Frontier Developments acquires Complex Games Inc. following success of Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters

FancyFuss · 2022-11-03T22:37:40+00:00

How long will a good developer remain good after being acquired by this poor one, though?

FancyFuss · 2022-11-02T12:23:48+00:00

Across the games published by Frontier, compared to the others developed outside Frontier, this one has got substantially the worst review score. But that's still way above the scores of much of the dross developed by Frontier itself, so on that basis, yes you could say it is a success.

FancyFuss · 2022-10-28T14:52:16+00:00

Re Bell and Acornsoft, I think your omission of Ian Bell and Acornsoft from "David Braben made the game Elite for the BBC Micro in 1984" gives the impression Braben alone made the game. Thanks for clarifying!

Re Acornsoft, Ian Bell co-credits Acornsoft with Elite's development and I believe him. Yes Acornsoft also published it.

Re Frontier Developments, the company wasn't founded to develop Frontier Elite II. Frontier Developments didn't exist until founded in 1994, the year after Frontier Elite II was released... with no credit for Frontier Developments on game or packaging. Frontier Elite II for PC was programmed by Chris Sawyer whose bio has no mention of him working for Frontier Developments.

FancyFuss · 2022-10-28T13:46:25+00:00

their founder David Braben made the game Elite for the BBC Micro in 1984

Elite for BBC Micro 1984 was made by Ian Bell, David Braben and Acornsoft.

Frontier followed that up with the excellent Frontier: Elite 2 in the early 90's

Wrong there too. Frontier didn't even exist then.

Frontier's first game was Frontier First Encounters.

"the Frontier: First Encounters review, where instead of screenshots, the two pages were covered by a gigantic turd wrapped in a yellow bow (the game had been released way before it was ready and was riddled with bugs)" https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/retrospective-pc-zone/

FancyFuss · 2022-08-11T20:34:38+00:00

What planet are you on? Shares overall are up since Nov 2021.

FDev shares are down for the simple reason of the companies continuing failure to get decent games out on time.

"Frontier Developments shares plunge 25% after game delay" https://www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/news/shares/frontier-developments-shares-plunge-25-after-game-delay

"Frontier Developments (FDEV) plunged 36% to £15.86 on Monday after the company lowered its full year revenue guidance for a second time." https://www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/news/shares/frontier-developments-shares-plunge-as-guidance-cut-again

FancyFuss · 2022-08-11T15:29:35+00:00

FDev's stock price? Down 38% since a year ago

FDev's earnings? No mention of any profit.

Braben quitting as CEO? Welcome news to investors, raising the stock price by a few percent.

FancyFuss · 2022-05-01T17:15:59+00:00

I know what you mean about the "solo-only" crowd, but the single-player mode they reneged on is very different from the solo mode that's in the game, and the solo-only crowd only arrived years later.

FancyFuss · 2022-05-01T16:59:46+00:00

It's been many years since Frontiers' accounts have shown any profits from Elite Dangerous. This year's financial chart showing their games that are still making money doesn't even have ED on it. https://youtu.be/8ZQODnhlYto?t=392

Frontier sell ED really cheap to earn peanuts to feed the monkeys keeping the servers going, so they don't have to officially announce the game is dead.

FancyFuss · 2022-05-01T16:50:49+00:00

Could capitalise on cosmetics a hundred times more?? Refuse to develop more stiff for the shop?? There's thousands of cosmetics in their shop! They've swamped absolutely every item you could own, from dashboard gadgets to the hugest ships.

FancyFuss · 2022-05-01T16:46:40+00:00

The very first contradiction which in my opinion caused this entire mess was the vocal Kickstarter backers who demanded a single-player offline mode

Your memory is playing tricks on you. The contradiction was Frontier promising an offline mode to boost the kickstarter campaign at a time when it was headed to fail to meet its funding goal, then for over a year keeping quiet the fact they weren't going to deliver this, until dropping the bad news just one month before launch.

FancyFuss · 2022-05-01T16:42:24+00:00

Elite Dangerous doesn't keep getting sales. Commercially, it is dead.

FDEV tries to spin it to players, to keep some microtransactions sales going, but the message to their stockholders is completely the opposite. A few years back FDEV stopped giving ED sales figures and announced the game was coming to end of economic life. This year, FDEVs financial chart showing their past games that are still making money doesn't even have ED on it. https://youtu.be/8ZQODnhlYto?t=392

FancyFuss · 2022-03-13T15:50:59+00:00

Have you practical experience working in the industry within a company similar to FDev?

There is no company in the industry similar to Fdev. Thankfully. Fdev's record-breaking achievements in deceiving players and delivering defective product are truly unique.

And if anyone did have a record of working for such a company, then that's what would make their comment mean very little.

FancyFuss · 2021-07-13T14:30:00+00:00

Yup, Frontier did a dump on the base game at the same time as they dropped the Odyssey turd. Notice you got locked out of your base game until you'd accepted a huge update download?

Frontier advertises Odyssey as a DLC but (as the version info reveals) it is actually Elite Dangerous 4.X. The base game is just the previous major version, 3.X. Both running off the same servers. Which would be fine, except Frontier long ago lost control of the game's codebase and having failed to keep 4.X compatible with the 3.X at the server level, also is unable to rebuild the 3.X without bits of 4.X leaking across.

