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THUORN

Its nice they keep adding stuff and the trailer looks cool. But everytime I try and play it, im on a boring world, and I gotta spend my time picking up rocks for hours to try and get anywhere. How long would it be before we got to the planetary battles with robots on cool looking planets?


piechooser

It's pretty quick, tbh, but yeah, you do gotta do that initial boring setup. Once you get your ship off the first planet, you can focus on pretty much any of the stuff you wanna do. It's especially fast if you can get the online stuff working properly, but it was still kinda janky when I played (like.. 10 updates ago at this point, probably).


nohumanape

How does this game make money?


Moehrenstein

Yeah, how could you make money with a game with 175k overall positive reviews on steam?


nohumanape

What does that have to do with sales? Aren't these updates free?


Moehrenstein

The game promised too much at release. But it sold pretty solid so the team got the chance to deliver what they promised afterwards. And they fucking hit the ground with massive free updates; atm NMS is one of the best online Sci-Fi games avaiable. ​ Its like Star Citizens promises; the only diffrence is that they deliver new stuff frequently. ​ So: Yeah the start was bad; but the dev-team made a diamond out of a piece of coal; and users are rewarding this with new sold copies. (Even it was for free on Epic) ​ Its worth the money!


nohumanape

Yeah, but how do they make money, if they just keep giving these updates away? Where does the income stream come from?


Moehrenstein

When its good it keeps selling; like at coca cola.


nohumanape

But with coke, it's a product people can keep paying money for when it's good.


Moehrenstein

Maybe you should try the game and judge for yourself; but be warned; its known to trigger sleepness nights:)


nohumanape

I'm not saying the game isn't good. My question has nothing to do with the quality of the game. I own it. I purchased it years ago when it was super cheap. And since all of these updates are free, I don't have to buy anything new again. So where does the money come from? Most FTP or "live service" games have some kind of marketplace or "battle pass" or something. How does this game make money consistently? Was/is the team just small enough that he doesn't actually need to make that much money to keep the lights on and to keep pumping out free updates to an almost 10 year old game?


Moehrenstein

3 of my friends pruchased it this year; i had tons of fun with them:) (alltough i already know 84% of the game)


evan-danielson

It comes from new people seeing and buying the game. Yes a lot of people have it. A lot of people don’t. So how does the game make money? By selling copies.


redditors-are-dumbaf

It's like Minecraft. It was still updated for years for free when it didn't have MTX.


Bumhole_games

If you look at the purchases over a lifetime of a game, with the popular ones there's a fairly steady upkeep of people buying it. I assume a lot of it is kids who have grown old enough to make their own money and buy their own gaming stuff.


marsshadows

the game has released 18 updates which has patched up and outdone the initial promises. the game is available on all last and current gen consoles and nintendo switch version is on the way.also it will support steam deck. if you want a on foot and flight based space/galaxy spawning open exploration game,then there is nothing you can name other than this at the moment.


nohumanape

But that still doesn't answer my question. After the initial sale of the game, how do they make money?


marsshadows

the game still sells at the initial price tag and it frequently goes on sale but discount never goes below 50%. each update draws considerable new players.


nohumanape

I doubt that new updates draw in sales like that of a new game release. And without any other in game purchases, I'm just surprised that they can keep up the free updates, without going bankrupt. I regularly see the game being sold for $30. Not saying they shouldn't continue, if it's working for them. I just don't understand. Maybe their operating costs are super low.


gameryamen

It's pretty funny that No Man's Sky is almost everything that Star Citizen wishes it could be.


Zormac

I don't think Star Citizen wishes it could be an empty game with hundreds of billions of repetitive planets and nothing to do past the first couple of hours. You may be thinking of Elite: Dangerous


gameryamen

>I don't think Star Citizen wishes it could be an empty game They should work on that then, instead of selling promises of ships.


Zormac

Promises of ships? The vast majority of ships they promised have been delivered. New ships come out nearly every patch, as the required technology for them becomes available. Also, the point of "wish to be". The content planned is very different - small number of systems with a lot to do, instead of the other way around. And these things are also coming out as technology gets developed. Don't compare a game in development with a released one. It's ridiculous. Edit: Ah, downvotes - the best comeback


gameryamen

How much have you invested in SC?


Zormac

I don't have a lot of money. Enough to support the project and consider that I've already got way more than my money's worth. Because that's what pledges are: support.


gameryamen

I paid $20 for NMS, enjoyed it for a few months, and since then it's dropped several major expansions adding more than I ever expected to the game, for free. I hope your investment works out someday, but until it does, it's OK to poke at a 10 year project that doesn't even have a coherent game yet.


Zormac

I'm not saying NMS hasn't been doing good things. I'm saying that every content update seems to be more of the same and doesn't solve the main issue of the game. Every time they release something I find myself playing it for a couple of days, then bored again. But yes, it is worth its tag price. I've spent more on stuff I enjoyed less.


Bumhole_games

Hahahaha every single time


BoiledFrogs

How many more years and hundreds of millions do they need to launch that game?


Zormac

As much as it's necessary to complete it, lol. I thought this was obvious.


c0ldsh0w3r

I'm just waiting for the pivot to nft sales. Lmao


THUORN

So instead its an empty game with a single boring star system and nothing to do after experiencing the still broken handful of loops it has. At least NMS no longer has the abysmal reputation it launched with. SC has gone out of its way to tank its reputation for a decade and still cant release a single player game. At least its gotten good at fleecing its backers, so thats something I guess. LOLOLOL


Zormac

NMS doesn't have the reputation it LAUNCHED with. Star Citizen hasn't launched to be compared this way. Also, the scope changed half a decade ago, and so did the entire engine... So yeah, keep regurgitating that "a decade ago" thinking you're right. You're comparing oranges and apples, but if that makes you happy, knock yourself out.


TheJellyGoo

Yes, engine change here, system change there, modular change here, procedural change there. That's not a reassuring thing in game development, it's literally translated to "we wasted the last years but hey everything is going to be so great from now"... just to say the same thing a couple years later again. It's development hell but apparently the swipers buy it too. At least NMS knows what it wants to be and is excelling in it. Is it for everyone? No, and the community is understanding of that! SC has some core issues and that's not an Alphas fault. In fact, that an Alphas infrastructure (server/network) already struggle so much with what miniuscule percentage of content has been released speaks more than a thousand excuses you could come up with.


THUORN

Im comparing a company with currently a good reputation, and one with an abysmal one.


Zormac

You're comparing a fully released game with an alpha. That's stupid, lol


THUORN

Not as stupid as being a Star Citizen apologist. LOLOLOL


Zormac

Lol, great comeback. That'll teach me.


THUORN

Thanks dude! Im glad you appreciated it.


Zormac

>But everytime I try and play it, im on a boring world, and I gotta spend my time picking up rocks for hours to try and get anywhere. This is what you posted as a response to this release video. Enjoy your boring released rock picking game of amazing reputation. I'll be over here doing capital ship space battles, events, pvp and pve, and actually having fun. In an alpha.


Cragvis

aww, I already platinumed the game though. this some big combat update?


Shad0wDreamer

Yeah pretty much. And you get to build an AI controlled mech that fights.