Is support ending? What do you think?

Swjosdotschka

Swjosdotschka
This is a perfect example how the personal preference of Content Creators tint their view. Rudi and DeLady are pretty close friends as far as I know. DeLady seems to love zoos and is quite sure support will continue. Rudi was always more of a coaster enthusiast, so he leans toward support ending.

I never made a secret out of my own believe that this will be the last DLC. But opinions change and so do business plans, maybe. I absolutely do not see the Swan asa "clone" of the Flamingo, so it's a pretty unique waterfowl rig. I absolutely doubt that they will use this rig only once.
So, Nancy is retireing - so what? That weird influencer girl was the main character all the time, Nancy retireing is only a hint if you absolutely want to see it as a hint. Frontier does not give hints towards support ending.
Yes, animals from the Meta wishlist were given pretty much these year. As was oddballs instead of animals high on the Meta Wishlist. The real wished sloth (they will probably use this rig again, as with the bats), the Blackbuck, a Baboon in the Arid pack, Coati in Tropical, yadda yadda.
Plus, Frontier is financial unstable. I still believe supporting a running game with little effort gives them a few needed bucks, especially if they did not release another Planet game yet. And I believe between the announcement of Planet Zoo and it's release was 6 month. If no Planet game was announced yet, that means we might be safely in for another two packs.
 

Tinou97

Tinou97
FortressDoor said:
I think there's about 2-4 more packs left. Other planet games released had larger DLCs for one last cash grab, and that's not what this was. This does seem lik the beginning of the end though, especially with regional packs coming back. Probably get a DLC for North America, South America, Africa, and then a finale. Or, alternatively, a combined Americas pack, and then a finale in summer is possible.
Click to expand...
There already have been a DLC named after each of these continents. I think one or even 2 of the last DLCs we'll have will focus on a biome (I'm crossing my fingers for a Tundra and a mountain DLC). I think there will be a DLC which will allow the introduction of a lot of South American species without having a name that is exclusive to South America (like Arid Pack for Africa) and I also think there will be a bird DLC, really.
 

zoomaster1994

Z
I think it will continue next year, I agree with a lot of people around here. They almost hit 5 years and it would be a bit silly to end it now, while there is still quite a enthusiastic fanbase around the game. A good and fun community, and there is still way more potential for the game.

Off course we must realize, all good things will come to an end, but I just hope for some more, PZ is one of the best zoo games out there and it feels empty, knowing some key species are still missing :) Especially from SA, but also from different taxanomy groups; pinipeds, monkeys, birds etc.
 

FortressDoor

F
Tinou97 said:
There already have been a DLC named after each of these continents. I think one or even 2 of the last DLCs we'll have will focus on a biome (I'm crossing my fingers for a Tundra and a mountain DLC). I think there will be a DLC which will allow the introduction of a lot of South American species without having a name that is exclusive to South America (like Arid Pack for Africa) and I also think there will be a bird DLC, really.
Click to expand...
There's also was a Europe, Asia, and Australia pack in the past, but that didn't stop Frontier from releasing a second version of them under a separate name (Australia vs. Oceania, for example). Don't think Frontier views themselves as limited by themes. Figure what they do is decide what animals they want to include that year, and then work backwards to make the themes work.
 

biggest_dreamer

biggest_dreamer
JW97 said:
Rudi is always very pessismistic.
Click to expand...
He's been saying that support is definitely on the verge of ending since... I want to say I first remember him dedicating a large portion of a video to it around the time the Southeast Asia Animal Pack came out. This isn't a new claim for him.

That said, I don't think all of his points are without merit. The nature of the new career scenario also gave me pause, and the phrase "swan song" has been kicking around in my head in relation to the mute swan's surprise inclusion all week. It's definitely possible that support dries up immediately after Eurasia, nothing more has ever been guaranteed. But I'm also far less certain now that support is over after this pack than I would've been a few months ago.

I do think that everyone who seems to perpetually confident that support can't possibly be ending anytime soon are going to be in for a rude awakening sooner or later, though. It's going to end. It's quite probably going to end abruptly, and sooner than you'd like. Don't set yourself up for too much disappointment.
 

