Frontier Needs Money (new Dev Update from Michael).

[sensai25]

To those you are still worried :

SOURCE : http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/12324822.html

22 April 2015

Frontier Developments plcTrading Update​

Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV, "Frontier", the "Group"), a leading developer of video games, announces the following trading update.
Elite: Dangerous
The Board continues to be pleased with the progress of Elite: Dangerous to date. Total unit sales now exceed 500,000. The retail price remains £40 (US$60, €50).
The Group continues to add new platforms and distribution channels to further expand the audience. In addition to the forthcoming availability on Apple's Mac computers next month, and Microsoft's Xbox One games console later this year, Elite: Dangerous was recently made available on the Steam digital distribution service, entering at number 1 in their sales charts just before Easter.
Cash Position
The Group's balance sheet remains strong and, at 31 March 2015, the Group had net cash of approximately £11.4 million. This places the Group in a good financial position to support its continuing investment plans going forwards. As a result, the Group has reviewed its cash resource requirements for the next 12 months and decided to lower its revolving credit facility with Barclays Bank plc from £3m to £1m. This facility expires in May 2016.
David Braben, Chief Executive of Frontier Developments, said:
"The team did a great job in delivering the full public release of Elite: Dangerous and its supporting technology as planned, driving our transition to the next stage. We are and will continue to support it going forwards and that has helped build a great community around the game, setting us up well for future expansion. We, as a Board, are hopeful that sales will continue to track higher than we expected in the January Trading Update, leading to Group revenues of over £22 million by the end of the current financial year ending 31 May 2015."

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

I had forgotten quite how bullish the estimates were in terms of future sales. I find them very hard to believe. The game today is very little better than it was last December. At the current rate of progress it will be better, but not much better come this December. Nothing to make an order of magnitude leap in the number of buyers. The Elite nostalgia low-hanging fruit has been plucked (I said plucked!), so they are estimating significant sales increases into a market where the 'easy' sales are already made. I wish them well, but it looks unlikely to me.

Of course, they have made plenty of profit: enough to keep the light on for ages, and even fund some enhancements. But it seems to me that they need much more content to get lots more sales and set thins thing up for 10 years.

 

[CakeEngine]

I doubt that your doubt is grounded in much more than a desire for player decals and paintjobs.

well, to be fair, i might be biased by wishful thinking and the fact that i indeed wish for user generated decals such as mobius-, and fuelrat-insignia, or just an image of delicous cake.
But honestly, my doubt is more grounded in my experience, that this community is at some point more "mature" than your average videogame community.
Sure, this very forum got enough posts to prove otherwise, but atleast it's not all about "lol butts 'n b**bies roflmao".

Anyway, a much more likely reason is that user-generated decals will incur significant database changes, both for storing decals/paintjobs on the servers, and for the data structures used to store player ship info currently. There would be a corresponding increase in server bandwidth when joining existing islands or or creating new ones, in order to transmit the user content to all peers. This is bypassed at present due to the fact that all such graphic data is developer-created and stored on the client.

This is a very good point, though. The fragility of p2p-connections to server provided variable loads of this magnitude is something, i clearly did not think of. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Don't quote me on this one but I thought the Thargoids were in a free update ? (Not that I care, I paid the premium pass for free updates anyway)

There will be a primary development (free certainly) for the Thargoids. But Michael said that Frontier will do something much more complete later

 

[Ekar]

And they are expecting £20m next year and then £80m the year after. What I wonder is going to generate these sales?

The feeling I sometimes got from the way DB talked about ED in the past, was that the really exciting stuff would come later, sometime after initial release. That's where his vision was, far ahead in time where the game just opens up and becomes this really ambitious and exciting thing. Hitting that first milestone came across as mere procedure, just the beginning... he seemed genuinely excited for EDs future and it was hard not to get caught up in that feeling as well.

In two years how well will things have gone? Nobody can say. Certainly the devs themselves are very tight lipped about the immediate future. But there has to be a plan and I still hope it's a good one.

 

[Patrick_68000]

ps4 is gonna get this game too? are you sure?
because that would be good news but im assuming that microsoft has paid a good amount of money for this not to happen.
but this game does have a ten year development plan so i wouldnt be surprised if it came out for ps5 but the ps4 version would really surprise me.

Frontier said that Microsoft exclusivity is limited in time. Do not develop to PS4 (or 5) would be a commercial heresy

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

The feeling I sometimes got from the way DB talked about ED in the past, was that the really exciting stuff would come later, sometime after initial release. That's where his vision was, far ahead in time where the game just opens up and becomes this really ambitious and exciting thing. Hitting that first milestone came across as mere procedure, just the beginning... he seemed genuinely excited for EDs future and it was hard not to get caught up in that feeling as well.

