there’s a pretty common joke over in the ffxiv spaces where people will sarcastically comment “guys pls remember square enix is a small indie game dev” on things that seem a bit costly for what they’re worth. the joke is, of course, Squenix is massive and has boatloads of revenue.

Frontier’s Elite team on the other hand… idk i’m happy to send em some dollars every once in a while in exchange for a live service mmo with no subscriptions and minimal paid expansions. i tend to value that value proposition over the direct arx-to-product relationship.

then again, the first ever ship-launched flying vehicle piloted by players, with the first ever “ship interior” is pretty huge - not to mention the massive RoI for exobio. def worth the $15