Elite Dangerous To SELL Ships for REAL Money

Frontier have announced they are going to start selling pre-built ships in Elite Dangerous for real money. Ships will be available for a variety of gameplay focused options. They have also announced that an Engineering rebalance is on the way.
Full announcement: www.elitedangerous.com/news/p...

[@baltogames1501]

The first ship I will buy is the one called "U.N. Install".

[@Adam-xi3vi]

Brilliant! 😂

[@NickHunter]

lol very good

[@zulwe]

We see what you did there. 😆🙃

[@mcklown]

Yep, I've been needing to clear up space on my hard drive. Guess this makes it easier.

[@dantefettman354]

Mordecai and Rigby: OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH-

[@cyberangel82]

They have missed April 1st by about a month. 😀

[@googletoldme2292]

Yep 😂

[@p0k314COM]

No, they are almost bankrupt and looking for money everywhere (I remind you about the last deal with Atari and getting rid of more IPs). But if it helps development in some way, I'm for it. After all, this is a financing method copied from scam Citizen. The problem is that ED is archaic and has little to attract new customers.

[@aexetan2769]

Better late than never.

[@XViper123]

Was thinking the same thing!

[@erei2420]

I feel when the players say "Frontier can't go lower than that", they take it as a challenge.

[@AndreasDDope]

so true

[@andemik]

Starcitizen sadly paved the way for that.

[@SagittarA]

What the f do you mean? Frontier is still pretty fair. You can easily get those ships in game without paying a penny. Its not bs marketing like premium ships that arent availible for f2p players or anything.

[@Mentski]

Frontier: "Hold my Hutton Mug"

[@yigitk1986]

I think that this may actually significantly expand the player base. If that would lead to better content, I think that it may be beneficial. If they sell ships better than the ones old players already have, that is another story ofc.

[@stevemoss9]

The Yamiks gonna loose his shit on this one lol

[@robertthomas-ball9416]

True, but he'll be back in bed with them after a few months.

[@Ebalosus]

>caring what a Baltic German has to say

[@the_algorithm]

@@Ebalosus Awwww does he hurt your wittle feelers?

[@tomasz9429]

@@Ebalosuswriting like a tard from 4chan

[@pythonxz]

*tons of squeaky toy sounds*

[@dentara-rast]

Frontier your game peaked in 2019 with the DW2 expedition, the last major headline-making community lead event. That kind of thing was your blueprint for prolonged success, but you ignored it in favour or your own on rails narrative and gradual distancing yourself from the community. So here we are, 5 years later and you're now desperate for cash because the playerbase that gave you all the best PR headlines has had enough and moved on. Just let it die with some dignity, Frontier.

[@Rich_H_1972]

The sooner this game's code is released to the general public for them to fix and mod, the better, because Frontier are f***ing clueless.

[@Koffiato]

I kinda wish Frontier finally implodes and community bands together to create community run servers. Playing NFS World now is much better than playing it on it's prime simply because communities can rely on Patreon to run servers; meaning absolutely no P2W.

[@danilooliveira6580]

I just want some indie dev to make a new one from scratch.

[@Magus7777]

@@danilooliveira6580 Sadly not simple: The quality of the Galaxy, star systems, planets, the drive mechanics, the landing mechanics all was developed by an astrophysicist (Dr.Ross). Any studio wanting to make a similar experience needs an expert, who also wishes to code a game, and who can code. Not easy. Dr.Ross was a lucky occurrence - do not know if it will repeat nowadays...

[@Magus7777]

@@Koffiato Won't happen. The merchants and bean counters running Frontier will rather let the game die and ditch the entire know how and the sources than admit a failure and give it out. Brabens promise to give out a single player version if the game servers are ever switched off was not believable when he made it (he broke promises since the start) and it is not believable now. Especially since he took his money and ran, he has nothing to do with Frontier now...

[@zxbc1]

Why release code when you can milk it?

[@damienfiche2592]

Never underestimate FDev’s ability to disappoint players.

[@cetifoxproductions]

How is this a disappointment?

[@Matt-lo2sk]

They wouldn’t be in a bad position if they wouldn’t have focused on rollercoaster games and made ships and ship kits.

[@AmericanNationalist852]

I'm still convinced to this day that my LE pass money went straight into developing planet coaster and planet zoo

[@barking_mad6649]

​@@AmericanNationalist852 you need to meet capitalism.

[@AmericanNationalist852]

@@barking_mad6649 the word you are looking for is "industrialism". Capitalism is marxist terminology. Also, when you say "pay this money for access to this very specific ten year plan we have laid out and also get special content" and then fail to make either of those materialize because literally no effort at all was put into making that happen, that's called lying... possibly fraud.

[@robertthomas-ball9416]

The issue is management, not the games. All of their games had potential. They ruined it with poor management, decision-making, and ignoring the very community that put them where they are now.

[@Ebalosus]

@@AmericanNationalist852I feel you bro. Like when you got yours, did you ever think it would only ever amount to *two* paid expansions?

[@Kilstryke]

"Once you start down that dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny." - some guy in some other space franchise

[@Youda00008]

Or you can dogmatically keep up the current path and have your order eradicated by another that actually evolved.

[@chrish2423]

How is Egosoft able to keep a space game going by adding new content and features but Frontier can't do that with Elite without ruining the experience?

