From a business/economic perspective I think you could not be more incorrect. Have you looked at the FD financials? They are a surviving small business heavily reliant on cash-flow, but hardly rolling in cash. Last year they reduced their small cash reserves by 2 MGBP (-18%) to 8.6 MGBP. That is less than one-half of a year's operating costs for them and is not a staggering sum. Net result is no ongoing cash-flow = closed doors. ED is a niche title in the niche space-sim genre. It is not like they have sold 50 million copies of the game.
They have to invest in other games to avoid being a one game wonder and vanishing if/when interest in the niche complex space-sim genre game they developed drops. Thus Planet Coaster and the new game they are working on. In addition, their past success funded the development of ED, which cost far in excess of the Kickstarter funds raised.
Every time a new cosmetic item appears this same tired argument about 'cash grab' comes out. But IMO, selling only optional cosmetic items is the least objectionable way to have ongoing funding for ED.
At least a polite and constructive answer, thank you! Regarding their size, I wouldn't certainly call them small. Small to medium here is qualified to be 250 employees or less, they have ~300 if I'm not mistaken. Positive cash reserve means only that they are healthy - I have worked in companies who reported major losses (i.e. reliant on huge loans), and still managed to somehow come on top and even recruit more people. How? IDK, accountancy isn't my trade
. The 2M reduction you mention could be some investment for example. But that's beside the point. They are hardly failing, they are investing and they have now not one but two franchises with pc/console revenue streams. That investments will pay off soon, unless something bad happens. Also please note that I have nothing against them developing other games (even if E: D seems to have gotten the stick lately), I am merely pointing a fact that they aren't a starving indie dev studio because these other games cost money too.
Regarding a "niche game" - well, the outcry that happened when NMS flopped showed quite nicely how many people want that kind of "niche" game. Publishers have awoken, dollars / euros started flowing, I think we will be seeing that soonish (development does take time as we're painfully aware here). And that will be a wake-up call for Elite/SC, too. Which is good, because current space opera game monopoly is not healthy.
Why is a being one game wonder a bad thing? Look at Egosoft - they are the people behind the X-Series. Pretty much a "one game wonder" (not counting their earlier "promotional games" nobody except wikipedia has heard of). And despite the massive flop with X:Rebirth (7 years of development) which clearly started as a console game and was "rerouted" to pc later, they're still going strong. Released two paid expansions Developing vr for X:R, and having officially announced X4 in the works. Despite everyone predicting their demise. Being a "one game wonder" allows you to focus more while also risking more.
And regarding Kickstarter, I've heard its purpose was to prove to the investors that there is a demand - a move that is not so unheard of in the KS world. I don't think it was ever meant to "100% fund the development". Heard figures like 10-20%. It's not scam citizen after all
What should be funding the development however, would be fulfilling the grand vision and plan in paid, meaningful instalments. How it panned out - we can see now (see the writeup from my sig from CMDR Kaocraft, I share that opinion 100%).
Which brings me to the final point - the feature lock. I don't agree with ship name being inconsequential - _for me_ one of the "core" features is beautiful insta-wallpapers this game generates. I would gladly pay for e.g. Weyland Yutani style font nameplate just to make these even better. But I can't even get that basic without forking cash, which I don't agree with ethically, considering base + horizons price. I may frown at true cosmetics like palette swaps called skins (yet bought a pack in a moment of fancy), but ship name is where line should be drawn, as it is a grey area and could make a precedent. And again remember that we're not talking about F2P game.
Again thanks for constructive criticism. It was a nice change of pace here