Iben

Iben
I'm honestly a bit tired of the whole "there is no evidence that the game might end" claim, because it stops any form of healthy discussion. Because, of course there is never going to be direct evidence that the game is going to end, as it never was for the other games either. There are indications and there are reasonable arguments why the game might potentially end support which we could discuss in a reasonable manner with each other, but it always ends up in a "it's doomspeak" or "there is no evidence", which just instantly kills any conversation about the topic.

Instead, I think it's valuable to start thinking about what might influence the end of the game and prepare ourselves for it. If not, we're going to end up with a whole "omg Frontier stopped the game they're stupid" scenario which honestly is not beneficial for any of the parties involved. It does not have to be doom and gloom, especially given how well the game has done so far. I completely agree with @biggest_dreamer here, people who are adement about the fact that more support is almost guaranteed are going to be far more disappointed than those who are cautious about it.

Now, let's put both sides in perspective.

The game could be ending support this year because a combination of a few of these reasons:
  • The codebase at this point is conservatively speaking 7 years old. That's a lot of legacy code, that's a lot of decisions that were made a long time ago that dictate what can or cannot be done with the game. Codebases can be refactored, but that requires a lot of time, budget and dev profiles that might just not be financially viable. The age of the codebase at this point is an indicator of how long the game can and will be supported, and we are at the point where the majority of the games out there have already stopped or tend to stop.

  • We are a late stage zoo game, and as much as there's a near infinite amount of animals that can be added to the game; there is very much a limit to the amount of animal choices people are going to want to keep paying for. With every new pack, more and more of the audience of the game complains that the packs don't add anything exciting and that animals are just clones. And this is inevitable for any zoo game, but obviously is going to start/is already affecting the sales.

  • The costs of making new DLCs raise over time. Your devs become more experienced which results in higher pays, inflation impacts costs when it comes to resources (software licenses, building costs, etc. etc.). People also tend to vastly underestimate the costs that come with making these packs. Mostly because people only tend to look at the coding and the modeling/texturing, but often have no idea of all the other stuff that comes with the development cycle like project managers, product owners, researchers, Q&A testing, etc. etc. There's a lot more overhead than people think, and that also comes with a price.

    Unless Frontier decides to raise their prices for the DLC (which honestly surprisingly, they haven't done even after so many years), there is going to be a point where a DLC is going to end up just being breakeven. As @Pentoleaf said, we don't even know how close we are to that. Frontier, like any business, is going to try to avoid the point of breakeven instead of putting out packs that are breakeven. So, there are going to be business analysis that will be made to avoid reaching that point. Especially with the situation Frontier is in.

  • That brings us to Frontier's current financial state. I know a lot of people seem to expect that this means that Frontier will for sure continue Planet Zoo because it has been doing well; but reality is of course once again much more complicated. With 3 CMS games planned to be released over the next 3 years, several resources have been pumped into those. Shifting those to Planet Zoo isn't something that you can do right away. To give a very specific example, you cannot expect to move a dev from another project to Planet Zoo and expect them to be productive enough to do anything major in less than a month time (and that's honestly being optimistic, there are many projects that require much longer). Shifting resources is not as easy as it sounds.

    On top of that, every new DLC is a new risk. There's no way of knowing for sure that it will sell well, and given the current state of Frontier they might not want to take any risks at all. That could mean that they could go for a safer route, something they've done in the past already and of which they know that there's at least an audience; which is a console port. You'd need significantly less people to do the port, you already have the experience in house to do so, and that way you can still make money on Planet Zoo without major investments.

  • There could be any number of commitments that Frontier has right now that mean that they need everyone who's available, so that could very much be something that influences the game's course without us ever knowing it.

  • There is, at this point, no direct confirmation for further support for FY25. This is new, because over the course of the last years we always had somewhat of a direct confirmation for more DLCs. Whether it be a full on confirmation in financial documents, or the games code containing references or folders being left behind. Currently, we have no such direct confirmation at all.
There are obviously more reasons that will impact the final decision; but people really need to understand that further support is influenced by a hell of a lot more than "As long as people keep buying the DLCs Frontier will keep making them", because reality is unfortuneatly never that simple.