In two years how well will things have gone? Nobody can say. Certainly the devs themselves are very tight lipped about the immediate future. But there has to be a plan and I still hope it's a good one.

Don't we all. But the thing has hardly moved for the last year. Sure we know there was stuff in development not quite ready to roll out. But how much have they got near enough waiting to roll? We had what looked like a big splurge of content in the first half last year - but we knew some of that had been worked on from way before the kickstarter started. That backed up content assumption was one of the reasons we had all the theories about a big pile of extra content coming before it was released. But actually, we had virtually nothing from this time last year to the release, and (especially from where I sit) very little since.

 

[Patrick_68000]

With 700,000 units sold they've barely recouped (if they have) development. They're hardly rolling in it.

I also wasn't happy that they cut offline.

Yes the sales are not really excellent all the same. But it has been only six months since the game is released

 

[JasonDL]

Actually, you started with:

At which point you seem to think that I have misunderstood you. I think I have understood you, but it is a little difficult to say. You want to talk about not a timed exclusive, but an exclusive that is functionality that only appears on one platform, and is never ported to another. Despite the fact that FD have never suggested such a thing, and everyone else is talking about timed exclusives, which we do have. If that was what you wanted to discuss all along, the time to stop digging your hole was when you said Feel free to correct me if I have misunderstood further.

I'm starting to see the problem here, right from the beginning you assumed that my original comment was about what everyone else was talking about which was time exclusive, but it never was, but rather it was about what I feared most which was FD turning their backs on PC gamers. I never said that FD say they would do those things. I said what I said because I'm hoping that FD doesn't do what other developers have done to do PC gamers in the past, which was make games that you can buy on PC to, making games for console only. And again my original comment has nothing to do with people's chat of which you said was about a timed-exclusive, it was what was on my mind.

Now for the my final quote in your reply, the part where I said "They (FD) said they never would never allow console priority over PC" I made that comment after I read this comment on ED trailer for the Xbone "New content first on XboxOne? but you said that never , ever will the console version will take priority over the main PC one". I probably shouldn't have taken his comments as a source, but seeing that he has over 200 thumbs up, I assumed he has some credential.

 

[Dandydan14]

Sorry, but u obviously don't comprehend what a good programmer is worth in pound notes.

I do because I started out to follow that route and did not last long.

As far as I am concerned they are worth what they git but there seems to be some things lacking with this outfit as regards customer relations etc.

 

[Flimley]

Everybody send money via skin packs in the store and report in link below.
And don't forget to point at the camera like that Hudson bloke !

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138660&highlight=Skin+packs

 

[Deadlock989]

Steam players online stats: http://steamcharts.com/app/359320#All

- Lost online players steadily throughout April-May (20% drop overall)
- Regained that recently probably due to recent summer sale (£10 off), this weekend returning to the same peak as April's of about 7600 players average online

Expect that'll start to decay again from tomorrow when the price goes back to normal. Note that the players online are decaying despite constant new sales.

(edited to add that I meant the numbers are decaying, not that the players online are themselves literally decaying, even if it feels like it sometimes)

 

[Sanderson]

The last time I got behind FD in a position like this, thinking surely they had content in secret and wouldn't dare release the game barebones, I was woefully proven wrong.

I just wish some company would make a game based on the DDF, if I had known FD's direction would be barebones first, portrait playing cards, space risk and Xbox (or any platform) timed exclusives, I could have saved myself a lot of time and money. Not to mention disgust.

 

[big_bad_lynx]

i dont think this game will last that long, look what happening around the corner "Star Citizen". A much more advanced game, with a story line and a bigger fan base.

i would say this game needs to bring in as much as it can within the next year and then watch itself implode. I hope not, but im a backer of star citizen and am only playing this game as a stopgap until SC gets released. I bet you a lot of players are doing the same as me.

that is tru. probably I would play it bit longer, even consider buying something else but lack of support at some point from FD and overal feel abbandonment - really puts me off from these steps. I got involved in conversation with some mods and the guy wouldn't take anything at all. last changes in nerfing and breaking players fun (such as repair costs, RES etc) is not playing in their favour. I had a lot of fun, recent days less and lesser and FD does not seems to revert this trend - except the repair cost - but how long we had to wait for it.

 

[Ryder35]

Wow this thread right from the initial title is full of opinions being stated as facts!

In my view ED's track record of giving me what I want to see (the DDF basically) has been poor. Can't speak for anyone else though.

They have my money (£200 for Alpha) and to be honest I have had my monies worth, especially considering their support for the oculus rift. I may take a break soon and see where we are after the summer.

