PS5 & LE: Orobyss Follow-up From Judd

Announcements
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Hello Travelers,

We know you all have been waiting for more communication from us regarding details on the recently announced expansion, PlayStation 5 release, and other future plans. We apologize that we have been slower to communicate as we’re in the thick of our acquisition, which is slowing us down while we’re integrating processes, people, and platforms. For now, we ask for a little patience as we go through this evolution.

Currently, we’re working on a seasonal-to-expansion roadmap to share with you all shortly. We’re just tidying up some graphics and trying to ensure what we say for the season content is not sharing too much that will force us to adjust it shortly after sharing (making a live service game is very iterative).

Also, to clarify, Last Epoch: Orobyss is NOT Season 4. There will be multiple seasonal releases before Last Epoch comes to PlayStation 5 with the Orobyss launch. This is also a reason why there wasn’t a ton of information shared on LE: Orobyss just yet, but rather just the announcement that PlayStation 5 is on the horizon.

I want to reiterate that long-term, our partnership with Krafton will be hugely strengthening for the studio and the content that we’re able to create. It ensures a growing future for Last Epoch, which, being transparent, was at risk before. Our goal has always been to create the leading loot-based ARPG, and partnering with Krafton has given us a clear path to accomplish our ambitious goals. As a team of ARPG fanatics, we understand what makes a great ARPG and the amount of resources it will take to create a game that you are excited to have as your main source of entertainment.

We know the burning question is “Will the expansion have any cost associated with it?” To set expectations, the answer is “maybe.” We weren’t profitable with Season 1, 2, or 3 after our 1.0 launch. Even Season 2 with its very successful reception and high turnout was not profitable, due to longer development time and costs. While a partner with more funding adds a massive amount of stability, a studio still needs to operate with some amount of profitability, or inevitably it dies. Years ago, when we were a significantly smaller team formed on Reddit, our goal was to not charge for any content, but our cosmetic sales have not been enough to cover our own development costs over the long term. Our studio has grown significantly, and we pay livable wages to our team members. In true ARPG fashion, our costs have increased (insert power creep joke here). That being said, we are still modeling how the expansion will be monetized exactly but when a decision is made we will share it with you right away.

We’ll provide more information as soon as we have it. Please know that our team and goals are unchanged and that we’re currently just undergoing a unique growing pain that will result in a bigger, better, and stronger Eleventh Hour Games aimed at continuing to make great loot-based ARPG content for all of us.

Much appreciation to our community,

Judd Cobler

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Appreciate that level of honesty. Long live LE.

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Rue is a uh…Lizard? Loot lizard?

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Appreciate the clarification and honesty Judd, keep up the good work.

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Transparency is huge. Cant wait for more info!

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If you have to charge for the sake of the game then so be it. My only ask is not locking seasonal story and participation behind owning the latest expansion.

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Thanks for the update. I’ll be there for whatever you guys cook up!

I think it’s more of just optics as the internet is pretty toxic these days no matter what the subject is. A lot of people forget we’ve had years of free updates from a $35 game. An optional expansion being added isn’t a crazy ask or wild thing for EHG to do.

Excited as heck!! P.S… if you need any testers… I play this game like it’s my job haha.

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Words from a sensible gamer!

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Just SELL the expansion, people here support LE since alpha, me include

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For me I can only say that I truly do not care how you monetize the expansion, because I want to see LE thrive. I see a huge potential with a few years, your game design philosophy is outstanding in my opinion.
Though I understand the frustration coming from some, I don’t think it’s that many people, as long as you keep making better gameplay systems, people will come

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I’d much rather give you all money for new content rather than to buy skins.

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Good. I personally don’t mind paying for an expansion as long as it is worth. So far, LE content has been well worth the money, but yeah the endgame absolutely needs more stuff to do. Also, I just really wish you could put out some more elaborated designs for the cash shop. Speaking for my self, is not that I wouldn’t spend more in LE, is just that the things at the shop are not worth it right now. For now LE has my full support. Keep it coming guys

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If your entire long-term monetization was planned to hinge on your MTX and then the Cosmetics lineup you shipped made you think that was ever gonna happen, I am baffled.
People do not buy those purely to show appreciation for devs. They look horrendous at worst and like stock shop assets at best. Some of the supporter packs had a few rare exceptions but still nothing people will lose their minds over. So I can’t say that “maybe” (i.e. “yes” or an equivalent non-cosmetic form of monetization) comes as a surprise.
You need PoE-level cosmetic for that strategy to work. Then it is time for a new strategy. But your game is not good enough (yet?) to warrant buying extra expansions for anything less than dirt cheap. So I guess it is time to put that Krafton money to use big time, because the game’s history does not make for a promising trajectory in terms of quantity and quality of development.

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Appreciate the honesty in regards to future content pricing. I rather have expansions cost me a few bucks, than have the game be gone.
As much as i appreciate the noble goal of not being monetized awfully, i think its fair to monetize (especially if the cosmetics arent cutting it yet)
Best of luck with the future EHG, hope y’all thrive. excited to see the future

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Sorry, but I won’t pay for expansion until you at least finish the story.

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If I’m being honest, I’ll buy the expansion despite things being a little tight these days. Having said that your mtx store really needs to up it’s game. The mtx isn’t really that appealing for ppl to support you enough. I did buy the top tier but I didn’t do it coz it looked that good but that I love this game

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My guy… the expansion is several seasons away… did you not read? surely in that time, they will finish the campaign

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but our cosmetic sales have not been enough to cover our own development costs over the long term

Someone said it on Reddit a year ago, and I totally agree: the skins just look bad. D4 is such a weak game overall, but honestly, if it weren’t that bad, I probably would have bought more than just 2 skins.

Every new unique skin in Black Desert Online is killing me (in a good way), since they’re always awesome. When Season 3 was announced and I saw the “cheap-looking” dino skins, I thought: How am I supposed to support them if there’s nothing that actually looks good enough to buy?

It’s tough, yep, sorry. Same goes for Genshin or Wuthering, which I also play — I’m happy to pay for great visual updates. But they need to be great. You’ve got a solid game, I love it and play every season, but I really can’t stand the skins. The only one I found okay was the lightning skin from S1 or S2 — and even that was just “solid.” I bought it to support you, not because it was amazing.

There’s a huge opportunity here — a lot of room for improvement.

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I’ll gladly buy an LE expansion at any price.

I’ll buy a few copies for my friends too.

LE is truly the greatest ARPG ever.

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If the team puts out good content, at a good cost value, I don’t mind paying at all. If it’s some “Diablolike” slop, I’d hard pass. Also, no P2W.

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