That being said, there are also reasons why the game could keep seeing support:
  • There are still a few more somewhat popular animals that could be added to the game, regardless of birds or fish. Animals like a walrus, a coati, more monkeys, etc. There's no denying that, at least for a pack or two, there are still a few animals left that the semi-general audience knows of that could spark their interest.

  • As mentioned in the financial documents, both Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution seem to be financially good for Frontier. Whilst making new DLCs comes with more risks than stopping altogether, if the next packs sell well that's not something that Frontier would mind. Again, they could still go for the slightly less risky approach and go for a console version though.

  • Like some have mentioned, previous games have ended with a slightly bigger DLC at the end and Frontier has done half year DLCs too; so it's not out of the question that we get one or two more DLCs next year.
Now what I'm not trying to say with this is that the end of support at the end of the year is guaranteed. That's never been my goal. What I'm trying to say that there are several factors that will influence the end, and we've reached a point where these factors will come more and more into play. Much more than for instance two years ago, it is sensible to start preparing for the end of support and to stop taking things for granted. As @zoomaster1994 has said, all things eventually come to an end, and so will Planet Zoo.

Nobody here knows for sure. We're all making assumptions, and at this point there is no direct evidence to say that we'll get support for next year or won't get support at all. Everything is our own interpretation, and this is the first time that we're here because the past years always gave us direct confirmation. I think it's beneficial for us as a community if we can have a discussion about that, so that we aren't completely taken by surprise when the enivitable end comes.
 

KellyL

KellyL
Iben said:
I'm honestly a bit tired of the whole "there is no evidence that the game might end" claim, because it stops any form of healthy discussion. Because, of course there is never going to be direct evidence that the game is going to end, as it never was for the other games either. There are indications and there are reasonable arguments why the game might potentially end support which we could discuss in a reasonable manner with each other, but it always ends up in a "it's doomspeak" or "there is no evidence", which just instantly kills any conversation about the topic.

Instead, I think it's valuable to start thinking about what might influence the end of the game and prepare ourselves for it. If not, we're going to end up with a whole "omg Frontier stopped the game they're stupid" scenario which honestly is not beneficial for any of the parties involved. It does not have to be doom and gloom, especially given how well the game has done so far. I completely agree with @biggest_dreamer here, people who are adement about the fact that more support is almost guaranteed are going to be far more disappointed than those who are cautious about it.

Now, let's put both sides in perspective.

The game could be ending support this year because a combination of a few of these reasons:
  • The codebase at this point is conservatively speaking 7 years old. That's a lot of legacy code, that's a lot of decisions that were made a long time ago that dictate what can or cannot be done with the game. Codebases can be refactored, but that requires a lot of time, budget and dev profiles that might just not be financially viable. The age of the codebase at this point is an indicator of how long the game can and will be supported, and we are at the point where the majority of the games out there have already stopped or tend to stop.

  • We are a late stage zoo game, and as much as there's a near infinite amount of animals that can be added to the game; there is very much a limit to the amount of animal choices people are going to want to keep paying for. With every new pack, more and more of the audience of the game complains that the packs don't add anything exciting and that animals are just clones. And this is inevitable for any zoo game, but obviously is going to start/is already affecting the sales.

  • The costs of making new DLCs raise over time. Your devs become more experienced which results in higher pays, inflation impacts costs when it comes to resources (software licenses, building costs, etc. etc.). People also tend to vastly underestimate the costs that come with making these packs. Mostly because people only tend to look at the coding and the modeling/texturing, but often have no idea of all the other stuff that comes with the development cycle like project managers, product owners, researchers, Q&A testing, etc. etc. There's a lot more overhead than people think, and that also comes with a price.

    Unless Frontier decides to raise their prices for the DLC (which honestly surprisingly, they haven't done even after so many years), there is going to be a point where a DLC is going to end up just being breakeven. As @Pentoleaf said, we don't even know how close we are to that. Frontier, like any business, is going to try to avoid the point of breakeven instead of putting out packs that are breakeven. So, there are going to be business analysis that will be made to avoid reaching that point. Especially with the situation Frontier is in.