At this stage neither I nor anyone outside FD have any idea where their development plans will take us next but it will be interesting to see.

This whole thread reminds me a lot of the whole "vertical slice" discussions before release only in reverse if you see what I mean

 

[Kulin]

The feeling I sometimes got from the way DB talked about ED in the past, was that the really exciting stuff would come later, sometime after initial release. That's where his vision was, far ahead in time where the game just opens up and becomes this really ambitious and exciting thing. Hitting that first milestone came across as mere procedure, just the beginning... he seemed genuinely excited for EDs future and it was hard not to get caught up in that feeling as well.

In two years how well will things have gone? Nobody can say. Certainly the devs themselves are very tight lipped about the immediate future. But there has to be a plan and I still hope it's a good one.

Then you will face disappointment. David Braben is good at making this impression. I had the same point of view because the steps the game took from alpha to beta where huge. I really believed they could do it and deliver the features suggested by the DDA. DB and MB never did anything to bring me back into reality. So my hope stayed high until release. Now, 6 month later there is still nothing from the DDA that convinced me to buy the game.

In fact thats their thing. They let us speculate until the end of days what may be coming next. But its a fact that they only deliver what they've told us about. There are no "surprise" updates. No miracle patches. If something is coming in the next months im sure you already heard about it.

Let me make an prognose about whats coming until christmas. We will see the XBox Release. We will see CQC being introduced to PC. We will get 2-3 new ships. A few new menu based features(easiest to develop). Maybe a few more drones or something. Maybe we also get some thargoids and a few battle zones where we can fight them. We also get tons of bug fixes. Then we will get the Playstation 4 release announcement and the release around christmas. Then we get a few new infos about the planetary landing addon that will be released may next year. And thats it.

 

[KING5TON]

Here's a method for FD to make money without annoying anyone.
Make the game more fun so the players that have currently abandoned the game come back.
Sell skins and other items at a much lower price point.

A better game = happier customers = more sales via word of mouth advertising and more sales of cosmetics.

Does anyone think this shouldn't be the method to make money and they should just keep porting and chasing new sales using IMO unrepresentative trailers to con people into a buying a game?

 

[Sanderson]

Here's a method for FD to make money without annoying anyone.
Make the game more fun so the players that have currently abandoned the game come back.
Sell skins and other items at a much lower price point.

A better game = happier customers = more sales via word of mouth advertising and more sales of cosmetics.

Does anyone think this shouldn't be the method to make money and they should just keep porting and chasing new sales using IMO unrepresentative trailers to con people into a buying a game?

That's what PP was supposed to do. Fail. Why anyone would abandon the DDF, essentially the definitive roadmap to riches, is beyond me.

I wonder if all those DDF backers would consider another KS to make the DDF game? Even if it was a 90's looking game, in terms of graphics, as long as it adhered to the DDF it would outsell ED.

My saddest moment in this entire process was when David said, and I quote ".. we released a game that was a complete game" regarding ED's abysmal "release". That's more than a bit like calling two chips and half a fish sandwich a "complete meal" init?

 

[smartroad]

I agree that there needs to much more variety when it comes to the paint jobs and decals. If Frontier do not have the time/resources to produce a load of paint jobs for all the ships, then I wonder if it would be possible for them to make a tool so that designers out in the world can make their own. These can then be put into the shop for sale with the original artist getting a cut of the profits.
.
Frontier benefits not only as there would be tons of new skins people could buy, but they wouldn't have to put any real time into it other than checking they are good enough quality to be used in game.
.
There could be a simple vetting process where people have to apply to get the SW to make the skins.
.
Just a thought on getting more money into the system, as selling more games will only go so far - no more money once everyone who wants it gets it - so there would be a need to have more money coming in and at the moment there just aren't the paint jobs out there that I want for my Python currently

 

[Sanderson]

I agree that there needs to much more variety when it comes to the paint jobs and decals. If Frontier do not have the time/resources to produce a load of paint jobs for all the ships, then I wonder if it would be possible for them to make a tool so that designers out in the world can make their own. These can then be put into the shop for sale with the original artist getting a cut of the profits.
.
Frontier benefits not only as there would be tons of new skins people could buy, but they wouldn't have to put any real time into it other than checking they are good enough quality to be used in game.
.
There could be a simple vetting process where people have to apply to get the SW to make the skins.
.
Just a thought on getting more money into the system, as selling more games will only go so far - no more money once everyone who wants it gets it - so there would be a need to have more money coming in and at the moment there just aren't the paint jobs out there that I want for my Python currently

Been suggested a million times for over a year. Probably never going to happen.