Frontier Needs Money (new Dev Update from Michael).

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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?

Exactly.
But asking for satisfactory quality in return of money in the games industry is a herecy nowadays where the standards are to defend the whatever comes and create excuses for them and fill up the lack of quality with some mental and imaginative techniques.
This is the first time I run into this bantha pudu, the games I buy are all satisfactory quality as they come. Maybe it's my fault when I let my common sense to walk away when the fond memories of Elite sneaked back to my mind...
 
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?

Well said!

As for another kickstarter, if they guaranteed they would stick to the plan and not change course like Frontier have, yes. I'd back it.
 
They should pump out some more paintjobs.. I bought some tactical ones which are okay but they need to put some more effort into creating some amazing looking ones. Word around the campfire is that many think the additions of late have been a bit 'meh' ;)
 
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They are not going to sell many expansion packs if they don't make the first $59.99 feel completely worth the value in fun players bought into.



I am not spending more money to add fun into a game that wasn't already fun to play.
 
The most disillusioning thing to me is that they refuse to communicate with us about the real dev process and refuse to "let us in" so to speak. There have been so many offers from the community to develop paintjobs, for free, to sell on the shop, for money. Most companies would jump on that opportunity; FD seems completely ignorant to the value of having that kind of community, and seem to be unintentionally alienating that sect by refusing to try.
 
I think it would be cool to see real advertisers on the ad boards outside of stations, like the companies have survived into the 34th century.

I can see Pepsi, Google or even non-competing game ads on those boards. It could be a good money generator and maybe even bring a bit of realism to the game.

I know some would not agree but I personally would not have a problem with it.
 
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Look, any game that requires server support MUST have a revenue stream. It is impossible for Elite to continue on without income. And income from new players purchasing the game only goes so far. So while the Xbox conversion is great for them, even that has a limited life. Either they have a way for us to run our own server or some sort of income model has to be created. This thing isn't sustainable otherwise.

Unless of course they are fiendishly clever and offer a $100 paid download to allow you to run your own server when they finally run out of cash.
 
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Look, any game that requires server support MUST have a revenue stream. It is impossible for Elite to continue on without income. And income from new players purchasing the game only goes so far. So while the Xbox conversion is great for them, even that has a limited life. Either they have a way for us to run our own server or some sort of income model has to be created. This thing isn't sustainable otherwise.

Unless of course they are fiendishly clever and offer a $100 paid download to allow you to run your own server when they finally run out of cash.

Income model is cosmetics. That's first. Second, people should stop jumping to conclusions when release is practically only 6 months away. They said they will go after consoles, they would be stupid not to. That's it. Third, they have multiple teams working on multiple stuff. CQC and XBO port didn't delay anything - and majority of port will get back into PC release anyway (contextual menus for gamepads).

What FD is doing currently? They are getting as much people as possible to buy the game (sort of business kickstarter, but with real product). How you do that? Expanding on all available platforms possible. PS4? It will come, I am ready to bet they already working on COBRA port for it - so as exclusivity period ends, they can start to work on deals advertise PS4 version and get some testing done.

So in nutshell Expanding gamers -> expanding game -> getting people to play and enjoy the game.

From marketing perspective, this is that narrow window when FD can get easy sales till other competitors arrive.
 
Look, any game that requires server support is confining players to what the CEO believes is a "locked" revenue stream.

Fixed that for you.

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Income model is cosmetics. That's first. Second, people should stop jumping to conclusions when release is practically only 6 months away. They said they will go after consoles, they would be stupid not to. That's it. Third, they have multiple teams working on multiple stuff. CQC and XBO port didn't delay anything - and majority of port will get back into PC release anyway (contextual menus for gamepads).

What FD is doing currently? They are getting as much people as possible to buy the game (sort of business kickstarter, but with real product). How you do that? Expanding on all available platforms possible. PS4? It will come, I am ready to bet they already working on COBRA port for it - so as exclusivity period ends, they can start to work on deals advertise PS4 version and get some testing done.

So in nutshell Expanding gamers -> expanding game -> getting people to play and enjoy the game.

From marketing perspective, this is that narrow window when FD can get easy sales till other competitors arrive.

If I understand this model correctly we have to buy more skins and platform versions of the game to get the game we've already thought we were paying for? Makes sense if your selling the game but, from a consumer perspective, it sounds like a cash trap.
 
So Michael explicitly says in the new update here:

The most obvious benefit comes from the income. We have chosen not to go down the route of subscriptions or 'pay to win', but we do need income to support the game, and so far most of that is coming from adding new customers, so it is in all our interests to get more people playing.

