Your Opinion

[Demon]

This title has past its planned project date of 10 years via what Frontier had planned. As we've seen a decline in profit and player base, what do you feel is the future?
This is just a feedback post for players such as myself that have been playing from day one.

We do have positive feedback from Frontier that servers will not be shut down any time soon and minor bug will still be addressed but content will be minimal. Is this title worth the time to expect progression on a dedicated scale or just expected to remain as is with no new additions via ships or zoning changes?

Please be respectful with opinions as Open Play might be dead but Private and Solo Play are still a factor for serious feedback.

That being said feel free to comment concerning Elites future?

[1Nf@MOu$( Mr.Thorp )]

i feel posts like this trying to gauge or hype the doom and gloom are a waste. Ive been playing the game for just over 4 years now. Apparently its been dead the whole time, huh..

The game is worth it if you like it, period, if you dont, then dont play it. if someone can influence your choice this way, you musnt have a very strong mind.

[EJR]

Frontier released some new cosmetic sets for the suit roughly around Halloween (Not the Halloween skins), so the fact that they took the time to do so means they are still getting some profit for this game. How much? I don't know, but clearly enough to keep funneling resources to ED even if they are just cosmetics.

As for the playerbase, ED has always seemed like a niche game dedicated towards a niche demographic. The numbers will never be as high as popular/AAA games, but the small and dedicated community will never leave unless something in-game or by the devs screws us over majorly.

Personally I feel ED is in a good and healthy spot ATM. It is about to reach the final year of its decade-long life and I feel it will survive at least five more unless Frontier decides to do something else with its time and resources. And by then who knows what will become of ED when it comes to content, features, or its survivability in the gaming landscape? Only time, or Frontier itself, will tell.

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by Demon:

We do have positive feedback from Frontier that servers will not be shut down any time soon and minor bug will still be addressed but content will be minimal.

That's not what they said.

What they said is:

Originally posted by https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/frontier_developments_plc/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=1725&newsid=1735583:

The Company's four CMS games (Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, Jurassic World Evolution and Jurassic World Evolution 2) continue to perform well and have each achieved over $100 million of gross revenue with a combined total of over $500 million. All four games achieved profitability within one month of release and delivered over 100% return on investment within 12 months of release. The three games which have been in the market for four years or longer - Planet Coaster, Jurassic World Evolution and Planet Zoo - have all achieved a cumulative return on investment of over 250%.

Frontier is therefore pleased to confirm three future CMS games with one releasing in each of the next three financial years - FY25, FY26 and FY27. Alongside this we will continue to develop and support our portfolio of existing games, including Elite Dangerous, our F1® Manager franchise, and Realms of Ruin.

"...continue to develop and support..."

Sounds like much more than just "minor" bug fixes, as you're implying.

It also never had a "planned project date of 10 years". During an interview David Braben stated they had enough ideas to keep development going for 10 years... and that was before it was realised that a year in fdev time, is roughly 3 years in real time...

Originally posted by EJR:

As for the playerbase, ED has always seemed like a niche game dedicated towards a niche demographic. The numbers will never be as high as popular/AAA games, but the small and dedicated community will never leave unless something in-game or by the devs screws us over majorly.

We'll probably never know how many people are playing... Seeing over 6000 people in a single star system the other month, makes me think we don't need to worry too much about it. It has sold 10s of millions of copies... Ok, admittedly about 2% of them might be Si...

[Antearz]

Originally posted by Demon:

This title has past its planned project date of 10 years via what Frontier had planned. As we've seen a decline in profit and player base, what do you feel is the future?
This is just a feedback post for players such as myself that have been playing from day one.

We do have positive feedback from Frontier that servers will not be shut down any time soon and minor bug will still be addressed but content will be minimal. Is this title worth the time to expect progression on a dedicated scale or just expected to remain as is with no new additions via ships or zoning changes?

Please be respectful with opinions as Open Play might be dead but Private and Solo Play are still a factor for serious feedback.

