4. Subscription based game would be really difficult to recover from disasters like Odyssey launch. Players had already payed for the Odessey DLC so to revisit the game every couple months wasn't a big deal. But players aren't going to pay a monthly fee just to see if the game is fixed. Easy to say "don't launch a game breaking DLC"... but it happened. And if it happens again (which it might... because the last one was "unexpected")... it would be game over.
Time for Subscription Service?
- Thread starter FatzDomingo
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4. Subscription based game would be really difficult to recover from disasters like Odyssey launch. Players had already payed for the Odessey DLC so to revisit the game every couple months wasn't a big deal. But players aren't going to pay a monthly fee just to see if the game is fixed. Easy to say "don't launch a game breaking DLC"... but it happened. And if it happens again (which it might... because the last one was "unexpected")... it would be game over.
You all seem to think that the trade-off here is free (one-time purchase) vs subscription. Servers and development cost money. If the next version of ED does not sell well enough, there is nothing stopping Frontier from just pulling the plug and focusing on other games. There goes years of exploration, combat rank, trading, etc. poof
Let's hope it never comes to that, but if history is a guide it will.
The trade-off someday may be subscription vs. no Elite at all.
I think there could be a compromise. Everyone has some ideas. Here's another. Keep free-to-play as it is. Offer a subscription to have multiple characters on the same account that you can directly trade amongst, and engineer each other's gear/ trade materials, etc. Take a bit of the grind out of the game, but not impact gameplay.
There could be other benefits like ARX also. Stuff that doesn't directly impact gameplay or make a commander OP, but gives some nice.
I agree that things that change gameplay would be bad. So extra slots or automatic docking, or priority access to ships would be terrible.
You could tier the subscriptions so that you can play for $1.99 per month, $5 and you get a little ARX every month.
I think there are enough signs that Frontier doesn't see ED as a priority sometimes. And that scares some of us.
Let's hope it never comes to that, but if history is a guide it will.
The trade-off someday may be subscription vs. no Elite at all.
I think there could be a compromise. Everyone has some ideas. Here's another. Keep free-to-play as it is. Offer a subscription to have multiple characters on the same account that you can directly trade amongst, and engineer each other's gear/ trade materials, etc. Take a bit of the grind out of the game, but not impact gameplay.
There could be other benefits like ARX also. Stuff that doesn't directly impact gameplay or make a commander OP, but gives some nice.
I agree that things that change gameplay would be bad. So extra slots or automatic docking, or priority access to ships would be terrible.
You could tier the subscriptions so that you can play for $1.99 per month, $5 and you get a little ARX every month.
I think there are enough signs that Frontier doesn't see ED as a priority sometimes. And that scares some of us.
Maybe, but WoW has crashed plenty of times, and they're still charging a huge sub fee.
Nothing like Odessey launch.... where players had to wait months for it to become functional. It was a saga of updates and still non functional game. It was over 6 months before I could successfully play it.
Also... part of my point was Frontier got the DLC money up-front. Pre-orders gave them cash even before release. If it had been monthly subs... they would have only got a fraction of the cash over that 6-month period of time where all their resources had to go into fixing the game instead of focusing on new stuff.
The fact that this happened is an indicator that Frontier is structured such that this can happen. And might happen again. I'm sure they made a bunch of internal changes...
... but I think their bean counters will still prefer to have customers pay in advance.
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I watch all this come up time and again and I am left wondering just how Hello Games manages to provide so many updates to No Man's Sky (over 30) and port it to so many platforms and all with no micro-transactions or cosmetics. Maybe Seam Murray could do some consulting work for ED? 
15 pence per hour.So how much should the fee for a hour of playtime be ? Tencent ?
I have no idea I just think that would be marginally more acceptable than a flat subscription where you pay to not play.
As I enjoy playing Elite I am glad it didn‘t, though I suppose if it had I might have been slightly fitter and have more money than I have now.
As far as subscription benefits go this one I can get with, almost. I think that a subscription giving the ability to have multiple saves on one account would be good. However, I believe that fleet carriers should be limited to one per account. The carrier would facilitate the trading you mention though.
Initial marketing by the publisher leading to massively higher sales than its initial quality deserved and therefore a very substantial cash cushion, without which they'd just have sunk without trace.
Since then actually pretty much the same as Frontier has done with Elite Dangerous most years: primarily funded by continuing purchases of the game by new players. (EDIT: in both cases successful ports of course give a big boost to sales and pay for themselves)
But they have rather more players (partly more marketing, partly seriously downplaying all the "space is big" / "flying a spaceship is complicated" elements that ED's fans like it for) and also a more expensive basic product (which is fair given the rest of their publishing model, I'm not saying it's *over*priced)
Also importantly, the NMS graphics style is a fair bit simpler than ED's, which leads to six ED players who aren't fans of 60's SF aesthetics refusing to play because it's "cartoony" and massive time and therefore cost savings on developing new art assets.