[@Maddock_]

Egosoft doesn’t have to maintain any MP servers, to be fair

[@kubaofc123]

The servers ED hosts are pretty cheap to maintain in comparison to games where dedicated servers are used. Players connect to each other, AI is local as well. They only host backend data, so as costly as running a regular website

[@chrish2423]

Instead of monitizing new content they are monitizing their bad game design. That seems like a poor choice no matter what their overhead might be. The game seems too far gone to be worth playing at this point and hopefully they can move on to making Elite 2 or something.

[@zDeadHeadFredz]

Apples and bananas not the same also ego has paid dlcs most people buy.

[@Arcticwolf2425]

Also egosoft from what I understand, get a lot of money from Germany’s gov. They tend to fund game companies. Remember Golem that disaster? Funded by the German government. I definitely would look into it more yourself to confirm on what they fund specifically but that’s what I remember reading.

[@dhoffnun]

Indeed... surprising? No. Disappointing? Yes. Might play Elite again someday if Braben keeps his promise to hand the servers over to the fans after the game has run its market cycle. Ha.

[@agentmith]

Braben isn’t involved with Elite anymore, so this will never happen.

[@chaadlosan]

Braben checked out long ago.

[@starfireix8207]

​@chaadlosan that explains Frontier breaking their promise about pay 2 win.

[@TarlachOakleaf]

@@agentmith Are you sure? So...he doesn't own a majority of the shares anymore?

[@SolidSativa1]

F..k the bs store. Let us trade ships and modules with friends

[@uwu2owovr]

Yes please

[@NickHunter]

That just ends up creating a black market economy scalping new players for gear. It happened with Elden ring "buy 1,000,000 runes for £50" etc etc

[@SolidSativa1]

@@NickHunter black market in a single player game ?

[@drakenone4063]

​@SolidSativa1 the game economy isn't single player.

[@SolidSativa1]

@@drakenone4063 does that make it any less stupid?

[@adammoynihan2589]

This game's fall from grace has truly been difficult to watch, I haven't even played it in months.

[@jrod1577]

I haven't played it in a year. I come to KZbin waiting for an update to make this game good but I constantly just get disappointment 😐

[@Dredguno]

It all started with that damn Odyssey expansion. The game was so good before that DLC imo

[@Youda00008]

​@@Dredguno Do you know that you can still run the Horizons game without the Odyssey DLC if you prefer how it was before?

[@Psycho7452]

@@Dredguno Nah mate, there were same complaints pre-odyssey. Odyssey simply solidified what was already known. Rn what we see is just mostly death rattle of once great game.

[@rulingmoss5599]

​@@Youda00008yeah but its abandonware at this point, it gets no updates.

[@NIGHTIMEbeats]

2016-2019 was great times

[@NIGHTIMEbeats]

@@SusannaSaunders jumpship sounds fun too, to me.

[@vladcrow4225]

It wasn't.

[@NIGHTIMEbeats]

@@vladcrow4225 that's like your opinion man

[@stavrosg1113]

Were rebalancing engineering! .... By allowing you to buy ships for cash!!!

[@sash1ell]

Devs need to eat. Servers don't run on hopium. Development actualy costs money. And honestly their ARX store is quite poor.

[@cmdrstevemcmaru7417]

@@sash1ell sure, and as long as you can obtain anything in game without buying with real money (except for cosmetics). I am fine with this.

[@leggomypotato1484]

@@sash1ell If they need to eat, then they should do work people are willing to pay for. Nothing sells in this game because nobody is playing it, and nobody is playing it because they keep fucking it up with shit that makes late game boring and multiplayer completely unfair. The right thing to do would have been an engineer rework as its vastly what everyone who left the game left it for. Instead, they are going to double down selling overpowered items for $$$, prompting the excuse to avoid going back and fixing it because people spent money on it. They're going to milk a few dozen bozos for these sales and earn hardly anything compared to what a horizontal balance scheme would have brought them.

[@hardwire666too]

@@leggomypotato1484 Agreed

[@Ebalosus]

@@sash1ell500 Arx has been deposited into your account

[@nick_hansolo]

Sorry frontier I can’t hear you over the sound of my latest NMS update

[@CMDROldDuck]

You spelled X4 wrong, lol

[@nick_hansolo]

Does X4 have seamless planet fall or is it still space boxes like the earlier games?

[@MrRoblcopter]

@@nick_hansolo Just space boxes, but still a great game, if you enjoy NMS you might also enjoy the Xseries though it is more about managing an empire as you get later in the game. Being able to fly anything from a small fighter to a carrier is an awesome feeling.

[@Ebalosus]

Saint Sean Murray the Redeemed can't stop winning.

[@vexital5666]

I think you both cant spell its called Star citizen@@CMDROldDuck

[@Yinzermakesvids]

Well, I haven't played in ages but this put the nail in the coffin

[@MrZentrierer]

This.

[@Praenuntium]

Game is dying anyway. Don't blame them for trying to make some money to keep the servers up longer. Frontier has had plenty of time to add some real content to this game. They never really did.

[@harleyjordan1903]

I was kind of the same. Played a ton early on, supported the game, lifetime expansion, loved horizons. The game held such promise then. Odessy was a lot of good ideas, but I didn't really enjoy any of the implementation, so I'd been waiting to see where the game went. If they're selling ships, they've checked out. There's no way they have any plans to put serious effort into the game, this is purely to squeeze the last few pennies out of the remaining base before they call it a day. Kind of similar to EVE. I played that game for years, unsubbed a few times, but she always called me back. Skill injectors made me feel icky, but once pearl abyss had hold of it, and were emailing me saying they'd sell me SP , I never considered reinstalling it.