  • That brings us to Frontier's current financial state. I know a lot of people seem to expect that this means that Frontier will for sure continue Planet Zoo because it has been doing well; but reality is of course once again much more complicated. With 3 CMS games planned to be released over the next 3 years, several resources have been pumped into those. Shifting those to Planet Zoo isn't something that you can do right away. To give a very specific example, you cannot expect to move a dev from another project to Planet Zoo and expect them to be productive enough to do anything major in less than a month time (and that's honestly being optimistic, there are many projects that require much longer). Shifting resources is not as easy as it sounds.

    On top of that, every new DLC is a new risk. There's no way of knowing for sure that it will sell well, and given the current state of Frontier they might not want to take any risks at all. That could mean that they could go for a safer route, something they've done in the past already and of which they know that there's at least an audience; which is a console port. You'd need significantly less people to do the port, you already have the experience in house to do so, and that way you can still make money on Planet Zoo without major investments.

  • There could be any number of commitments that Frontier has right now that mean that they need everyone who's available, so that could very much be something that influences the game's course without us ever knowing it.

  • There is, at this point, no direct confirmation for further support for FY25. This is new, because over the course of the last years we always had somewhat of a direct confirmation for more DLCs. Whether it be a full on confirmation in financial documents, or the games code containing references or folders being left behind. Currently, we have no such direct confirmation at all.
There are obviously more reasons that will impact the final decision; but people really need to understand that further support is influenced by a hell of a lot more than "As long as people keep buying the DLCs Frontier will keep making them", because reality is unfortuneatly never that simple.

That being said, there are also reasons why the game could keep seeing support:
  • There are still a few more somewhat popular animals that could be added to the game, regardless of birds or fish. Animals like a walrus, a coati, more monkeys, etc. There's no denying that, at least for a pack or two, there are still a few animals left that the semi-general audience knows of that could spark their interest.

  • As mentioned in the financial documents, both Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution seem to be financially good for Frontier. Whilst making new DLCs comes with more risks than stopping altogether, if the next packs sell well that's not something that Frontier would mind. Again, they could still go for the slightly less risky approach and go for a console version though.

  • Like some have mentioned, previous games have ended with a slightly bigger DLC at the end and Frontier has done half year DLCs too; so it's not out of the question that we get one or two more DLCs next year.
Now what I'm not trying to say with this is that the end of support at the end of the year is guaranteed. That's never been my goal. What I'm trying to say that there are several factors that will influence the end, and we've reached a point where these factors will come more and more into play. Much more than for instance two years ago, it is sensible to start preparing for the end of support and to stop taking things for granted. As @zoomaster1994 has said, all things eventually come to an end, and so will Planet Zoo.

Nobody here knows for sure. We're all making assumptions, and at this point there is no direct evidence to say that we'll get support for next year or won't get support at all. Everything is our own interpretation, and this is the first time that we're here because the past years always gave us direct confirmation. I think it's beneficial for us as a community if we can have a discussion about that, so that we aren't completely taken by surprise when the enivitable end comes.
Click to expand...
Great analysis, I didn't realize so many factors could influence their decision to continue or not. Thanks for laying this out so clearly and coherently.
 

GhostBear

G
I think Rudi is right in a lot of respects and here's why:

First, we need to talk about the quote in the latest DLC description. It reads, "Well, the one and only Nancy Jones is retiring, and Bernie wants to celebrate all her hard work over the years." I have a background as a copywriter where we come up with lots of hidden teasers like this, and this is 100% Frontier signaling the end of support for PZ this year. The only question is when.

Well, Fiscal Year 2024 began on October 1st 2023 and will end on Sept 30th 2024. There is a popular post on the forums talking about future plans from Frontier which says, "In FY24 new PDLC packs and free content for both JWE2 and PZ have already been released, with more planned during this financial year." Note that this says "more" as in plural. If we take this literally, then the Eurasia Animal Pack is the first and only DLC released so far for FY24 which means there should at least be one more. However, it's important to note that "more" could be referring to both PZ and JWE2 cumulatively, in which case this may well have been the last DLC for PZ.

My personal opinion is that there will be three more "low effort" packs that don't add anything crazy to the game. This lines up perfectly for the final DLC of Planet Zoo to be the Fall DLC in September and close the door on FY24, with a major new Planet game launch in November/December to replace PZ as their flagship game just in time for the holidays.

Why do I think this?