That being said feel free to comment concerning Elites future?

Dissappointed Really.
They did a Good Job in the Beginning.
Beating Star Citizen Soundly by having an Actual Game even if it lacked Content.

But thats also the Downfall.
They got a Gigantic Galaxy with a decent Game System that mostly works.
But its Empty and Boring.
Too little Variety, too little to do.

And what little Content they got is often hidden behind ridiculous repetetive grind.



I wish I could take the Content and Creativity from Star Citizen and Put it into Elite Dangerous working Framework.
I always hoped that one Day ED would start dishing out Content to fill their Game with.
But it never happened.
Now its too late. The Game is Dying.
And likely not Profitable enough to create large Content Updates for.

[Yoghurt shot]

Depends on what you're after. To me it's not a bad Payday 2 alternative.

[Hootman]

I just saw a couple of articles the past few days that noted that ED had put out some sort of financial or mission statement, probably for their board or investors, that outlined that they are refining their focus AWAY from it's attempt to do "gamey games" and focus on the "management sims", and ED :)

"Frontier's move to diversify its game portfolio during the last five years, including through third-party publishing and new games in 'adjacent genres,' has not delivered the anticipated success," the company wrote.

"Frontier plans to continue developing and supporting Elite Dangerous, its F1 Manager franchise, and Realms of Ruin. The latter will receive new content, including paid DLC, and the company said it expects sales “to build over time”.

Website link [www.videogameschronicle.com]

Website link [www.gamesindustry.biz]

In other words, their attempt to branch out into third party devs and "gamey games" over th e last 5 years didn't turn out as expected, so they're going back to what works and is profitable.

ED is basically their roots, and it appears to me that the level of support for ED is not costing them so much they may even be using profits from the other sims to support ED. Considering ED doesn't bring in anywhere NEAR the amount of cash as the tycoon sims, I think that shows that they do consider ED an integral part of their portfolio.

While we would certainly like to see the level of effort put in that they put into the tycoon games, I personally feel good that they are considering ED a basic part of their company. I think this is good.

[enderbeta]

That is really encouraging. I hope we get ship salvaging, the ability to board ships and commandeer them and ship interiors for the engineering.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Demon:

This title has past its planned project date of 10 years via what Frontier had planned.

There is no planned 10 years of development. FDevs said that they hope and they will keep developing if there will be something to add after 10 years.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by Demon:

We do have positive feedback from Frontier that servers will not be shut down any time soon and minor bug will still be addressed but content will be minimal.

The highlighted part sounds like something a Doomtuber put in one of their weekly videos, and it's certainly not something official from Frontier.

Here's what Frontier actually said in an official statement to the share market:

"[...] we will continue to develop and support our portfolio of existing games, including Elite Dangerous, our F1® Manager franchise, and Realms of Ruin."

Source[otp.tools.investis.com]

'develop and support'

ED Doomtubers are well known for putting their own spin on things - maybe, or maybe not, leave a comment below with your thoughts.

[Bullpup]

There's little point asking the question among those on any elite specific forum, because that's usually frequented by those still playing (perhaps as their main game) and you can sort of know in advance that they're going to be more a little more er, 'optimistic' than the wider set. Add to that social media in general being echo chambers by design that push out those not singing from the collective hymn sheet.

I don't play but do check in from time to time to see if there's some IP sale planned or some Hello Games comeback, and have lost count of the number of times I've been explicitly told to go away, 'let go', or accused of being mentally unbalanced because following a game you don't play is as weird as stalking in real life.

Elite's biggest issue since launch is that the devs seem to not be interested in talking with players and just push out their own stuff which is met with a weird mix of disappointment, bewilderment, resigned acceptance and determination to make a go of what good parts there are because the core premise of the game was so great and if nothing else that's still there.

