"Capitalisation of development costs on game developments and game technology accounted for £15.8 million in the six months to 30 November 2021 (H1 FY21: £13.1 million). The percentage of gross research and development costs which were capitalised in the period was 71%, lower than the 83% recorded for H1 FY21 as more development staff were working on free updates (as opposed to chargeable content) during the recent period, notably the ongoing post-release support for Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. Frontier's normal expectations for capitalisation is 70-90% of gross development spending."
My take:
They can't afford to keep throwing money at the PC version of Odyssey, that they will never make back with new game sales on PC sales alone. This has to come to console so that they can capitalise on the development cost, but that is some way off and basically a write off until the next financial quarter. Their stock price took a hammering as a result of this news.
If they don't bring Odyssey to console, the future of the game is bleak unless they can massively improve PC sales, or release some chargeable content for the PC market. They also need to get new players in as the LEPers won't contribute anything to offset development costs over and above Arx spend.
** IMO every player should be concerned about the ongoing silence on plans for Odyssey on console, as it has implications for the future of the game. **
o7