I’ve seen some similar musings when the report initially dropped (less detailed as those were just comments) so that’s not surprising. It also lines up with some of the other things like more aggressive push towards ship sales and reports of slower acquisition of new users.
I hope it’s (mostly) just a case of lack of full data, creative accounting and greed rather than a sign of real financial trouble. It would suck if they ran out of money after all this time (especially now, since the game is finally getting into a reasonably playable shape).
finally getting into a reasonably playable shape
It’s probably not a coincidence that they are getting things ready for a release when they have a limited runway. Projects need constraints
!lemmysilver
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That’s part of it. There’s also the fact they managed to implement server meshing, which means no need to fix certain long standing issues twice, as well as the fact that the community sentiment has been REALLY freaking low after the last few years. It was about time they focused on something like this.
I’m not sure financials would stay as they are if they kept going as usual.
There is no reason to believe that server meshing will be the magic bullet that “will open the floodgates of content”.
It’s more likely a PR strategy that they have grown used to using (be it for server meshing, earlier “magic techs”, or whatever the next “magic tech” will be).
I never implied it is. What I meant was with server meshing online they no longer have the excuse of “we won’t fix it now since we’ll have to do it again after SM releases”, that’s it.
I’m fully aware of the constantly shifting “Jesus tech” narrative some people (both at CIG and within the community) go with, I’ve been we’ve the project long enough to experience it all.I would argue they still have a comparable excuse that they can use. Even in the context of server meshing style copytext, they can go with dynamic server meshing.
Of course, but they did go all in (or as much “all in” as they can with a good chunk of teams still toiling away on Squadron) on bug fixing and quality of life. There’s a visible shift in their approach this year which is a very welcome sight for me personally.
Will they use dynamic SM or the fact they’re focusing on bugs to excuse slowdowns on other things? Sure and some of it will even be completely justified. Either way, my time with the game this year does show a noticeable difference compared to the quarterly patches of old so one thing I can say is overcoming SM did bring some changes, however big or small they are.
I know this is impossible for non-accountant-brained people to handle but when you have a surplus one year, you can spend that surplus in the next year
I’m not in accounting, but having a small profit margin too many years in a row isn’t good when your expenses are as big as what CIG has.
We know they’re still doing okay because these numbers are from ~2 years ago, but they did shut down the Los Angeles office which doesn’t exactly spark confidence.
Couple that with the put options that are in place (where some major investers can cash out) for 2024, 2025, and 2028 and there can definitely be a squeeze if the investors decide they want to cash out.
On the bright side, their funding is already breaking records (again) this year, and hopefully their expenses will be lower which will allow the game a better cushion to weather any bad years or when investors demand returns.
you literally downvoted everyone else in this post…