It's true PZ is one of their best selling games, and with three new games in development plus company layoffs in a bid to focus exclusively on the simulation genre, it's important to have a steady source of income to "keep the lights on" until their next big product is ready to sell. They have a dedicated audience and have done an excellent job establishing goodwill with their community. This means that they don't need to attract new players right now, they can just ride off into the sunset and print some money with "low effort" packs (by this I mean high quality models, but reusing rigs and recycling other things to save time which equals saving money which equals more profit). It is the smart thing for them to do and exactly what a company should do to make money.

But wait, they never added aviary birds and full aquatic animals?! We know they can do this because of JWE2!

Correct, but these are major, game-changing additions Frontier wants to get right, and the end of a game's life cycle is not the time to do it, especially when tons of bug fixing will be needed. Look at it this way, they have the license for JWE, but it's not their own IP. It's a perfect testing ground for things they want to innovate on and be the best at in their own IP flagship games. Also, Prehistoric Kingdom, one of Frontier's main competitors, is due to launch next year. Why would they not want to wait and see what Blue Meridian does so they can take what works and do it better? Finally, with Planet Zoo 2 in the future, they need a big new selling point. Frontier knows they probably can't put all the animals in from every DLC in the base game release for PZ2, so they better have something even cooler to make sure the player base comes over to PZ2 and gets hyped for i

In short, birds and aquariums are 100% coming, but they will be in Planet Zoo 2.

Why are they bothering to release a Planet Zoo 2 when Planet Zoo is just fine?

Well, because money. Also, the Planet Zoo engine has some serious limitations like bad pathing, struggling with total piece count, and limiting the number of terrain tiles you can have per map. A new game in a series does not always have to mean next generation graphics, though I'm sure many of those will improve as well.

But I don't want to have to wait for all the animals they have spent years building to transfer over to the next game!

Hey look, birds and fish!

So what will be in the next 3 DLCS for PZ?

I personally think they will be these three and in this order:

Spring: Either a Highlands/Mountains Scenery Pack or a Tundra/Taiga Scenery Pack.

Summer: Amazon Rainforest Animal Pack.

Fall: Planet Zoo Farewell Pack.

Why these? Frontier has organized their DLCs into three categories: Regional, Biome, and what I'm calling Theme.

For regional we have covered: Eurasia, Oceania, Europe, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, South America, Arctic.
For biomes we have covered: Arid, Tropical, Grasslands, Wetlands, Aquatic.
For themes we have covered: Crepuscular (Twilight), and Conservation.

They more or less have done all the regions (save for one glaring omission below), but look at what's missing from the biomes. In game, they classify their 7 biomes as Grasslands, Tundra, Temperate, Taiga, Desert, Aquatic, Tropical. Grasslands probably counts as temperate, so that would leave Tundra and Taiga (which need more representation). The second route I think they could go is a Highlands/Mountains Pack.

There is also a giant gaping hole in the South America roster where people have been asking for more animals (and monkeys) forever, and summer is a great time to release that kind of crowd pleaser.

Lastly, it of course will be a theme pack, and the theme is their love to the community that tries to include the most wanted snubbed animals from every region.

If you want my in depth predictions, here they are (I have no idea what the exhibit animals will be):

If it's a Highlands/Mountains Pack:
Spectacled Bear
Markhor
Gelada
Hamadryas Baboon

If it's a Tundra/Taiga Pack:
Musk Ox
Walrus
Sea Otter
Black Bear

Amazon Rainforest Animal Pack
Black Howler Monkey
Spider Monkey
South American Coati
Pygmy marmoset
Golden Lion Tamarin/Emperor tamarin
Ocelot
Giant Armadillo

Planet Zoo Farewell Animal Pack
Musk Ox/Walrus/Sea Otter/Black Bear (if Spring DLC was Highland/Mountain)
Spectacled Bear/Markhor/Gelada/Hamadryas Baboon (if Spring DLC was Tundra/Taiga).
Secretary Bird
Honey badger
Tree Kangaroo

As far as adding additions to the game, my bet would be some of these:
  • More faux rock/tree variants
  • New barrier type
  • City map skirt
  • Expand animal enrichment/unique behaviors to include more species
  • New color morphs
  • Modular exhibits (like with the new gift shop)?
I can definitely see them "fixing" the Malayan Tapir as a farewell gift hidden in the final patch notes for community goodwill and a laugh. I doubt we will get a console release unless they have been lying to us and secretly been developing it all this time.

