Remember, we do not pre-order videogames

[FuzzySpider]

Can someone please tell me how, in a game that offers a solo mode where the person is not even online to begin with or with a galaxy so big where even if you are online you may not see anyone anyway, they are able to say ED is losing players? Where are you getting this information from?

From here.

That's what I gather. The reason for the huge bump in July was because there was a steam sale wasn't there? Since the sale, the peak numbers have dropped by nearly 6000. For a game that is supposedly gaining in popularity, that's a pretty big drop in numbers. Even if we consider that people get bored and eventually stop playing the game, that sudden burst of players, then sudden drop suggests that it clearly didn't appeal to some. The game seems to have stabilized around 5000 peak players per day or so, but also still seems to be steadily declining in peak numbers.

There is an undoubted steady decline, but I am not sure it will be will this steep for too long though. Games naturally will decline a bit in numbers about now as the summer holidays kick in and those with kids and young families (many of the Elite generation will have school aged children now) find their gaming time eaten into by the pesky spouses and spawn they have.

You also have to consider general over-playing burnout. No game can be played too much by anyone, or they'll end up making themselves temporarily sick of it (poker is a rare exception to this). You'll get a few players going temporarily and then returning. One thing this past week has demonstrated is that there are a handful of people so devoted to this game they are willing to throw money at it without even being told what it is they're throwing their money at! Faith is at play, not reason.

Frontier will have a hardcore fan following for a while it seems. The overall problem with their marketing strategy here is that they're being a bit insulting to those who rely on reason rather than faith by timing the discount (I've explained why here), and the fact that they're going to fragment their playerbase quite badly.

If things stay as they are now I am not going to buy this expansion until it drops in price. There are others I play with who are going to get it by virtue of being kickstarter backers. I'm going to miss out on content, definitely play less, and lose some of what I am enjoying in the game. This won't happen to me alone. Development on the core of Elite is inevitably going to slow now, as glacial as it was already.

The next lot of expansion material is going to arrive next year, and this story will play out again, with each successive year losing more and more players, not gaining more as they probably hope.

To forestall any white knights - I do not think they should be giving these expansions away. I think they should be figuring out a better way to sell them, telling us more about them in an open and honest way, and treating the customer with a little more respect.

 

[timbow]

Well, this does it for me.
Landing on planets was supposed to be a free upgrade. The original kickstarter claimed offline play.

Youre a bunch of liars, devs.

Bye for good.
Oh and Elite was the last game i needed Windows for too

No, it wasn't, it was always slated as a paid expansion. If you've got quotable evidence to the contrary post it up, otherwise it's just your day so. As I've been playing since PB and following all the way through I'm fairly confident I'm correct!

 

[h347h]

I always assumed that I would buy the ED expansions as soon as they were announced. However, now that it appears that the future of those expansions on the Mac platform is that at best they will be delayed and at worst they may not be coming at all, the latter based on a tech support statement quoted in the Mac forum as saying "Horizons' availability for the Mac has not yet been determined" (paraphrased), it seems apparent to me that it would be foolish for anyone who depends upon having a Mac version to order Horizons right now.

I also find it interesting and depressing that no Frontier personnel have seen fit to respond to the concerns being expressed over in the Mac forum. This tells me that there is a real possibility that future Mac development for Elite: Dangerous may be restricted to whatever features go into the core game, and that Mac users may not be getting the "seasons" at all, since the stretch goal that brought the core game to the Mac may not necessarily guarantee that all expansions will similarly be brought to the Mac.

Gaming on a Mac you should be painfully aware of things like this now. Mac popularity is even shrinking percentage wise. It will only get worse as time goes on as well due to the rise of mobile gaming.

 

[Mr_Blastman]

Especially paid updates, this game is losing players, the game will have 75% discount on Steam with the Horizon pretty soon anyway. Just wait a while for it

Wrong.

http://steamspy.com/app/359320

 

[Shadowcommander]

It is pointless quoting steam figures as according to them I haven't played since Sunday, I'm pretty sure I was playing this morning. Also I have pre-ordered Horizons like I have pre-ordered many games.

