there will be follow-up paid-for expansions, I am going for... no.

Have they actually confirmed expansions, or just "premium content?"

 

[Ebel]

The issue here is that there's nothing "graceful" about Beyond. FD clearly hasn't learned anything from the mess we got with Horizons because they've creating an even bigger mess with Beyond.

So far with Q1 we're getting:
Engineering "resets" with more ridiculous nerf-buff extremes and with FD falling back on level caps and grindwalls yet again to avoid adding meaningful content.
Needlessly convoluted C&P which does nothing to prevent griefing and where you can just switch to a different ship to avoid consequences or just pay fines that many players can easily absorb.
Designing ships with major flaws such as giving us the Chieftan with ridiculously excessive drift when this never should have made it past the early design stage.

It's just more of what we got with Horizons, only this time they're adding a massive new set of problems on top of inadequate game mechanics that weren't functioning properly to be begin with. What little dev resources they have are being wasted making a bad system even worse rather than fixing the game's problems. Adding more complexity and problems on top of an already flawed system is exactly the opposite of what I was hoping for with Season 3.0.

Really? that is a bit uncharitable. While I am on record being very unhappy with the new Engineering, for the most part I find the game moving more toward being much improved. Not that there are not things that are really going to hit the hornets nest with a putter, but a total f-up? Naaa, I don't think so.

BTW; I like the Chieftain. But then I fly the big 3 too.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Have they actually confirmed expansions, or just "premium content?"

No comment.

 

[Muzz UK]

Kickstarter launch - end 2012
Game launch - end 2014
Horizons - end 2015
Beyond - early 2018

They've launched their game and supported it with multiple updates.
They can argue they've fulfilled their expansion pass by providing multiple updates within the main game and Horizons and Beyond. Many released games have an Expansion pass that entitles you to 2 big expansions.
Beyond will likely go for well over 12 months by the time its done. At the point we'll be about 7 years out from the Kickstarter.
Many other games would have had at least one full priced sequel out by that point.

At that point they can say they've continued to build and support Elite for many years. (The quality of some of the additions are certainly open to question.)

Simple cosmetic upgrades will keep coming as thats just free, easy money.
There will almost definitely be some quality of life improvements that keep rolling out, depending on how well the cosmetics sell.

Does anyone still think we're going to get complex atmospheric worlds and/or space legs?

I'm thinking back to how Frontier handled the offline mode.
Or how they simply closed down the DDF after hyping that so people backed to higher $ levels.
And how the answers to complex additions (space legs) have gotten more vague instead of more specific over the last couple of years.
I expect something similar to their offline strategy here. I don't believe they will let us know that the huge complex additions aren't coming until a fair way after Beyond finishes up - probably late 2020 some time.

Even so, I would say I still got my money's worth.
By the end of Beyond, I'll have played this game on and off for over 7+ years. I can't say that about any other game, ever!

Thoughts?

No I don't agree OP at all.

Firstly David Braben is not that sort of guy! Firstly he's made Elite since the 80s why would he stop now he's made Elite, Elite Frontier II, Elite First Encounters III and now Elite Dangerous. The sales are good and the player numbers are good! I don't think he'd outline a vision and spend years trying to make this game to stop after 3 years.

Updates seem to stay the same in size of content and they are releasing new content every 3-4 months without fail. If they were going to exit or not support future updates and just maintain they'd go free to play and just hammer out cosmetics and micro transactions. Lets not forget Frontier opening new offices and they are making planet coaster and a Jurassic franchise game soon.

Frontier and DavidB might have mis judged when or how do to atmospheres and space legs but this game is no way near its end of dying.

Premium content was discussed.

I suspect David Braben will be involved with Elite until his death in some way... I don't think people realise how much of a pioneer to gaming he has been.

 

[Goose4291]

Kickstarter launch - end 2012
Game launch - end 2014
Horizons - end 2015
Beyond - early 2018

They've launched their game and supported it with multiple updates.
They can argue they've fulfilled their expansion pass by providing multiple updates within the main game and Horizons and Beyond. Many released games have an Expansion pass that entitles you to 2 big expansions.
Beyond will likely go for well over 12 months by the time its done. At the point we'll be about 7 years out from the Kickstarter.
Many other games would have had at least one full priced sequel out by that point.

At that point they can say they've continued to build and support Elite for many years. (The quality of some of the additions are certainly open to question.)

Simple cosmetic upgrades will keep coming as thats just free, easy money.
There will almost definitely be some quality of life improvements that keep rolling out, depending on how well the cosmetics sell.

Does anyone still think we're going to get complex atmospheric worlds and/or space legs?

I'm thinking back to how Frontier handled the offline mode.
Or how they simply closed down the DDF after hyping that so people backed to higher $ levels.
And how the answers to complex additions (space legs) have gotten more vague instead of more specific over the last couple of years.
I expect something similar to their offline strategy here. I don't believe they will let us know that the huge complex additions aren't coming until a fair way after Beyond finishes up - probably late 2020 some time.

Even so, I would say I still got my money's worth.
By the end of Beyond, I'll have played this game on and off for over 7+ years. I can't say that about any other game, ever!

Thoughts?

Just need to drag it out another 4 years and the fanboys will have their "10 yr plan" chants vindicated!