[@-ev1l562]

its sad i was just thinking about redownloading this game after i saw the big alien ships blowing up

[@SusannaSaunders]

The coffin was nailed down a couple of years ago for me with Odyssey. This is just popcorn at this point of spiralling the drain...

[@nothanks3236]

Genius. "The grind to kit your ship is daunting." "Just pay us to bypass the grind!" "Why don't you just remove some of the grind?" "Nah, we'll make the grind even worse to get you to buy our ships to bypass it."

[@marcofreire]

Yeah. I see that happening.

[@resurgam_b7]

Isn't almost the entire game play loop of Elite the process of acquiring the ships you want to fly and upgrading them to perform the tasks you want to do? So if you buy one of these pre-made ships what are you going to do with it? Play the missions it's made for a few times and then what?

[@kaszanyel]

This. In a way it makes sense cuz will attract a certain group of ppl BUT the main "endgame/progression" in this game is collecting and outfitting more and better ships, selling them for real money is like selling a dlc for a game which gives u a 70% completed savefile.... And even then p2w is just wrong.

[@chilliewhk]

The regular activities aren't nearly interesting enough to skip the grind. New players will very quickly notice how shallow this game actually is outside the engineer loop.

[@Praenuntium]

Shows how shallow the game is. And people say Bethesda's games are as wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle.

[@ironviper72]

If they actually make Powerplay 2.0 interesting (I have my doubts), then that could theoretically replace the game play loop/endgame to things

[@BlackoutMalice]

Not grind ranks in doing military missions that are extremely tedious, mundane and actually playing the game, everyone forgot that grinding isn't necessary to enjoy games.

[@maxwainscott2270]

"Pay to skip the grinds we ourselves created" Other games do it, but that doesn't mean it's not a downgrade in integrity. When you don't have the manpower, talent or resources to update the game to fulfill it's potential and grow it's player base organically... create little bits of monetized content and milk the few new ones that come along I guess.

[@IceyJones]

OA defending frontier for selling ships now, while bashing SC for it for 10 years....what a time to be alive

[@festersmith8352]

Its next level irony isn't it?

[@damianjames1606]

I feel that if he was an SC partner instead it would be a different story lol.

[@kalrex6615]

Frontier didn’t need to convince me any more not to ever come back to ED, relax!

[@cetifoxproductions]

Buh-bye.

[@Dabbler4]

If the space game industry was Powerplay, Fdev would be 'Aisling Duval'. All promises, complete 180 on results.

[@woe2you2]

If the space game industry was Powerplay we'd all fill in endless polls every week on what features we'd like to see in a space game and never get any actual gameplay.

[@Dorf274]

They literally had a galaxy of options in their hands and chose this shit.

[@paulgrant7221]

New ships ❌ Ship interiors ❌ VR ❌ Improved exploration gameplay ❌ Listening to your players (or former players!) ❌ Charge real money for the same old ships but swerve the crappy engineering gameplay ✅ What the hell are those guys smoking? 🤯🤯🤯

[@golem_videomaking]

i understand why everyone is disappointed but cmon let's be realistic. elite has a 2013 engine, they already improved the exploration twice with horizon and odissey (with this last one not in the best way, but still a way) and i think this engine can't do more. the same for ship's interior. vr is still here and for the fps part i prefer the flat screen, flat to vr experiences not totally reworked are terrible so this is legitimately better. new ships well we'be getting the python mk2 and probably more. and for listening to player, y'all know 80% of community just want targhoid and pvp right? so yeah no, they have to do marketing research, and marketing research shows up that selling ships for real money and competing with other space sim in specific niches of the genre is the right way to keep the game up so take it or stop playing with it, as there are other valid vr space sims to play outside of this one...

[@golem_videomaking]

so if they can really improve powerplay, rebalance engineering, and keep adding new ships they can sell them even for 30 bucks for what i care, the game is like 6€ on steam key stores and there are no other games with its specific mechanics and vr feature

[@39bailey]

Its the “stop! stop! hes already dead” meme

[@woe2you2]

It's official, E:D is circling the drain. You can't come back from P2W

[@melodicatofficial3065]

We went from "Holy shit Elite is back, bitches!" To okay it's actually dying now

[@Reds_Resort]

Best way for Elite to make money is for Frontier to actually develop the game. Could have been the best space sim on the market if they hadn't gave up on it after Odyssey.

[@festersmith8352]

You mean create and finish all the promises they made 12 years ago?

[@MCP2002]

Development requires revenue.

[@Reds_Resort]

@@MCP2002 revenue requires a sellable product.

[@MCP2002]

@@Reds_Resort Hence the reason for them selling these items. How do people not understand basic economics.

[@Reds_Resort]

@@MCP2002 these items aren't development, neither is anything else they've done recently. How do people not understand basic understanding. Your logic is this "you: i I've made a shit product would you care to buy it? Me: no You: but how am I supposed to keep making shit then?"

[@dentara-rast]

This isn't really about the ships though is it. Its about paying money in order to skip some atrocious gameplay mechanics that bore the life out of most people. If the gameplay to acquire the modules and enhancements for these ships was fun and innovative, no one would be willing to pay real money to skip it as they'd be having fun working for them in game. This is the real issue here and games companies do this all the time, they lock things behind paywalls or make it tedious to work for them in game to incentivise micro transactions - all by design. Except frontier have done it not by design, but by years of incompetence and lackluster gameplay decisions, to a point where they've now realised there's money to be made by allowing players to skip their yawnfest that's been masquerading itself as 'gameplay'.

