Brett C
Frontier
Ha that explains why ELITE DANGEROUS is so far behind in development but I suppose we should have expected it right from the start, because of the number of times the Developers change there minds on what parts of the game they are working on.
I would never consider buying or using any kind of console, but not to sound to bitter as I realise FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS have to keep making money so I to welcome all the console players XBOX1 and PLAYSTATION users.
But I would also prefer you to keep working on the game developments we have all been expecting you to be working on.
This is interesting - I think it gives us an insight into the 10 year plan
Year 1 - PC release and enough to keep them happy (ish)
Year 2 - XBox release and enough to keep them happy (ish)
Year 3 - PS4 release.. & TBA
This bit is speculative
Year 4 - Nintendo Wii
Year 5 - Apple ipad release (depend on whether their technology has been updated by then though)
Year 6 - Samsung and other smartphone release
Year 7 - Updates for the BBC Micro (probably MMO)
Year 8 - Updates for the Commadore 64
Year 9 - Updates for the ZX spectrum 48K and Amstrad products (excluding that scooter thing)
Tear 10 - TBA and close for winter as its finally arrived.
Incorrect. The Xbox One team at Frontier is also working on the PlayStation 4 version as well. The console team is not working on the game on the PC variant. The development speed of Elite Dangerous on PC still remains as it normally does. ED on PC is ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There are a few backports in terms of optimization passes, but that's about it.
I'm confused on these points you're trying to convey, because we've not changed developers - we are our own development team. We self-publish Elite Dangerous.
Incorrect. The Xbox One team at Frontier is also working on the PlayStation 4 version as well. The console team is not working on the game on the PC variant. The development speed of Elite Dangerous on PC still remains as it normally does. ED on PC is ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There are a few backports in terms of optimization passes, but that's about it.
I'm confused on these points you're trying to convey, because we've not changed developers - we are our own development team. We self-publish Elite Dangerous.
Incorrect. The Xbox One team at Frontier is also working on the PlayStation 4 version as well. The console team is not working on the game on the PC variant. The development speed of Elite Dangerous on PC still remains as it normally does. ED on PC is ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There are a few backports in terms of optimization passes, but that's about it.
I'm confused on these points you're trying to convey, because we've not changed developers - we are our own development team. We self-publish Elite Dangerous.
Regarding delays - for both 2.1 and 2.2 FD developers have said they were given extra time to make QoL and other improvements. So it's not like development of Season 2 got unexplainably longer - it was decision made by FD and it is most likely related on how they want to release Season 3. There's speculation that Season 3 is planned to be late because it will have all planned features from get go, in one big update. That's why FD stretches out Season 2 with more updates and improvements than they would usually able to deliver.
All speculation, but really, consoles aren't reason Season 2 is stretched out longer than we expected.
I'd not be so concerned about additional platforms consuming engineering time, but by the overhead of each platform's update QA and release process. Major feature parity across PC/XB1/PS4 is a given, but QA and certification is essentially subject to random events causing another (external) QA cycle for each platform, so the more platforms you have, the time (and effort by your release manager) to reach release readiness on all platforms increases, so you'll be tempted to relax the update cadence.
One other factor is to what extent it could consume non value add work a few years down the line when they are forced to provide backward compatibility with obsolete consoles. Let's say the game is still being developed in 6 years from now but for how long will they still need to support obsolete games consoles, at least with existing content up to a certain point in time? This could force compromises in game quality and a lot of backward compatibility testing.
On balance PS4 will be great for the game, but yes there are some risks and downsides as with everything.
Ask a Mac player.
It's already been too long ... 16 December 2014 too long.Good things comes to those who wait.![]()
It's already been too long ... 16 December 2014 too long.![]()