You know what? That's absolutely fine with me. I welcome CQC, I welcome the XBox guys. The more money there is for development the better for everyone. (Speaking of which, you really should make decals and paint jobs in the store a priority).

This week was a bad coincidence for me. I contributed to some of the negativity in the forum, but for a completely different reason. I wanted PC NEWS from E3, I wanted news about the paid expansions (First Expansion Coming Xmas 2015!) or something.

But I was not, have not and shall not be upset about Frontier broadening their revenue stream and welcome their attempts to do so. Thanks for not going 'pay to win'!

Just my two euro-cent.

Congratulation for not going down the Pay to Win path... It's a pity the game feels developed to exploit it micro-transactions any way, and what remains is a grief filled grindathon.

Subscriptions were the way forward, we would have paid for continued game development.
 
Congratulation for not going down the Pay to Win path... It's a pity the game feels developed to exploit it micro-transactions any way, and what remains is a grief filled grindathon.

Subscriptions were the way forward, we would have paid for continued game development.

Subscriptions won't ever work in MMOs again.
 
Congratulation for not going down the Pay to Win path... It's a pity the game feels developed to exploit it micro-transactions any way, and what remains is a grief filled grindathon.

Subscriptions were the way forward, we would have paid for continued game development.

FD has been aware of this for ages. Many have said that they'd pay, as long as FD followed what everyone thought was the plan. Had FD followed their own DDF we'd have stuck with it for years. PP? Not so much.
 
Subscriptions won't ever work in MMOs again.

Ha ha, that looks like something to bookmark for my signature in the future! :p

I think you're wrong. If the game/marketing/player buy-in is good enough, I think it can still work. It will take a truly great game for it to happen but I certainly wouldn't be so arrogant as to say "won't ever work again". ;)
 
Subscriptions won't ever work in MMOs again.

Gotta say i've felt like this for a while, I think a combination of competitors doing more for less and genuine experience with the system has shown that subscriptions for games doesn't really justify the content you receive, that might be different at some stage, I know eventually FF14 released enough content that it probably justified a sub, thing is that was after probably three or four months of nothing however so already 60$ for nothing really.
 
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Ha ha, that looks like something to bookmark for my signature in the future! :p

I think you're wrong. If the game/marketing/player buy-in is good enough, I think it can still work. It will take a truly great game for it to happen but I certainly wouldn't be so arrogant as to say "won't ever work again". ;)

Subscriptions will certainly work again. Just give it enough time.
 
Subscriptions won't ever work in MMOs again.

Can I borrow your "looking into the future"-glasses?
I really would like to adjust it professionally for your eyes to show a more accurate picture.
It's free, don't miss it!
 
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I would be willing to transition to a paid subscription model if Frontier became more communicative and open with us about the development process. I don't mind paying to support them any more than I mind paying a tip to a good server at a restaurant, and I'm still (and probably always will be) willing to forgive and forget missteps because I truly believe they have good intentions.

PowerPlay is a good concept, I believe it will get even better, and I've enjoyed it so far. It's not one of the features anyone was expecting by this time, though, which is a minor red flag that raises some questions for me.
 
Ha ha, that looks like something to bookmark for my signature in the future! :p

I think you're wrong. If the game/marketing/player buy-in is good enough, I think it can still work. It will take a truly great game for it to happen but I certainly wouldn't be so arrogant as to say "won't ever work again". ;)

WoW was once in a lifetime event. Problem is there's not enough time for new MMO to engrave itself into psyche of enough players so they wouldn't move on next best thing (even single player games muddles waters quite a bit). Also popularity of franchise matters.

When WoW came out, we bought discs to install it. These days new game is just click away for 2, 5 or 10 USD in Steam sale. People jumping between games as never before.

No, I don't think I am wrong.
 
IMHO (not sure if anyone mentioned that already) Elite should take example from Dota2 or TF2.. allow people to make skins, decals ect (of course they should be moderated) give small percent to makers, small to steam and rest for themselves, because stuff on their store... is... boring... TBO best solution it would be implementing something like GW2 did... but ED cant have exactly same store system because only progression what you make in game are Creds...
But i agree with most people here, store in game merchandise should be focused mainly atm... More unique skins, cockpit decals, Voice packs for computer, computer menu's skins ect... Players want to have personality... Or at least have recognizable ships... feel unique.. let them buy it, from store.
 
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