[@dmain6735]

This

[@SledTillDead]

And yet...that's the content of the game. What's there to do after this anyway?

[@BlakedaBull]

The only fool here is one who gives the oydessey engine more time and effort .in horizon there was a good 80 hours of sandy gameplay but they killed that engine.

[@Discovery2024-rn8kn]

Incentive for FD to make it more boring and grind ever harder,

[@MrDoggo23]

Funny thing is outside of the grind, there's nothing to do. So you pay to not play...

[@rudlzavedno7279]

Pay to win shit finally comes to Elite. Frontier must be desperate. RIP ED, it was nice to know you.

[@Romkar]

Well, the news are bad if they sound like an april fool's joke But we'll see. For me "ships for cash" raises the expectations for future updates and if they don't deliver I'll stop defending the devs completely. I already tell my friends "just play this game as if the whole dev team died 5 years ago in a plane crash"

[@DannyMancheno]

A remember long long ago, they announced arx for exactly that.

[@festersmith8352]

They still haven't created all the things they promised 12 years ago in their kickstarter. I would hope for that at the bare minimum. And not have the nerve to charge me more for said promises.

[@josefwollersberger1552]

Not sure they'll be able to ask for a lot of money that way. Selling ships automatically puts them in direct comparison to Star Citicen, and compared to the highly detailed ships of Star Citicen, all of which have fully realized internals and modules, Elite's ships fall a bit short.

[@awesome9174]

They fall massively short.

[@MrRoblcopter]

Elite was originally released to be a direct competitor with Star Citizen, the CEO of CIG(makers of SC) made freelancer way back, which also competed with Elite back then, now SC is basically Freelancer 2, and Elite is competing with them again.

[@MegaMegaman87]

@@awesome9174 yep

[@pattonkeith]

The funny thing is, Star Citizen is only selling ships until the fabled release date comes around. Roberts' idea for Star Citizen is that when you start out, you won't have a ship. Pledging right now is purely to support development

[@Discovery2024-rn8kn]

That's why its cheap 10 pounds, you get what you pay for.

[@Kuzumby]

This will fix everything, almost thought about starting up elite for the first time in years... think I'll go back to x4 instead. What happend to developing cool expansion packs and charging for large content upgrades. I say it's time for Elite to start a new version of Elite.

[@Xero_Kaiser]

"What happend to developing cool expansion packs and charging for large content upgrades" Unfortunately, selling ships takes a lot less effort. These guys took at a look at Star Citizen and said, "why not us?". It's a shame, but there it is.

[@harrasika]

​@efxnews4776 indeed, I agree. I've always been itching to try X4, but the no planetary landings has always pushed me away.

[@harrasika]

@efxnews4776 I NEED to explore alien planets

[@akmalyang5996]

X4 is a very different breed of space game, it has a Mount and Blade style "build your own empire from scratch" feel to it, which I actually like. The most important thing is, of course, that it is singleplayer and moddable, so the community can add way more content into it than Egosoft is capable of. That being said it's a good product from Egosoft considering how small their team is.

[@jjhalcon1070]

Yo Deje de jugar hace meses a ED. Pero nunca deje X4 y la saga X .. EGOSOFT. ( Una compañía Indie) vale mil veces mas que FDEfffffff..Ponen amor en sus juegos.

[@Zebediela42]

Earning your ships IS the gameplay loop. This is doing what WoW did when they left Classic behind. Reading the quest text and navigating the map and story was the game in classic. New WoW (post Cataclysm) is what started the inevitable decline in many players' enjoyment. Hence why classic was so successful!

[@bigbangerz5856]

Frontier “investors 1st customers & staff 2nd” Developments

[@zyonhithekel2397]

Oooooh i can't wait for yamiks tossing a bag of shit in frontier's fan. (It is probably going to be the only good thing about this announcement... RIP Elite. o7)

[@TheFawz]

So they came back to the game not to make it better but to try to squeeze more money out of it before they shutter it and die. What a shame. I hope someone finds a way to make it playable Offline when they eventually take servers down

[@NoMatureContent]

X4 already has it covered and the systems are WAY better.

[@frankgeppert8972]

@@NoMatureContent I agree. X4 has almost all features: trade, fight, flight, discover, scanner, upgrade, engineers. It adds even features like constructing your own stations. You need less grind. In a few game days I got my first huge destroyer ship, where small ships can dock. You can also walk on stations and talk to people, even when it looks better in ED. There is only one feature missing: landing on planets, where you can drive and raid or investigate some stations. I really enjoyed the Odyssey features. I think ED should not try to be better than Star Citizien. It should be as good as X4.

[@mightylink65]

I've seen so many games go this route before they die, they think they can get more money but instead they're going to drive away all the remaining players... this is the end for Elite.

[@Eay89]

I agree. This is like the sound most games scream before they die

[@NickHunter]

"DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!"

[@Rell2601]

It’s a classic example of enshittification I think. We’re at the stage where they’re trying to claw back all that value from their customers before they collapse.

[@ryanadams2610]

Yeah this is the death knell of elite shame so much potential.

[@BRUXXUS]

I feel bad for the actual working employees at FDEV, but that corporation just needs to go down or be bought by a publisher with competent leadership.

[@the_omg3242]

Frontier employee: "have you seen how much CIG makes selling the beautifully detailed ships with full interiors for their game? We should do that?" Frontier management: "nah, too much effort to make interiors. Lets just sell the stuff that's already been in the game for that last 5 years."

