He explains that there are some guidelines on online stores like steam and EVs that they cannot just talk about that requires them to do it now, even though they feel the price point is better represented by the final release. So they wished they could do it then, but this is an issue.
The team has had a split dev track the past 2 years, where one part developed the 1.0 stuff that will be added and was kept secret, while the second team did the early access part.
After the last major release they found that they now needed to merge the 2 branches and stop EA updates to work towards final release.
So there areany changes coming to what we saw in EA and there is also new content coming that we so far only saw parts of (like the summer sloop and mercer spheres).
These guys are like the gold standard for keeping their fans in the loop and explaining their dev proces. The hate is unwarranted. They even put the game on sale at the old price point and gave everyone fair warning. I think 40 euros is a good and fair price for the final game if you want to wait.
And probably a lot was invested in catching these scallywags. Just imagine having to setup this kind of monitoring. Or did the employees have mouse mover.exe on their pc.
Probably they recorded the screen and used that as monitoring.
A lot of people already said it.. sorry for all the doom and gloom.
If you can, gtfo and if you have stock get rid of it. What you see is just the beginning. Next stage all the most competent employees will jump ship, and will not be replaced. Leaving not only fewer employees to do the same work, it also leaves the ones without the skills and knowledge.
It will get sour fast, and whoever is in charge is there for the private equity to maximize their ROI. So no use talking to management or HR.
The strategy is to strip the company to the bones. Anything that can be sold will be sold (Buildings, furniture, IP). And if the company needs it to operate it will be leased back at a monthly rate. All cash this generates is pulled from the company to the PE firm. If they can they will saddle the company with a debt for the purchase of itself, so they can have the company not only pay that back, but with interest (a leveraged buyout). Some of these assets sold off can easily go to other subsidiaries of the same PE firm.. such as real estate. Assuring their long term profitability.
I really like their updates and direct way of interaction with the community. Some of their updates are a bit more technical like this one, but they seem to understand that some of their uses love needing out with a game. Their priorities seem very much in order. I also love that they have a good vision on their game and actively reduce tedium so people can focus on the core gameplay and don't get bogged down with busy work to keep the game progressing.