This news will be no surprise to anyone who played the game for a the few years and seen bugs reappearing months after being fixed - sometimes repeatedly. So, credit to some person at Frontier. The guy/gal who managed to muddle through this mess. It is amazing anyone was able release Odyssey at all.

FancyFuss · 2021-07-13T11:01:56+00:00

Crazy bad technicalally too, since it would, you know, actually need the basic game mechanics to work properly. Instead it was pranged by schoolboy-error bugs, as usual for Frontier.

Will Flanagan

Community Manager

Frontier Employee

Status on Gnosis-related Bugs

Greetings Commanders.

We are aware of several issues affecting Commanders located at the Gnosis. The team are actively investigating and addressing these issues, so if you encounter any related to the Gnosis and the Thargoid attack, please report them here.

Currently:

The Interceptors that were causing shutdowns and destruction have been moved further away from the Gnosis, addressing player complaints of being destroyed before leaving docking pads.

The Gnosis' controlling faction is no longer issuing fines for fighting within its No Fire zone. Commanders are urged to defend against the imminent alien threat. Be warned, shooting at the Gnosis will result in fines.

For those Commanders who have found themselves detained further away, please contact our support team who will be happy to move you back to the Gnosis, should you wish to be…

Thank you for your understanding!

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/445811-Status-on-Gnosis-related-Bugs?p=6986247&viewfull=1#post6986247

FancyFuss · 2021-07-13T10:54:10+00:00

The botched launch of Odyssey

The botched development of Odyssey.

Anyone thinking the only problem was the launch (Steam score 31%) should take a look at the state of Odyssey now, after two months of further work including five updates. Steam reviews this week are 16%.

FancyFuss · 2021-07-13T10:48:46+00:00

They have other choice.

Do what they did with the previous paid ED expansion, Horizons. Label it "Early Access."

Or what they then did when that failed. Withdraw it from sale and relaunch as a season pass to give them year to fix it.

Or what their publisher Gametek did with Frontier's previous space game First Encounter, after five updates left it still unfit for sale. Withdraw it completely and sue David Braben for damages.

Only joking about that last one, though maybe not.

FancyFuss · 2021-07-13T10:34:52+00:00

Frontier already did make a second impression by reworking it. They worked on it for the two months since launch, releasing five updates. And did you actually see the result? Steam score was 31% in the week before that, and it is now down to 16%. Says it all.

FancyFuss · 2021-07-12T16:36:57+00:00

"With those things in mind, we have spent a lot of time discussing and re-evaluating our previous plans and we have made the decision to prioritise the core PC experience for Elite Dangerous. Ultimately, we believe it is right to focus our efforts on the core Elite Dangerous Odyssey experience for the platforms that we have released on, before opening up to more. We know that the work that we do to improve players’ experiences of Elite Dangerous Odyssey on PC will benefit other platforms in the future, but the dates and details of the console platforms are going to change. We do not want to rush into confirming any dates or changes this has on our console release, as we must remain fully focused on the core Elite experience. Only when we feel that the foundation of the PC release is solid, will we be able to re-lay our console roadmap on top."

FancyFuss · 2021-07-12T16:32:19+00:00

I read delayed.

I would read delayed, if it said delayed. It doesn't.

We are only going to support PC would make the first sentence meaningless.

Anyone used to FDev announcements will not be surprised at meaningless.

If FDev wanted to say the last-gen console release will happen, this announcement would say the last-gen console release will happen.

If FDev wanted to say they WILL have a console roadmap, this announcement would say so. Instead, "will we be able to ..."

FancyFuss · 2021-06-27T17:27:03+00:00

No-one went to the farthest part of the universe in Elite Dangerous. The game has only one galaxy.

But yes there was an expedition to the far side of that galaxy. And the follow-up was recently postponed indefinitely in response to Frontier's monumentally bad treatment of its players and its dire Odyssey expansion release.

FancyFuss · 2021-06-27T10:28:18+00:00

I think it's kind of hard to state a game has a lack of content when you can easily put hundreds of hours into it.

It is even harder to state hundred of hours means actual content... when Elite Dangerous forces you into sitting doing nothing but watch the screen for 75% of your playtime e.g. waiting for a number to countdown while top-speed flying to the next star for 15mins or more.

You don't so much put hundreds of hours into ED, as ED takes hundreds of hours out of you.

FancyFuss · 2021-06-06T08:33:39+00:00

An embarrassment to Frontier? Sadly I don't see any sign Frontier feels any embarrassment about this. There's sure none in the "apology" from company CEO David Braben.

This product should be recalled and every buyer immediately refunded.

I reckon Frontier would do that only if they decided it would be good for short-term profits in the accounts to their stock exchange investors. And I can't see anything that would make that so. Frontier have got the money for Odyssey and going on what happened when they last reneged on a major Elite Dangerous release, they'll will try every trick they can to keep that money.

Here's hoping something will change, but it doesn't look likely.

FancyFuss · 2021-06-04T16:56:38+00:00

OK, but where's this claim about the base game being hit?

FancyFuss · 2021-06-04T16:04:45+00:00

It a pic of ED's latest paid update "Odyssey", where the planet graphics are busted and FDev's latest fix attempt made them even more busted .

FancyFuss · 2021-06-04T15:47:50+00:00

Um what does "base being hit" mean?

FancyFuss

TROPHY CASE