[@Captanuki]

Not them Star Citizening my space game...

[@MegaMegaman87]

😂😂😂

[@peterarbeitsloser1746]

One of the main reasons i play elite and not star citiezen, is p2w.

[@MrRoblcopter]

It's unfortunate that Elite is starting to die off as it is SCs only real competitor, but SC isn't pay to win. The ships bought in the store offer no distinct advantage over ones bought in game. So long as fdev only puts in parts you can buy in game, and engineer stuff you can apply then it wont be pay to win either. Good luck.

[@empyrean-jamelgreaves8034]

SC smashes every space game in every way imaginable and it isnt even nearly finished...

[@Captanuki]

@@MrRoblcopter It's not about it being pay-to-win, it's about the principle of taking away the effect of earning your ship in-game, a massive part of what makes Elite's progression special.

[@AndScrambledEggs]

I'll make you a deal, FDev. When the ships have interiors, I'll buy one.

[@ST-zm3lm]

I can’t wait for such hits as: The Vulture Explorer The Type 7 Racer The Sidewinder Cargo The Viper Mk IV Interceptor The Anaconda Light Fighter

[@maddiepaige715]

Selling kitted out ships for money just incentivizes them making the actual game play of kitting out your ship in-game _even more_ grindy to push you towards buying them with Arx. I love Elite but I can't honestly say I'm thrilled about this. Just means people who can _afford_ to throw away money on better shit will have an unfair advantage. I dunno if this'll be a good or a bad thing but past experience does not lean towards "good".

[@reka10]

This is exactly what they'd do. This needs to be pinned I think.

[@Flesjemetwater]

Man what the fuck. I was thinking of getting back into the game, finally getting a cutter. Guess I won't.

[@maddiepaige715]

@@Flesjemetwater I have a Cutter. Love it. Such a pretty ship. I haven't been able to play in a while coz my PC is stuffed but this little revelation kinda dampens my enthusiasm to get back into too.

[@the_algorithm]

@@Flesjemetwater The Cutter is beautiful, but sucks to pilot. The Vette handles better with Much better firepower and while not as big of shields, I've never lost my shields in a HazRes. The federation grind is much harder to do though... so MORE Grind then MORE grind to engineer it... don't forget the GRIND to get the 750mil credits to kit it out A Class Why do i still play this game? I have no idea... If powerplay 2.0 is not everything I wanted Powerplay 1 top be... I'm out... This PW2 thing is bullshit, but I never play in open so whatev

[@DorkingtonHacker]

If they want money, release a product, be it a sequel or a spin-off. Something cheap to make: lo-fi, offline, single player, like that old game, Elite.

[@alansouthwell2899]

I play exclusively in Solo. I've engineered my Krait Mk2, Asp Explorer, and Cobra Mk3. Im currently gathering mats, etc, to upgrade my on foot suit and weapons. I have no need or desire to spend actual money to buy anything and never will, so Frontier can do what they like, and if people want to pay for stuff, they can. Personally, i wish Fdev would put some of this newfound enthusiasm for Elite into some meaningful content for explorers!

[@Runic-Raven]

The saddest day in Elite for me in its entire lifetime.

[@DuvetIVth]

So Frontier's way of telling players they run out of money is to copy other's homework :D

[@Gazbeard]

@ £10 for a Python Mk 2 - that is very small pocket change compared to Star Citizen ships.

[@Cubamara]

Frontier (Elite Dangerous} has now totally and completely lost touch with the majority of the player base. Rather than provide something worthwhile to spend the insane amount of credits I have, they resort to "pay to win". Insane!

[@amugusq7567]

All those years engeneering, rep, credits and everything else farm was hard, but fair - because it was not P2W. Now it is. And it changes everything.

[@Youda00008]

No, it isn't.

[@Discovery2024-rn8kn]

Instead of reaching for the stars in a galaxy wide sandbox, FD is now reaching for your wallets

[@jusef85]

Can we also sell our ships to other players for arx? Let's make that a thing too.

[@scottripley5764]

Going the star citizen route. Great.

[@VectorGhost]

Oh, please, at least Star Citizen had meaningful content. Elite dangerous is boring

[@RoninX33]

@@VectorGhost You are hilarious. Meaningful content, LOL.

[@MegaMegaman87]

@@VectorGhost exactly

[@MegaMegaman87]

@@RoninX33 when was the last good update to Elite and please dont say Odessey. i spent over 500 hrs in the black and have had zero interest in returning to elite since August 2021

[@Alp577]

@@VectorGhost Meaningful content? LMAO.. Elite and SC are boring, both are incomplete and unoptimized. X4, EVE, and Everspace 2 are better than those two.

[@Freyar]

It's very simple, Frontier. You deliver content I want to play, I pay for the content I want to play. What's missing in this arrangement right now? You making content I want to play.

[@PaulaAdrian721]

Most rich people stay rich by spending like the poor and investing without stopping then most poor people stay poor by spending like the rich yet not investing like the rich but impressing them

[@Kelompok16SistemMultimedia]

People prefer to spend money on liabilities, Rather than investing in assets and be very profitable

[@AlexanderHernandezhj]

Making a living is becoming more challenging, and it's difficult for me to save enough to enjoy quality time with my loved ones.

[@SherrillHouser1]

Even though digital currency has taken over the world, people still work for people. So, why not consider buying stocks and crypto and holding onto them?

