Why the urgency to release modules?

Is there anyone that has some idea as to why there is that necessity to release modules so early in their development stage?

Is it only a financial thing? Like purely cash flow generation, to help finance the rest of the development? Maybe finding financing for such sim projects is hard to come by, and the only way to be financially viable is to keep pushing modules at a very early stage?

I actually hope this is the reason, and not just greed. The F-16 just got out and from what I was told it's just not fun to fly. Everything is subjective, but it seems there would be no reason for anyone to fly that plane at the moment. So why release it? Most people will pay to buy the newest thing in the store, play a few hours and then put it on a shelf for multiple months, waiting for it to be finished.

I'm not going to even start talking about Razbam who takes a decade to finish a module. At least ED and other developers seem to actually care about making sure the community, who paid for their early access modules get what they paid for in a timely manner.

But I don't know, to me early access release means "unfinished but usable". It might be just me, but I don't see how the F16 is really usable right now?

Anyway, I'm just wondering and opening up the discussion. I'm not bashing on ED or something... Just trying to understand the economic model I guess.

(but true I did bash Razbam, and it was intentional)

i am also scratching my head about the f-16 release.

if they've waited a month or two, the reception would have been warmer. i can't see how this won't affect sales in the long run.

I just opened multiplayer, checked top ten servers with most players and F-16CM is most flown module...that's does not look like it's not fun to fly.

If they release it, people bitch.

If they don't release it, people bitch.

Play the game more, bitch less, imo. Leave market strategy to the relevant people. Don't buy EA if you don't want tovdeal with EA.

Well, this is supposed to set their/the worlds new benchmark. Hopefully they ment that in terms of development speed and end quality...

I have to agree with zhukov. I remember the days where they didn't release modules before they were finished (Nevada), and people didn't take that lightly at all.

If one dosen't want to spend money on early access modules, then by all means don't. But at least I'm happy that they are producing alot of modules, and cant't wait for them all to be complete

OP: the F-16 is very capable, even in it's current state imo. and it will only get better and better

Nick Grey sort of answered your question on the Reddit forums about a month ago.

1. without early access we would spend 50% more time and money to engineer the products as developers work better and faster with direct user feedback and when they see their product in the market.

2. we would not be profitable.

3. we would be vulnerable to customer 'fade' as they switch to other products or genres.

4. we would not enjoy the 'right' to imperfection

Also... look at the scope of what they're trying to achieve...

... along with other realities we face such as the need for permanent innovation and engine renewal. Boyond daily bug fixing, the fundamental issues such as new graphics challenges (Vulkan, effects, mutli-threading etc), network improvements, sound improvements, new damage engine, dynamic campaign, web RTC, new game statistics engine, new weather engine, etc etc are all part of our roadmap and more than 50% of our staff work on these elements which are not directly module related. Without 'early access' few of the these could be done and yes you are right, we only have this avenue to finance ED as well as my personal investment.

Nick Grey sort of answered your question on the Reddit forums about a month ago.

+1

If they release it, people bitch.

If they don't release it, people bitch.

 

Play the game more, bitch less, imo. Leave market strategy to the relevant people. Don't buy EA if you don't want tovdeal with EA.

Yep.

Here is my assumption of why they release the F-16 with no domage model/IFF (witch is the 2 main complain):

1/ They need money: obviously they need money because it's a company with 100+ people to pay every month. Because there is no paid subscription they need to make money in order to keep runing.

2/ Maybe they need extra money to pay something (tax, unexpected stuff).

3/ They want to release the F-16 before the JF-17 with is a similar aircraft (so they people buy the viper first).

But we are not ED and these are just assumption.

Maybe we will have an explanation some day, for now, let's enjoy the viper in SP mission ;)

If they release it, people bitch.

If they don't release it, people bitch.

 

Play the game more, bitch less, imo. Leave market strategy to the relevant people. Don't buy EA if you don't want tovdeal with EA.

Yep, damned if they do and damned if they don't, always been this way.

Hey ED, since you're on a roll with these EA's... release the Carrier Module.

I and few other knuckleheads I fly with are crazy enough to pay an unreasonable price for it as is, now!:D:huh:

Then... we'd be bitching or praising it for a long time... it's almost as much fun as using it and as long as someone from ED responds "reported" or WIP we'd be happy:P

Hey ED, since you're on a roll with these EA's... release the Carrier Module.

