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George Moros
DUST FINEST
429
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Posted - 2015.03.20 22:31:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'm afraid I have to agree with the OP.
Although I may be wrong entirely, but from all the info that leaked during fanfest, it seems that a good portion of CCP Shanghai is working on things other than Legion/DUST, Legion is being put on ice and management clearly has no idea what to do with it, and DUST is being run by a skeleton crew, probably just to keep the semblance of a game that's still active and developing, in order to stop further playerbase leakage and at least cover the expenses of running it.
On the other hand, CCP has obviously put their hope on Valkyrie as their new successful title. A game that requires a VR set to play - piece of equipment that has yet to become a popular addition to a PC gamer's arsenal. Unless CCP believes Valkyrie will be so good that people will actually buy a VR set just in order to play it, this is a very risky bet indeed. And as to CCP's capacity to create such a game, well, history speaks for itself, and it's not telling a bright story.
Apart from EVE's undeniable success, every other major project CCP started, flopped badly. World of Darkness, EVE's "Walking in Stations", DUST, Legion... all of those are, from a commercial standpoint, failures. Some partial, some complete, but overall - failures.
IMHO, the main problem is CCP's top brass management, which clearly has no vision as to what they want, apart from insisting on being "different" and somehow "special". What they should be striving is to first and foremost - get good. Then go and be different all you want. CCP's vision of creating games "more meaningful than real life", and their self-proclaimed "war on the impossible", starts to look ridiculous when they're struggling to achieve things that other game developers find quite possible to achieve. What does CCP really got besides EVE? A half-baked lobby shooter on a dying console. More meaningful than real life? You have got to be kidding me.
And please, don't get me wrong. I actually like this half-baked lobby shooter. It's got some good qualities - there's no denying that. But I was sold this dream about "one universe / one war" that got me hooked on this game, and I'm clearly not the only one. And this dream is far from ever becoming a reality.
If Valkyrie flops in a similar fashion, what happens then? Will CCP's top brass heads finally start to roll, and (maybe) somebody new starts changing things, or will CCP quietly admit their role as a "one hit wonder" of gaming industry, and simply content to develop EVE for as long as they can, until it too finally fades away?
I apologize for this rant, but I had to take it off my chest. :)
Pulvereus ergo queritor.
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George Moros
DUST FINEST
429
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Posted - 2015.03.20 22:57:00 -
[2] - Quote
Pokey Dravon wrote:
Aeon seems to think that when companies make money on a product, that they reduce support for it. The only chance Dust has of actually progressing if it became profitable. I can't understand why people think this could be construed as a bad thing in any way.
There's a "catch-22" in your reasoning. DUST won't become profitable if CCP doesn't invest in further development. Although some people here on forums claim that DUST is actually making profit for CCP, it is highly unlikely that the profit (if any at all) is significant enough to fund any further serious development of DUST. CCP's only serious source of revenue is (and has always been) EVE Online. If they cancelled DUST today, and let go of all the people currently involved with it, I doubt they would see any financial hit whatsoever.
Pulvereus ergo queritor.
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George Moros
DUST FINEST
431
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Posted - 2015.03.21 09:09:00 -
[3] - Quote
Kevall Longstride wrote:For the record is not the forums claiming that the game is making money it's the company CEO. I'm here, right now with the Dust Devs and Shangahi team, on the pub crawl and I'm taking the time out, while ever so slightly drunk, to tell you right now that I'm getting nothing but positivity and good vibes concerning Dust 514. You can choose to dismiss it as the ramblings of a fan boy if you want but I'm feeling better than I've done in a long time about the future of an FPS set in New Eden.
To be perfectly honest, I don't trust one tiny bit whatever Hilmar says about DUST. In my opinion, he's the most responsible person in CCP for all the failures that happened in the last couple of years. As for the other devs, I don't doubt that they really want for DUST to succeed, and are doing their best to accomplish it. However, without real, concrete support from the management, I think their efforts are doomed.
Anyway, send my best regards to all the devs involved with DUST.
P.S. despite all my negativity towards CCP, I too consider myself a DUST fanboy (and EVE for that matter). I wouldn't be wasting my time here on forums if it wasn't so.
Pulvereus ergo queritor.
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George Moros
DUST FINEST
431
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Posted - 2015.03.21 19:14:00 -
[4] - Quote
Soraya Xel wrote:
Absolutely. This game has survived a lot. We're still here. The game is making CCP money, and the game is getting better and better. <- That is a recipe for success DUST has not been able to brag about before. Everyone's continued support of this game is what will give us that power to get what we want.
You can call recent DUST improvements a "success" only if you take a very loose definition of the term. Even if it's true that DUST is making CCP money, It can only be possible because:
a) DUST is being run and developed by a skeleton crew, so CCP has minimized their expenses on it
b) all the major competitors are developing new titles for next-gen consoles (actually current-gen - PS4 is on the market for quite some time), thus giving DUST some breathing space inside PS3 market
c) whatever profit DUST makes, it is most probably not enough to fund any serious improvements like moving to another platform, adding some serious new content and/or making a meaningful EVE/DUST link (meaning, making any of this happen inside a reasonable time frame)
Therefore, the fact that the game survived a lot and is getting better isn't really reason for much hope. First of all, from the state the game was in on release, it is hardly possible for it to get any worse from then on. The fact that it's running on a console whose life cycle is nearing it's end, also isn't reason for hope that DUST will grow it's playerbase large enough to provide much needed resources for further serious development.
Face it. From a commercial standpoint, DUST flopped. Badly. And it will not stand back on it's feet without support from CCP management. And saying "you guys continue development with minimum resources, and if you make the game successful, we'll give you more", isn't support. This is like saying to a dying patient "we'll put you on life support, and if you get better on your own, then we'll give you some concrete treatment to help you back to full health". That's bullshit.
Pulvereus ergo queritor.
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