[@ChrisBallard687]

Even though digital currency has taken over the world, people still work for people. So, why not consider buying stocks and crypto and holding onto them?

[@BillySampson681]

That's a great point! With the rise of digital currency, investing in stocks and crypto can be a smart move. It's a way to potentially grow your wealth and secure your financial future.

[@nullx8]

CCP (Eve Online) did that mistake too, they offered a larger mining ship to buy in a package ... that included serval items (you can still buy today) but also a Mining barge. this did end badly and the ship was removed from the package just weeks later.. but this is because the devlopers actually care, and the markets in the game are real .. while in elite the markets are generated and fdev, well is fdev .. ;)

[@herbaceousboredom9584]

It feels too late in the day to start selling ships. First issue is (at least for me) trust and belief in FDev, second is how many new players are starting their journey in ED nowadays, who are in need of a pre-spec'd ship and who are willing to pay for it (conversely how many existing players haven't ground their way to all the things they wanted by now)? FDev should have done ship interiors per player request and then sold fixtures and fittings so we could personalise our space homes. I reckon that would reach a much bigger player market. But you know, that required actual work... .

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

That second paragraph and especially the final sentence - _Exactly_ my thoughts on this!!!

[@sebf.w.i4901]

I'm ok with that, but we need : 👉🏿 Functional ships interiors 👉🏿 Atmospheric Planets 👉🏿 Entertaining gameplay 👉🏿 Total rework of the hyperspace jump system (a unic jump to reach far systems in 15 min or half an hour or more letting us doing stuff inside our ship)

[@Helbore]

I remember Frontier floating this idea back in the Kickstarter days of the game's development and it went down with the community like a lead balloon. It was unpopular enough that they changed their mind and ditched the idea. I somehow doubt its going to suddenly be more popular now.

[@fedord01]

And what exactly will players use these premade ships for? This game is as wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle. There is literally nothing to do in this game other than grind. And by selling a means to skip the grind, what is left?? lmao.

[@Zerker666]

The decline started after Horizons, other developers cought up back then and ED lost its magic. Space legs? Too late. Atmospheric planets? Enjoy a video of David Braben talking in front of a rendered flight through cloud from 11 years ago. Where are the promised 10 seasons of expansions? And now ships via microtransactions. So much potential, just sad.

[@CitizenGold]

If Frontier are focused on Management games here's an idea for free: A space station management simulator. There's a massive, near realtime simulation available to them already that they could tap in to. Having the data from that *and* Elite Dangerous living in the same BGS would make for a much more organic experience.

[@PPRRPelt]

you know what has been hard to navigate these years? the interior of my own ship.

[@callum2277]

Watch credit income and engineering get nerfed into the ground again to make ship sales more attractive. Remember back in the day when it was super difficult to earn money I expected them to introduce real money ships back then. The credit income was so punishingly low and the reputation grind so long I always expected them to introduce microtransaction ships way back in 2015/16.

[@valengar7]

Man, this company is just insane. Ant, I quit a long time ago but thanks for being the window through which I watch FDEV continue to destroy their game. It's hard to watch sometimes but I can't look away.

[@dwminiboss511]

They saw how well it works for Star Citizen and want to try it too.

[@soldier72]

Players: Nah, surely FDev won't stoop that low. FDev: Hold my pint.

[@magadadaskolin4667]

I would rather them sell mats to bypassing 52 years of irl grind to engineer an fsd

[@dimitarivanovski6322]

The point is - there shouldn't have been such a grind to begin with. This is a "solution" to a problem that has no right to exist in the first place and was created deliberately (Grindplay = gameplay according to FDev).

[@harrasika]

Im surprised they don't already. Usually this kind of annoying grind is specifically created so people spend money trying to bypass that grind. Being able to bypass gameplay by paying money is not the solution to bad game design. You should know better.

[@popuptoaster]

They can buy my ships for real money, I'll have the 200 quid back i gave them when they ran the kickstarter and then removed or didn't include pretty much everything they promised.

[@festersmith8352]

12 years later and they still haven't completed those promises. Sound familiar? And all this time SC is labeled a scam. I spent $110 in 2013 for SC, and have gotten way more than I was promised, without being forced to pay more. And SC shows no signs of stopping.

[@paulwingrove7105]

If you buy a ship, what happens when it is destroyed? Does it get auto insurance? Or do you need to fork out £10 again? New gameplay loop: Buy ship, jump to next system, get ambushed and destroyed by pirates/ thargoids, rinse/repeat.

[@ZyvhurStudios]

Selling ships for real money and then making them available in game 3 months later is exactly what CIG does

[@FatherBillKessler]

This is NOT pay to win; it is pay to access early. I believe that will not have a drastic impact on the game. Those who claim otherwise have not played games that provide early access for cash. I look forward to what Frontier has announced and have great hopes for the future. Thanks for the Video and all you have done for the community!

[@antonioterra5436]

I don't personally agree with the argument that this is the "lesser evil" compared to no further updates or that it'll be "keeping the game alive" since the game that it'll keep alive is no longer the game people want to play, it'll be a glorified F2P Korean MMO in space. People avoid these kind of games precisely because of the pay2win and for people who play Elite it'll be no different.

[@moogleslam]

I think selling ships that can ONLY be bought with real money is a great business move, so long as they are comparable to existing ships in terms of capabilities, and I hope it keeps Elite alive for a long long time. I just don't think the ships should be fully kitted out when purchased.

[@imushavem4061]

Good for you. (Thought I'd respond to this while I uninstalled the game.) Enjoy!!