IF there's another big expac, for me it's almost sure it'll again be not what the core fans want, it might even be actively designed to attract players of other games which I believe is what happened with the decision to make Odyssey a shooter when X4 Foundations has tens of hours of on foot activities and it doesn't even have guns.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Bullpup:

Elite's biggest issue since launch is that the devs seem to not be interested in talking with players and just push out their own stuff which is met with a weird mix of disappointment, bewilderment, resigned acceptance and determination to make a go of what good parts there are because the core premise of the game was so great and if nothing else that's still there.

And FDevs didn't make their game great by listening to players, but by pushing it to be the way FDevs want it to be, themselves. Players don't know how to design games.

Actually, when they were listening to players and were doing what players wanted, they made their game to be worse. Credits "rain" that made the whole credits, ships, and modules progression to be useless, anyone?

[Lukas+]

I also read on Reddit that Frontier said they will continue to support Elite Dangerous.

As for the rest, I have hundreds of hours of gameplay ahead of me to discover what's already there, and when I read about new content, additions, updates, I tend to think more: "good heavens, go slow" rather than " Oh, finally, it's about time!". However, I understand that we are a community and I hope that everyone is happy and no one is bored...

The things I would like are all aspects of detail, gameplay, little things, not big or important things, but I understand that the game is well-tested like this.

I hope that the conditions of the open-game are not so bad, although I hope to survive when, taking courage in both hands, I enter (for more than 10 minutes!) in some time. If the open game is destined to be hard, then it is right that it is, and regardless of the most obvious cases of disloyalty (which I don't know here but I know exist for other video games) I hope it is as free as it should be, as it was established, in short.

I take this opportunity to thank Frontier for the service offered, which is robust and reliable at least in solo mode as well as few others videogames I remember.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by Bullpup:

Elite's biggest issue since launch is that the devs seem to not be interested in talking with players and just push out their own stuff which is met with a weird mix of disappointment, bewilderment, resigned acceptance and determination to make a go of what good parts there are because the core premise of the game was so great and if nothing else that's still there.

If a company has a vision for their game and they don't bend to satisfy noisy (and often contradictory) sections of the player base, so much the better.

I want to load Elite next week, next month, next year and still be able to enjoy the game I've been playing for years now. I don't want Frontier to change the basic game out of all recognition to tempt back a few players who will then complain about something else before leaving again.

I think players also need to realise there's a huge difference between a large corporation as a developer, and a small indie firm. The latter is far more likely to shape their game to meet community demands.

[Bullpup]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

[
And FDevs didn't make their game great by listening to players, but by pushing it to be the way FDevs want it to be, themselves. Players don't know how to design games.

Actually, when they were listening to players and were doing what players wanted, they made their game to be worse. Credits "rain" that made the whole credits, ships, and modules progression to be useless, anyone?

I 100% agree that players often don't know what they want, or want stuff that only works on paper, or stuff that makes them overpowered and thus lose interest ultimately. Sid Meier once told his fans before GAS was a thing even "don't tell me what you want to to change and how, tell me what you didn't enjoy".

But that's no reason to cut off all communication and work in isolation. In a decade FD took advance feedback on crime and punishment and one other thing that I now forget, and only on their forums.

Players being this way is also no reason to cut off communication from the 'sensible' voices (not to be confused with obsequious voices). Like why not regularly talk with Exigeous, Obsidian, Burr, the Fuel Rats admins, the leaders of Distant Worlds, the head of Spear/CODE, squadron leaders from the AXI, the guys that organise SRV races, etc etc. No obligations to follow, just NDA and 'what do you think if we let players run an economy like [xyz]'?

Or do surveys with very specific questions like Egosoft does eg 'do you think there should be more skill in mining or just keep it automated'. Or just have CM's who both play the game and seem interested in what the community likes, chat with them on livestreams to 'take the pulse' rather than just fielding softball questions from 'allies' as you goof around displaying your beginner skills in the game.

[Brew]

I think creatives should be given room to create. I think FD should make their game, not yours. And I am skeptical of having any kind of anointed priesthood of the players, the few they listen to, to the exclusion of others.