I and few other knuckleheads I fly with are crazy enough to pay an unreasonable price for it as is, now!:D:huh:

Then... we'd be bitching or praising it for a long time... it's almost as much fun as using it and as long as someone from ED responds "reported" or WIP we'd be happy:P

The smarter move would be to release it nearly finish, but still in early access (to get the bugs)

Or say what will be included at day 1 EA and what will be available next.

if they need money they can start the pre-sell 1 or 2 month before the relase of EA.

If they release it, people bitch.

If they don't release it, people bitch.

 

Play the game more, bitch less, imo. Leave market strategy to the relevant people. Don't buy EA if you don't want tovdeal with EA.

Amen!

If they release it, people bitch.

If they don't release it, people bitch.

 

Play the game more, bitch less, imo. Leave market strategy to the relevant people. Don't buy EA if you don't want to deal with EA.

totally bro!

If they release it, people bitch.

If they don't release it, people bitch.

 

Play the game more, bitch less, imo. Leave market strategy to the relevant people. Don't buy EA if you don't want tovdeal with EA.

Really? Well people are dumber than I thought. Why would you want to spend 60$ on something 40% complete (random number, no need to panic), instead of waiting 6 to 12 months so spend the same amount of money for a compete product?

And in an economic world, you should even try to invest that 60$ during that 6 to 12 months. Maybe you'll get 120$ by then and your module will be essentially free, in relative terms

Really? Well people are dumber than I thought. Why would you want to spend 60$ on something 40% complete (random number, no need to panic), instead of waiting 6 to 12 months so spend the same amount of money for a compete product?

 

And in an economic world, you should even try to invest that 60$ during that 6 to 12 months. Maybe you'll get 120$ by then and your module will be essentially free, in relative terms

Don't buy it. Get on with your life. Leave the rest of us alone.

Don't buy it. Get on with your life. Leave the rest of us alone.

Don't participate to the discussion, go on with your life, leave the rest of us alone.

The shrill, whining, vocal minority of perpetually dissatisfied complainers that can apply their crap to any subject with just enough information to validate the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

And how you calling it whining and crap not a demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Don't participate to the discussion, go on with your life, leave the rest of us alone.

You're the one claiming nobody's enjoying it.

Clearly BS.

Nick Grey sort of answered your question on the Reddit forums about a month ago.

 

 

 

Also... look at the scope of what they're trying to achieve...

 

Eye watering.

Interesting indeed. On the basis that they can use the community to help them test the modules, I'm cool with it. This helps them find bugs faster, etc, so they indeed spend less time developing them.

I'm still uncertain though about charging the full module price to help you unbug it, but this is me...

And I assume that's what he meant about being able to be profitable. Thanks to this way of doing things, we save on development and can be profitable. Cause, selling a module in early development or 6 months later, you're selling the same amount of modules in that year.

Also, this is obviously something that is done by almost any gaming developer (early acesss and also crowdfunding). It is something I will never fully comprehend, why people are willing to pay for unfinished products in order to have them faster. But again, that's just me

You're the one claiming nobody's enjoying it.

 

 

Clearly BS.

Never wrote nowhere "nobody is enjoying it"

I said I based my comment on friends who have bought it and stopped using it, as well as multiple reviews on YouTube.

And, the intention of the thread was to start a discussion about releasing modules in a very unfinished state.

If you can't be mature enough to jump in the conversation with interesting points, and just wanna be butthurt cause you took something personal in what I said, fine.

I accept the strategy Nick Grey has pointed out, it's a valid and sadly true fact.

The only thing I fear, as someone who grew up in a family with business men, knowing how things financially work is the rubber band effect. The more you bascally borrow from the future, the harder it gets to pay it all back one day.

Let's hope ED and Nick Grey know this old law of economics and don't stretch the rubber band further than it wants to.

The shrill, whining, vocal minority of perpetually dissatisfied complainers that can apply their crap to any subject with just enough information to validate the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

Nicely done! :thumbup:

multiple reviews on YouTube

You would think that people know it's early access, so at best those videos should be previews, not reviews...