[@moogleslam]

@@imushavem4061 I compare it to other games I play, such as World of Tanks. This has a few hundred tanks you can get by grinding in game, then a few hundred more you can buy with real money. The grind tanks and money tanks are all comparable in characteristics, so there's no pay to win element. It just gives players a chance to get something else while supporting the developers. Or as another example, iRacing. This gives you 23 cars and 29 tracks with a monthly subscription, then there are dozens more of each for $11.95 or $14.95 respectively. Same with MSFS like ObsidianAnt said, or countless other games. Lots of players want something unique and they're more than willing to pay for it. At the same time, the developer creates another income stream from which to further develop the game, and give more back to the players. As I said, the part I really don't like is that these ships are fully kitted out. This seems especially redundant when Frontier are making engineering/material gathering easier.

[@agentmith]

This is yet another example of Frontier’s mismanagement and being disconnected from their player base. The game is entirely subsidized by passion projects and diehard players, none of which need or want to buy ships for cash. The overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam will prevent 99.9% of new players from risking picking Elite up for the first time. Until Fdev starts rubbing their 2 remaining brain cells together to figure out what players actually want, actions like these put Elite one more step closer to having the plug being pulled. Violating their own TOS is a pretty classic fuckup though.

[@theyshouldhavenevergivenme5439]

How can one company make so many mistakes years in a row with no end in sight!? What was the phrase again? "Desperation is a stinky cologne." All they have to do. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO is hire some actual people who know how to design a game and run an actual game studio.

[@xDryZek]

star citizinification of elite

[@MrRoblcopter]

At least CIG has been improving Star Citizen lol, SC has, last time i counted, ~130 unique ships and vehicles with some being added nearly every patch, Elites got ~40 with maybe some new ones coming after 4 years.

[@damienfiche2592]

SC citizens signed up for ship sales. Elite users not so much.

[@jh5kl]

xdryzek I would say of the space genre

[@PhoenixBlue0]

While I'm personally not comfortable with the idea of "pay-to-win," it does raise the question: What would people be "winning"? There's still skill involved with fighting Thargoids that no amont of money can purchase for you. Bottom line for me is, time is money, so I understand if folks want to use one to supplant the other. And how someone else chooses to advance within the game doesn't necessarily affect my enjoyment. The idea that Frontier might extend the grind for people who don't spend money on ships, modules, etc., is valid, but their history has been to make the game less grindy. Anyone who played the game as long as Ant or me or some other folks might remember how long it used to take to put the credits together for an Anaconda, whereas now you can buy one within a few days of starting a fresh account.

[@CMDR_Shokwave]

What would be truly interesting would be allowing players to sell each other stuff (engineered modules, mats, etc.) for ARX. Let us use ARX as currency between ourselves. This allows me to unload this fat pile of ARX im sitting on into other player's wallets. I currently happen to have more money than time (for gaming), others have more time than money. This allows some balancing for us players, which also helps smooth over any pay to win aspects. Similar to how Warframe (another game i love and have thousands of hours in over the past 10 years) does with their premium currency, Platinum. It allows me to share my money with the other players, preferably newer ones - to help build and strengthen the overall community.

[@UltraZippyYT]

Feeling a bit short changed on the LEP, maybe they could offer these ships as part of an expansion? I guess they didn’t mention the LEP.

[@celestialflea]

People seem to miss the difference between Elite Dangerous and StarCitizen and are quick to criticize the latter. StarCitizen has a vision, a direction and a promise to sell to players and players who support that can CHOOSE to pledge for a ship to SUPPORT the project. All you NEED to enjoy the game is a starter pack for less than the price of an AAA game and you can grind your way to buy virtually every flyable ship with in-game currency, you don't HAVE to spend hundreds. EliteDangerous? It has no vision, no direction, no desire to innovate, to expand, to keep things fresh and interesting for players. There's no REASON for players to want to spend real money on a ship to support the game because it's stagnant, fdev doesn't listen and they don't care. This is a last ditch effort to milk the playerbase otherwise we'd have new content, new dlc/expansions that didn't suck ass. Elite Dangerous is dead to me and I'm never playing it again, this is a slap in the face to everyone who's put hundreds of hours into the game to get where they are. RIP

[@firestarter000001]

You cant convince me that selling ships for real money in Star Citizen is ok. It breaks at the seams the whole premise of this genre, namely play the game to advance and aqcuire new ships, new modules. And Star Citizien is a MMORPG, so effectively its Pay to Win. For me , its morally corrupt. Futhermore any company with such practice will have little incentive to balance the gameplay to not be to grindy, as grind will push poeple to buy the ships. Its rotten,

[@celestialflea]

@@firestarter000001 Honestly, that's a fair criticism and not everyone is gonna agree with my view. That's okay by me. I'm not saying I agree with all the pricing, hundreds of dollars for a virtual ship is insane to me. But they key point here is that StarCitizen was at least clear about doing it from the start and haven't hidden it or lied about it (unlike Fdev who said this would never be a thing) and there is a difference between a PLEDGE and a microtransaction. Some may disagree like I said but it was transparent. In the case of Elite Dangerous, the game has already been out for 10 years, there was no P2W mechanics or microtransactions beyond ship paints. People have put hundreds if not thousands of hours into this game, grinding up skills and wealth and now out of nowhere lazy people can bypass all of that effort with real money. Yet Frontier have very little in terms of clear direction to offer players and nothing new since Odyssey in 2021, which they're not even willing to address issues with planet tech/space legs introduced with it. The WHOLE POINT of the DLC Surely you can see the difference there, right?