Anyways, that's my spiel. Planet Zoo has had a great, long run. In the spirit of the holidays, did we get everything we wanted? No, but that's life, and there's always next year. Thanks for reading if you got this far, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
 

becks474

B
Losing My Lunch said:
Personally, I think the end game will surpass the 200 animal mark. One more year of support will get us past 200. It might or might not be an even number, but its possible the devs have had “200 animals” as a stretch goal when the game first came out.
Click to expand...
I have Heard a Long ago about some Plans for 200+ animals for the Game. But I am Not Sure where and when. Taken together with the possibility to reach the 5 years Mark and the need of fresh money for Frontier next Winter is a realtic Thing. And this DLC has nothing from a goodbye DLC.
One Thing for US all to enjoy possible further Support. Take the actual rooster as Basic for expectations. I do not think there will be a huge Revolution regarding new mechanics. Hope for it perhaps, but do Not expect it. Then we can all enjoy the final Packs (how Long they will go at the end time will show). Getting a broader rooster with a few new rigs (Like the Swan this time) is not a bad thing. And Frontier needs Something (perhaps Flying birds) to sell a possible sequel. So I hope a Lot of people enjoy the new Pack. It was really a Pack which is close to completely fullfil the European rooster 🙂.
 

becks474

B
GhostBear said:
I think Rudi is right in a lot of respects and here's why:

First, we need to talk about the quote in the latest DLC description. It reads, "Well, the one and only Nancy Jones is retiring, and Bernie wants to celebrate all her hard work over the years." I have a background as a copywriter where we come up with lots of hidden teasers like this, and this is 100% Frontier signaling the end of support for PZ this year. The only question is when.

Well, Fiscal Year 2024 began on October 1st 2023 and will end on Sept 30th 2024. There is a popular post on the forums talking about future plans from Frontier which says, "In FY24 new PDLC packs and free content for both JWE2 and PZ have already been released, with more planned during this financial year." Note that this says "more" as in plural. If we take this literally, then the Eurasia Animal Pack is the first and only DLC released so far for FY24 which means there should at least be one more. However, it's important to note that "more" could be referring to both PZ and JWE2 cumulatively, in which case this may well have been the last DLC for PZ.

My personal opinion is that there will be three more "low effort" packs that don't add anything crazy to the game. This lines up perfectly for the final DLC of Planet Zoo to be the Fall DLC in September and close the door on FY24, with a major new Planet game launch in November/December to replace PZ as their flagship game just in time for the holidays.

Why do I think this?

It's true PZ is one of their best selling games, and with three new games in development plus company layoffs in a bid to focus exclusively on the simulation genre, it's important to have a steady source of income to "keep the lights on" until their next big product is ready to sell. They have a dedicated audience and have done an excellent job establishing goodwill with their community. This means that they don't need to attract new players right now, they can just ride off into the sunset and print some money with "low effort" packs (by this I mean high quality models, but reusing rigs and recycling other things to save time which equals saving money which equals more profit). It is the smart thing for them to do and exactly what a company should do to make money.

But wait, they never added aviary birds and full aquatic animals?! We know they can do this because of JWE2!

Correct, but these are major, game-changing additions Frontier wants to get right, and the end of a game's life cycle is not the time to do it, especially when tons of bug fixing will be needed. Look at it this way, they have the license for JWE, but it's not their own IP. It's a perfect testing ground for things they want to innovate on and be the best at in their own IP flagship games. Also, Prehistoric Kingdom, one of Frontier's main competitors, is due to launch next year. Why would they not want to wait and see what Blue Meridian does so they can take what works and do it better? Finally, with Planet Zoo 2 in the future, they need a big new selling point. Frontier knows they probably can't put all the animals in from every DLC in the base game release for PZ2, so they better have something even cooler to make sure the player base comes over to PZ2 and gets hyped for i

In short, birds and aquariums are 100% coming, but they will be in Planet Zoo 2.

Why are they bothering to release a Planet Zoo 2 when Planet Zoo is just fine?