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I'm mindful of the longevity of ESO, is it two decades and counting now with a ludicrous amount of loot for the Publisher?
I'm a crusty auld sod I'm Scottish), one of my nephews is in his early 40s, he plays ED, and now his wee boy has been introduced on his XBox Series X.. the kid loves it, not just pewpew but other stuff to do that counts in his game. Clever Lad
3 Generations playing Frontiers Product...id love it to continue.
I'm a crusty auld sod I'm Scottish), one of my nephews is in his early 40s, he plays ED, and now his wee boy has been introduced on his XBox Series X.. the kid loves it, not just pewpew but other stuff to do that counts in his game. Clever Lad
3 Generations playing Frontiers Product...id love it to continue.
First worry about delivering a good product, there are excellent games without these economic problems, because they are quite aware of what their community likes.
I don't care about the subscription if it's optional, but if it's not, or if it's pay to win, it's a bummer.
We are in 2024, there is AI, big data, artist talent in industrial quantities, there are excellent companies, some very small, others larger, some games become extinct and others evolve.
First you have to ask yourself what we are doing wrong with what we already have, correct it and then move forward.
I'd prefer not to have subscription service, not because I cant afford it but because other people wont be able to afford it. I would rather they gave me more reasons to spend my money.
More incomes = better and constant content for the game, Dlc, features,etc.
Im not going to say that should be a subscritpion fee like World of warcraft to play, but maybe some kind of optional subscription like Elder Scrolls Online.
The Destiny model of adding paid dlcs every year is not good i think, but some paid DLC every 2-3 years could be nice.
Or expand the lore, make more manufactureres and start to sell ships, SC model.
Im not going to say that should be a subscritpion fee like World of warcraft to play, but maybe some kind of optional subscription like Elder Scrolls Online.
The Destiny model of adding paid dlcs every year is not good i think, but some paid DLC every 2-3 years could be nice.
Or expand the lore, make more manufactureres and start to sell ships, SC model.
Someone suggested a subscription for ARX but I'd rather just pay for what I need. I'd absolutely pay a subscription to have upkeep for my fleet carrier. Considering that I have multiple accounts each with their own fleet carriers it could potentially add up. If we ever got base building I would pay a subscription to keep my base maintained.
They could try an optional sub model. Sub grants you X number of Arx every month, perhaps some subscriber only cosmetics, reduced rebuy costs, or other things that don't really impact other non sub players that badly. I would pay a sub for ship interiors. I would have payed a sub for a PvE version of Open once upon a time.
Not now really, PvP is hardly even a concern at this point. Most of the attempts at PvP that get foisted on me are little more than annoyances. It's too easy to menu log, or just jump away for me. I would have to be caught completely unaware, by more than one PvPer with serious alpha damage builds to ever lose any of the ships I fly around in at this point. The encounter would be annoying at best, really annoying at worst. "Control B" lets me know if someone is in my instance, and I fly accordingly.
Not now really, PvP is hardly even a concern at this point. Most of the attempts at PvP that get foisted on me are little more than annoyances. It's too easy to menu log, or just jump away for me. I would have to be caught completely unaware, by more than one PvPer with serious alpha damage builds to ever lose any of the ships I fly around in at this point. The encounter would be annoying at best, really annoying at worst. "Control B" lets me know if someone is in my instance, and I fly accordingly.
I have a doubt that is going to be true. I just saw OA's video of the python mk 2 and it has a 5A FSD with SCO. I'm going to go ahead and call it now. The credits Python when you buy it will just get a normal 5E FSD.
So the SHIP will be for credits but the module won't be.
Hard no for a Subscription model to play the game. I would be fine with an optional Arx Pass or something that doubles or triples your Arx earning limit and gives you a couple of PJs and/or ship kits. But no to paying to play the game every month. That income strategy isn't viable these days but for a few exceptions, and I do not believe that Elite is one of them.
I would accept a sub like ESO have. You can play the game for free, but if you pay the sub you receive every month some premium currency and other perks. But they are not gamebraking perks, so you can totaly play for free.
Sooner or later a quasi subscription will come along on this new P2W road, anyway. Like with salami tactics, the grind will increase in small steps up to a level you can't cope with in normal game-play. In order to be able to play the content at all, you will have to shell out money for pay-to-skip all the time. At some point, Odyssey players might well remember the good old days of easy on-foot grinding.
Seeing how the monetization train is accelerating hard (EA, ship sale, ARX value nerf, now even unicorn modules like 5A SCO ), I guess players not willing to pay money are already at a dead end, anyway. A bit like console folks.
Seeing how the monetization train is accelerating hard (EA, ship sale, ARX value nerf, now even unicorn modules like 5A SCO ), I guess players not willing to pay money are already at a dead end, anyway. A bit like console folks.