[@Discovery2024-rn8kn]

SC is the future. They have a target and know what to aim for, FD on the other hand is aimless and unfocused. Given the layoff, sealed their fate and terminated creative team members so forget about any meaningful content and innovation.

[@firestarter000001]

@@Discovery2024-rn8kn Unfortunately , I have my fears that neither of these games are the future. Elite might be effectively in mainteneance mode, but Star Citizen is a never ending unfinished mess, wich tries to do everything at once. I wish Chris Roberts and company all the best, but after all these years, with no sensible triming of the features, I wont believe SC will ever be finished until I see it.

[@celestialflea]

@@Discovery2024-rn8kn

[@fnunez]

I can't wait to hear the very reasonable and well thought out explanations why it's perfectly fine for Frontier to sell ships, but when CIG does it, it's pay to win and fleecing the gullible.

[@festersmith8352]

The irony, hypocrisy, and double standard of it, after all I have seen posted about SC over the years, is going to be next level insanity. The irony of the two projects being slandered is already insane. I just don't recall a lot of SC players personally insulting the ED community like I have seen the other way.

[@kessilrun6754]

Not only do we practically give carriers away as it is (my buddy got one within 2 weeks, then stopped playing because he burned himself out and felt he had achieved the end game) but now people will probably buy stuff we originally grinded rank for. I understand they need an income, but perhaps we should first focus on updating the entire game into a "current gen" title before we switch the current presentation. There are many things ahead of that this game needs more.

[@Tarkstuff]

But what if they sell ships for real money and we don’t get any updates ?

[@JorgeMacedo]

RIP Elite - last nail in!

[@grinchgamingofficial5141]

this literally just serves to be predatory against new players who either 1. dont know how to build ships properly 2. dont know how fast and easy it is to make credits its so predatory and weird, no one is gonna buy this unless they fit in on one of those categories

[@ethzero]

And there we go: the final nail in Frontier's coffin. Despite Braben *explicitly* stating some years ago that this game would not be paid to win, it is now absolutely paid to win.

[@Youda00008]

No, it isn't.

[@firstnamelastname-oy7es]

Braben had to leave the company years ago. The company has changed a lot over the years.

[@delningit7033]

Judging by Frontiers current monetization model I can assume the costs will be excessive. Bought the game on xbox for nearly $80, then bought Horizons, and thats pretty much where they killed it for me. No atmosphere and no real feeling for aporoaching a planet. I did buy some arks for some colours but quickly realized that was dumb, because you couldnt see your ship so why bother. Not to mention over the years the companies version of "gameplay" was just to make the game harder to play with rediculous grinds. Whats worse, if you found a rythm where you could actually make money reasonably, theyd nerf the crap out of it. Eventually I stopped playing. This year they emailed me and said theyve closed my account due to inactivity. I still have the game, actually played it the other day for about 10 min just to confirm my progress was still intact and shut it down. They dont aupport xbox anymore anyway. Wish I could get my money back. Imagine buying a car and slowly as you drive it the company made it harder to drive and eventually they just gave up support altogether. They had such a good thing in the beginning but fell back on laziness with a close minded view of development. Too bad. Just a glorified demo disc at this point.

[@unblessedcoffee1457]

I backed this game on Kickstarter and it's turned into the exact OPPOSITE of what I hoped for. All the scummiest, grubbiest business practices in the book.

[@RhondaFizzleflint]

...it's almost as if they are british.

[@jibber5048]

I've had friends start and be like... I need to do all that to fight the aliens???! and stop playing. These same people will drop money for a new unit in world of warships to not have to go through the grind. I think as long as they don't sell fully kitted out and engineered ships I see it as a boon for new players who don't have time, let people dip their toe in the water if the want to spend money to save time. the problem I have is with the early access ships nonsense, that's crazy to me....

[@duke7052]

In 10 years they can't even add an in game feature to adjust the hud colours without manipulating the game files 😂

[@scissortongue5772]

What has happened to this game. Such a shame

[@festersmith8352]

Its "released" before they could create all they promised in 2012. Its got that much going for it right?

[@slickrick8279]

Frontier stock is becoming laughing stock

[@chaadlosan]

The only reason someone would buy a ship for real money in Elite is if it is already pre-engineered. Unlocking engineers itself is a slog. So it skips two ginds.

[@NauticalPhoenix]

The infinite growth mode kills everything.

[@TYang3D]

Frontier has finally allowed ED to become like the rest of the microtansactions in games with premium vehicles. How sad.

[@valorin5762]

So far not premium. As long as I can get everything they offer for cash in the game without paying anything but credits, I don't care. Selling exclusive stuff that is not cosmetic would be real bad in my opinion... BUT that's not the case and let's just hope it won't even come that far.

[@JoseJimenez-fc6pu]

ED fans: Ha, Star Citizen sucks! ED will NEVER sell ships for real money! THAT'S PAY TO WIN!!! ED: Well, uh... about that, umm.

[@JotaDeeMeO]

I want Frontier to pay more love to Elite, and I guess Elite giving them more money is bound to draw their attention into the game, I just hope that with more monetization options come more content to actually play rather than just adding pre-outfitted/engineered ships for sale and calling it a day.

[@L.Bomrek]

I want to welcome Elite Dangerous to the Chris Robberts school of monetization.

[@alexn8219]

Difference is ED has lots of investors and this money wont be going to development lmao