Well, because money. Also, the Planet Zoo engine has some serious limitations like bad pathing, struggling with total piece count, and limiting the number of terrain tiles you can have per map. A new game in a series does not always have to mean next generation graphics, though I'm sure many of those will improve as well.

But I don't want to have to wait for all the animals they have spent years building to transfer over to the next game!

Hey look, birds and fish!

So what will be in the next 3 DLCS for PZ?

I personally think they will be these three and in this order:

Spring: Either a Highlands/Mountains Scenery Pack or a Tundra/Taiga Scenery Pack.

Summer: Amazon Rainforest Animal Pack.

Fall: Planet Zoo Farewell Pack.

Why these? Frontier has organized their DLCs into three categories: Regional, Biome, and what I'm calling Theme.

For regional we have covered: Eurasia, Oceania, Europe, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, South America, Arctic.
For biomes we have covered: Arid, Tropical, Grasslands, Wetlands, Aquatic.
For themes we have covered: Crepuscular (Twilight), and Conservation.

They more or less have done all the regions (save for one glaring omission below), but look at what's missing from the biomes. In game, they classify their 7 biomes as Grasslands, Tundra, Temperate, Taiga, Desert, Aquatic, Tropical. Grasslands probably counts as temperate, so that would leave Tundra and Taiga (which need more representation). The second route I think they could go is a Highlands/Mountains Pack.

There is also a giant gaping hole in the South America roster where people have been asking for more animals (and monkeys) forever, and summer is a great time to release that kind of crowd pleaser.

Lastly, it of course will be a theme pack, and the theme is their love to the community that tries to include the most wanted snubbed animals from every region.

If you want my in depth predictions, here they are (I have no idea what the exhibit animals will be):

If it's a Highlands/Mountains Pack:
Spectacled Bear
Markhor
Gelada
Hamadryas Baboon

If it's a Tundra/Taiga Pack:
Musk Ox
Walrus
Sea Otter
Black Bear

Amazon Rainforest Animal Pack
Black Howler Monkey
Spider Monkey
South American Coati
Pygmy marmoset
Golden Lion Tamarin/Emperor tamarin
Ocelot
Giant Armadillo

Planet Zoo Farewell Animal Pack
Musk Ox/Walrus/Sea Otter/Black Bear (if Spring DLC was Highland/Mountain)
Spectacled Bear/Markhor/Gelada/Hamadryas Baboon (if Spring DLC was Tundra/Taiga).
Secretary Bird
Honey badger
Tree Kangaroo

As far as adding additions to the game, my bet would be some of these:
  • More faux rock/tree variants
  • New barrier type
  • City map skirt
  • Expand animal enrichment/unique behaviors to include more species
  • New color morphs
  • Modular exhibits (like with the new gift shop)?
I can definitely see them "fixing" the Malayan Tapir as a farewell gift hidden in the final patch notes for community goodwill and a laugh. I doubt we will get a console release unless they have been lying to us and secretly been developing it all this time.

Anyways, that's my spiel. Planet Zoo has had a great, long run. In the spirit of the holidays, did we get everything we wanted? No, but that's life, and there's always next year. Thanks for reading if you got this far, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
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Sorry for Double Posting. I agree with a Lot of stuff you have written. But I think If they go to Fall they will also Go to Winter for the 5th anniversary. 3 Classic Packs will Bring them Money until the new Game will come. And a bigger Farewell pack at the end of the year likely will be a high seller to Bring more Money. This is my prediction with no Proof of being right.

Edit: 5 years and 200+ species could be a great Goal to achieve
 

Xificayd

Xificayd
JW97 said:
Rudi is always very pessismistic. His videos lately are of very poor quality and thats why his views just dropped massively. I believe its much more a personal wish from him to just move on and hop on a new hype train for the sake of views.
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I have been having the same thoughts, seeing that he is shifting his video production on other games, maybe he personally wants to move on because he thinks other games could gain him more subscribers. But those videos of other games aren't even getting him half as many views as his PZ videos do, even when he jumped on the hype train for GTA VI. Very strange of him to develop resentment(?) towards this game and community, that he would wish for it to end as soon as possible. Sad, but he is free to do what he wants to, as long as he lets the rest of us enjoy this game to the fullest.
 
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