 

[WlLL0W]

Let me make this perfectly clear: This game does NOT have a subscription cost. Thus, expansions and things like ship paint jobs replace the lost revenue that would normally come from a subscription fee. I simply do not understand how some of you folks cannot grasp that concept. I mean , I'm Karl Marx and I know how this works!

besides which, that lifetime pass works out at 14.44 quid a year.

thats a bargain

 

[jabberwalkie]

There is an undoubted steady decline, but I am not sure it will be will this steep for too long though. Games naturally will decline a bit in numbers about now as the summer holidays kick in and those with kids and young families (many of the Elite generation will have school aged children now) find their gaming time eaten into by the pesky spouses and spawn they have.

You also have to consider general over-playing burnout. No game can be played too much by anyone, or they'll end up making themselves temporarily sick of it (poker is a rare exception to this). You'll get a few players going temporarily and then returning. One thing this past week has demonstrated is that there are a handful of people so devoted to this game they are willing to throw money at it without even being told what it is they're throwing their money at! Faith is at play, not reason.

I think numbers have relatively stabilized for the most part. I'm sure that there will be ebb and flow with the expansion, but the number of people returning to purchase the expansion after the original sale will likely be smaller as well. I think that a large amount of Steam users will wait until another sale comes along to purchase Horizons.

Frontier will have a hardcore fan following for a while it seems. The overall problem with their marketing strategy here is that they're being a bit insulting to those who rely on reason rather than faith by timing the discount (I've explained why here), and the fact that they're going to fragment their playerbase quite badly.

If things stay as they are now I am not going to buy this expansion until it drops in price. There are others I play with who are going to get it by virtue of being kickstarter backers. I'm going to miss out on content, definitely play less, and lose some of what I am enjoying in the game. This won't happen to me alone. Development on the core of Elite is inevitably going to slow now, as glacial as it was already.

The next lot of expansion material is going to arrive next year, and this story will play out again, with each successive year losing more and more players, not gaining more as they probably hope.

To forestall any white knights - I do not think they should be giving these expansions away. I think they should be figuring out a better way to sell them, telling us more about them in an open and honest way, and treating the customer with a little more respect.

Agree with all of this.

Wrong.

http://steamspy.com/app/359320

Number of owners =/= current number of players playing the game. That's why what the peak numbers for Steam that has been linked in this thread are showing is important in what people are saying: a decline in players actually playing the game.

 

[RipvanHahl]

Do the majority of ED players even have their account linked to Steam?
I haven´t so I am an active Player who didn´t appear on the steamcharts.

 

[Bacalao]

[Insert any video game title here] has constantly had players making very dramatic ragequit posts on the forums, you mean.

It's nice to know that people, all across the world, playing all kinds of different things, with all kinds of different outlooks, share one thing in common. Some things never change.

 

[SentineI]

1st. Horizions is a Expansion not an update. FD has always said that the expansions would have a charge to them when they came out and there it is. This has been mentioned since kick starter.

I'm not disagreeing with your point, just being a pedant: Horizons is NOT an Expansion. It's a collection/season of Expansions, at least using the term as it was originally used in the Kickstarter.

However, FD seem to have changed/enlarged their plans this last year (due to ED sales successes). So rather than charging for the Planetary Landings expansion(s), Space Legs expansion(s), etc, they are now doing much more extensive sets of expansions. That means charging more for each collection of expansions (aka Season), and so is probably why the Lifetime Expansions Pass has nearly quadrupled in price.

 

[MarcusReed]

I preordered Horizons before the game was even released

- - - Updated - - -

I think you mean EVE.

He was right the first time.

 

[bigity]

Will Horizons be on Steam (as DLC?) when it comes out, or will I need to purchase through Frontier. And I'm confused on the pricing. It shows $60 USD, but then says something about a $15 discount for E owners.

