General / Off-Topic Where the money went. Equity missallocation. A heart felt plea.

CGI_Artist

C
I can make this post more interesting by posting financial stats and screenshots, from Frontier Foundry. But I'm not going to bother. The essence of my point is simply this. Frontier became a multi-million pound company because of the equity of Elite fans. When we paid into the kickstarter, when we bought the game, bought the Horizons expansion, bought the Odyssey expansion, we had this faith, that all of the resources we were pouring into Frontier we're going help make Elite better. The truth is no matter how you want to dice it, the game is really suffering from a lot of technical problems. A high percentage of those issues the players just learn to work around and deal with. When I really started looking at, and thinking about all these other games that are suddenly coming out of Frontier Foundry. I realized and I'm sad to admit that I feel we've all been betrayed. What we're playing now is too haphazardly put together to be called a quality product. Yet so much of the resources we paid in faith towards Elite dangerous, ended up in fact, elsewhere.

Reasonable arguments might be on the lines of the age of the game... Frontiers need to turn on the next money pump. I don't think any of those orher titles are going to earn them what Elite dangerous did.

On a personal note I know that this isn't really the fault of any one Frontier individual, by circumstances and events I can't completely understand. But as you collect your paychecks, just think, most of that money came from people who had their hearts broken.
 

Jukelo

Jukelo
The money Frontier uses to develop its games, comes from its bank account, not yours. And when you buy one of their games, you are not investing in the game you are buying, not investing or financing another game Frontier is developping or publishing, nor are you investing in Frontier itself: you are buying a game.
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
VR Jay Le Chardon said:
I'd like to see those screenshots please.
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Red Anders said:
Me too, I fancy a laugh before the football.
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[PS4] Filthymick420 said:
Pics or it didn't happen
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You can see for yourself:

www.frontier.co.uk

Frontier Foundry

Frontier Foundry, our games label for third-party-publishing Our third-party games label, Frontier Foundry, has connected us with studios around the world and brought fun, engaging games into our portfolio. Frontier has always been driven by a singular passion to make memorable games that create...
www.frontier.co.uk www.frontier.co.uk
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
I've already see
VR StarLightPL said:
You can see for yourself:

www.frontier.co.uk

Frontier Foundry

Frontier Foundry, our games label for third-party-publishing Our third-party games label, Frontier Foundry, has connected us with studios around the world and brought fun, engaging games into our portfolio. Frontier has always been driven by a singular passion to make memorable games that create...
www.frontier.co.uk www.frontier.co.uk
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Oh I've already seen FDev's published financials. I was more looking forward to OP's presumably insightful analysis revealing hitherto unspecified depths and what exactly he feels FDev's third party publishing arm has to do with it. It's OK though, it was only a passing fancy.
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Well, you can ridicule the OP all you want, but you won't change the fact that people poured a lot of money, time and heart into the game that seemed to have its development grinded to a halt since Horizons 2.1. Now while @Jukelo is right that buying a game doesn't grant you a seat on the Board, the OP is right that we kinda have the right to feel... betrayed because of the marketing lies some of us bought into. I won't say I didn't have my fun with the game, but it's a let-down to say the least to see all this potential never going to be realised. Cue @Ian Skippy with the "unreasonable expectations". But remember, who was spinning those unreasonable expectations not long ago, in 2017 Lave Radio interview still, far past Kickstarter phase. None of this materialised and the "head honcho" went radio silent. Too bad he didn't pull a Sean Murray with Odyssey, like NMS did with NEXT.
[PS4] Filthymick420 said:
"Best places to work 2018" since then it's been a toxic mess lmao hateful customers and inept staff. 💀
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I guess their hr marketing is done by the same soulless person as game marketing - this is all technically true. It was "best places to work 2018" ;-) As Odyssey was "in engine footage". On some very controlled build which breaks pretty much everywhere else, probably ;-)
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Red Anders said:
I've already see

Oh I've already seen FDev's published financials. I was more looking forward to OP's presumably insightful analysis revealing hitherto unspecified depths and what exactly he feels FDev's third party publishing arm has to do with it. It's OK though, it was only a passing fancy.
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I think OP was more annoyed that went publisher route, and the game which fueled the studio's success received the short end of the stick. As in "they have the money to do this, yet they do a lazy FY end cash-grab with Odyshiy" kind-of way.
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
VR StarLightPL said:
I think OP was more annoyed that went publisher route, and the game which fueled the studio's success received the short end of the stick. As in "they have the money to do this, yet they do a lazy FY end cash-grab with Odyshiy" kind-of way.
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Elite surely gave them a decent base, I can't argue with that. If you're right about OP's concerns though, I'd be fascinated to hear OP's views on what role the vast amounts earned from JWE, Coaster and Planet Zoo played in the company's ongoing success. Not to mention whether he thinks JWE2 and the upcoming WH40K game might just sell a unit or two.

OP seems to be one of those odd sorts who imagines companies with a stable of multiple games should put all the money from one title into a little box and only use it for that title. That's not how the world works, as I'm sure you know.
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
[PS4] Filthymick420 said:
I get that's not how it works, but it reeks of robbing Peter to pay for Paul. There's a reason that euphemism is used to denote a bad idea
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It's a poor illustration though because other than in OP's mind, the money was never Peter's to begin with. It was David's. David then decides to spend some of it on Peter, some of it on Paul and some of it on others.

OP seems to have viewed what he may have spent on the game as an investment in its future - that would be a valid way of looking at the kickstarter funding for sure but that's all. From that point onwards OP was buying a product and that's all, which is what he seems to have failed to grasp. It's not an 'investment' it's 'buying a game', in the same way as buying a tin of beans isn't an investment in Heinz.

I understand what he thinks, or at least I think I do - he's just wrong.
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Red Anders said:
OP seems to have viewed what he may have spent on the game as an investment in its future
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We're talking about an emotional investment rather, and perceived fairness in cutting the cake, I suppose. I personally would like the cake to be divided differently and would be happy to pay 60€ for substantial updates every year or two. I'm not Braben, so I don't get to decide it, though. That simply didn't happen and I think all participants understand why it didn't happen, and that FDev is successful financially now because of their diversification. Good for them. So when we can expect the love to finally return to Elite? No plans for X, no plans for Y, no plans for Z doesn't exactly inspire confidence that it will ever happen, especially after the Odyshiy flop.
 
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Red Anders

Red Anders
Well I don't see Elite ever gaining a pre-eminent position in FDev's portfolio, have to be honest about that. They have other titles with a far more general player base and from a balance sheet perspective, that's where it would be sensible to send the money. The best Elite can hope for IMO (and this was true way before the Odyssey launch) is maybe fleshing out some of the game over maybe 1-2 years after the console launch of Odyssey. I'd be amazed if it sees another full-sized update and again, I thought that way before the Odyssey launch.

I guess it ultimately depends on the degree to which there's some institutional warmth towards the game because that's the only place that any serious incentive to push forward with it is going to come from. I don't mean they're going to turn the servers off or anything, I'm sure the game will be around and available to play for a good while yet but like I say, I'd be amazed if it sees another £30 expansion.

Looking at their other games, I bet they wish Elite lent itself to the same model - 3 or 4 updates a year at £7.99 each. Trouble is, it doesn't and nor do players expectations. Just a quick glance at the forum reveals people wanting a suite of updates that would rival the most demented promises that Roberts has promised for Star Citizen, plus they want them delivered last week and want to pay minimal amounts for them (or of course nothing at all because they have an LEP).

That's the main reason I can't get worked up about it, fact is the game is an anachronism these days within the context of the kind of games (and the kind of sales model) that FDev are making.
 
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