 

[Poy]

Sorry, who's "we" ?

I don't remember having a say in this.

 

[MarcusReed]

No, it wasn't, it was always slated as a paid expansion. If you've got quotable evidence to the contrary post it up, otherwise it's just your day so. As I've been playing since PB and following all the way through I'm fairly confident I'm correct!

You are correct, being a premium beta player myself, FD has always said that PL will be a paid expansion.

 

[Privata]

Well, this does it for me.
Landing on planets was supposed to be a free upgrade. The original kickstarter claimed offline play.

Youre a bunch of liars, devs.

Bye for good.
Oh and Elite was the last game i needed Windows for too

You what? are you a troll?! they never said it would be free and in fact it should not.
this is better than a sub fee as with this system everyone can still play and if they like what they see they can buy.
plus I got hundreds of hundreds of hours out of elite. and sins they are going to keep making content and not just cheap stuff real big massive stuff I think they need money or else they cant do it

 

[MarcusReed]

Sorry, but Steam's metric is all we have from I can tell. Big and complex was one of ED's biggest selling points, yet the numbers for steam suggest decline in active players. So, do you have anything to suggest that the game is gaining in popularity? If you don't, continuing to say it doesn't make it any truer.

Over 650k copies of Elite sold since launch, at least 500k of that was before the Steam release. Personally taking steam numbers ONLY, is a bit short sighted.

http://elitenews24.com/news/frontier-reveal-elite-dangerous-sales/

Released on steam on 4/2/15

http://store.steampowered.com/app/359320/

 

[jabberwalkie]

Over 650k copies of Elite sold since launch, at least 500k of that was before the Steam release. Personally taking steam numbers ONLY, is a bit short sighted.

You don't say? Didn't I basically admit as much? But once again, the steam numbers is all we have to go on right now and like I stated earlier sales numbers or ownership numbers does not mean that is the people currently playing the game. I would expect there to be a similar decline from those that have purchased from FD's store, the degree to which is unknown since FD likely won't provide that kind of information.

 

[galenhammond]

The risk Frontier Dev may face is now people know their upgrade model. People can just not bother buying horizons and wait till the next season and get more planetary landings and walking outside the ship all for the price of the 3rd season package (which will be probably £40)

.
Just my $0.02 USD, but I don't see FDev offering ALL prior Seasons' contents with each new one introduced. I *could* see them doing with each new Season what they've done with Horizons.....offer the Season and Base Game for one price, so that people will at least have the Base Game (i.e. Season 1). Not that EA is the best role model, but that is how the Sims 2 and Sims 3 franchises worked.
.
Example: I could see a new player buying at Season 4, getting Season 4 plus Base Game. However, if that person wants Season 2 (Horizons) or Season 3 then they would have to pay for each one (hopefully at an appropriate "multi-purchase" discount).
.
That seems to me the most logical way to approach <edit>....that, or they will have to up the price on each new expansion to account for prior released features that are absolutely needed (i.e. planetary landings from Season 2 needed for landing on atmospheric worlds in a future season).

 

[ColonelJack]

Especially paid updates, this game is losing players, the game will have 75% discount on Steam with the Horizon pretty soon anyway. Just wait a while for it

The only other title anywhere near this scope is Star Citizen, and it is still money gouging with its abhorrent marketing and last time I looked was selling $10,000-$15,000 dollar packages, some people are into it for $40,000+ dollars. As I suspected last year, Elite: Dangerous would be the more honorable model, and it is. While I'm a bit bitter that I missed the first lifetime expansion sale back then by just a few days, This game seems well worth a single large purchase per year. Look at it this way, even if it were $60/year, that'd be like an MMO with a $5/mo subscription, only, you will have access to it the next year even if you don't want to buy the next expansion. I agree it's very expensive for an expansion, but then planetary landing is a very big deal.

 

[badtrip]

İntresting update..

you dont pre order video game!
Dude are you 15 yo?