So, Darktide’s player counts don’t look so good. Darktide only beat out VT2’s peak player count by about 3%, at launch, and it hasn’t come close since, with average player counts now only at about 5% of that peak. Last summer Darktide actually had a lower average player count than Vermintide 2 did. There was an uptick in players with Patch 13 in Oct and the release of full talent trees (essentially bringing the game to a real “launch” state as opposed to the Beta we got in Nov 22), but it’s fallen off again right back to where it was since then, and about the only new stuff we’ve gotten are shovels and the full Twins encounter, and we’re now into March. Patch 17 was both unannounced, and nothing but bug fixes, a literal straight up old school software patch, not a real product update. Darktide has done nothing but lose players month over month, even over the holidays. [Screenshot 2024-03-02 115336] Yikes. Meanwhile, looking at other 4 person coop shooters, we can see them going strong, even increasing their playerbase over time, despite often being many years old. Left 4 Dead 2 from 2009, has more players now than when it launched, and more players now than when Darktide launched. [Screenshot 2024-03-02 120134] Deep Rock Galactic from 2018, declined slightly over the last year, but more popular now than at its launch and has 2-3x more average online players currently than DT does. [Screenshot 2024-03-02 120308] And of course, the new hotness, Helldivers II with 90x as many active players at this moment as Dartkide and 4.5x the peak players, note that the 24 hour peak is within 10% the all-time peak, and current players within 15-20% of that peak. Yes it’s new, but DT never had that consistent staying power even at launch. [Screenshot 2024-03-02 120416] So, it’s clear we have a problem with retention. There is absolutely demand for 4 person coop shooters, and Darktide’s core gameplay loop and 40k immersion are amazing, what’s the problem? Across every single community interaction platform, be it here, Reddit, Discord, Steam reviews, or elsewhere, RNG itemization and Crafting has been the single biggest source of feedback and complaints. There is no thread on this board anywhere for any game that has more interaction, replies, or views than this one, or even comes within an order of magnitude. [Screenshot 2024-03-02 115749] Nobody from Fatshark seems remotely interested in discussing this topic in any capacity however. At all. Not here on the forums, not in a comm-link, not as any sort of news or announcements, nowhere. The customer base is screaming a single coherent message and Fatshark is pretending their hardest to ignore it, with visible results and outcomes in player retention. We have no idea why nobody at Fatshark wants to talk about Crafting and RNG items, I don’t know if that’s a special obsession of a C-suite or senior Dev or what, but they make it real clear that it’s not a topic of interest. When people ask about future plans, what to look forward to and get excited about for Darktide, we get basically nothing. The best we get are responses like these. [image]Communication please As i’ve said in other threads, It’s barely been a month since most of us got back from vacation so we are a little ways out yet. But be assured we are working on the next updates currently, just aren’t ready to communicate on them just yet! [image]Patch #17 Notes - Live Now! I understand completely. I have seen a lot of feedback asking for something along these lines and have fed this back - I am working on trying to make it happen even if it’s something very high level. Now, I’m not trying to actively bash Catfish here, I apologize if it comes off that way because I’m addressing FS as an entity, but these kinds of responses are extremely disheartening. I can’t imagine an industry where I’d be able to tell customers that we have nothing to share because our vacation only ended a month ago, especially when the last real new content was released months earlier, and the vacation post was made only about a week before Patch17 dropped with…no announcement. If no developer or marketing head can be bothered to promote even the most vague picture of new plans, features, or updates at the start of the year for a live-service game months after the last content update without a forum CM having to drag them out kicking and screaming (and so far unable to do even that now that we’re into March), either someone literally isn’t showing up to do their job, or there are no plans. Of late, stuff just gets pushed live without any announcement or news or fanfare, and what’s getting pushed isn’t much content. So, with all that said, are we to conclude that DT has basically entered “Maintenance” mode already? Given the active player distribution over time, did Fatshark just take all the pre-order/launch cash and just move on to the next project once it got the game to a certain state? Does this product have a future?

[image] MeatVegetable: I’ve seen too much in the last week that points to the fact someone high up in Fatshark hates player communication. That not hyperbole either, someone really has such thin skin in the higher echelons of the company that they cannot handle any criticism nor dissent, or something. Either that or we have someone who doesn’t want to be held accountable to anything, ever. I agree with that. The high-ranking Fatshark game designer responsible for Darktide’s “crafting” system who came to this forum to defend it a while back got very sour with all the negative feedback they got. No wonder they distanced themself from the community. And now the time has passed to admit they we’re wrong and do something about it. The game is just a shadow of what it could have been, and nobody wants to take the blame. So they just keep a low profile, don’t say anything and hope we’ll just forget about it.

[image] fbolduc: The high-ranking Fatshark game designer responsible for Darktide’s “crafting” system who came to this forum to defend it a while back got very sour with all the negative feedback they got. No wonder they distanced themself from the community. Wait what. When did this happen??? The closest we’ve gotten to them defending it has been me and a couple others joking that Jakal is secretly a dev, I don’t remember said devs actually showing up to defend their horrible itemization beyond that one ‘dev diary’ that failed every single point it brought up.

[image] Mezmorki: At this point, to spare oneself on-going mental agony, just assume Darktide is dead and is receiving no further updates. Would you keep playing it or stop now? Make a decision and move on. Yeah that’s how I feel. There’s a lot of threads about asking for updates and communication and content… But we’ve said all can be said. You’re only hurting yourself by expecting more at this point. Just let it go. Play the game as is, without further expectations, or go play other things. “I like to expect the worst. That way, if I am wrong, I can be pleasantly surprised”. I don’t think there’s any thread or well reasoned argument that can really have any material change here. I don’t even think you need a “communication” memorial. They’re not questioning whether some silent majority prefers no updates and lack of content. Everyone is going to want more free content and more communication. It’s just they can’t/won’t. So we may as well pull a fatshark and just be terse or silent altogether on things like this.

[image] fbolduc: The high-ranking Fatshark game designer responsible for Darktide’s “crafting” system who came to this forum to defend it a while back got very sour with all the negative feedback they got. No wonder they distanced themself from the community. It’s probably was some whiteknight who was accused being a Fatshark employee as a joke…

[image] Redy2Snap: People have been saying this, exactly this nearly word for word, since the game released. What was that, two years ago? Does anybody seriously think FS will “lock down what they’re doing” any time soon or is this just pure cope? It’s not really coping as much as not caring. I don’t care what they have to say. I want them to fix their game. Actions speak louder than words. I partake in this discussion off and on on the forums but I haven’t played the game for months. They can say whatever they want. I can make my opinions clear and hope that they hold merits on their own since I can never presume to talk for anyone but myself. [image] derpherp: They picked out complaints, decided what they wanted to do to address them, and implemented that decision. What else is there to say? There is a clear track record of Fatshark doing this. It just takes an absolute age. Exactly this, and all of the changes were for the better, although the mission board I would argue is as busted now as it was on day 1.

[image] Ragnarok101: When did this happen??? I believe it was in this thread back in August: [image] Dev Blog: Into the Maelstrom Announcements Devoted Rejects, In this dev blog we are going to dive into three topics and upcoming changes that we will be making to them. The three topics are the Mission Board, Crafting, and Currencies/Resources within Darktide. All the changes that we will be discussing in this dev blog have been in development, and are being prepared to launch in Patch #12 (1.1.20). These changes mark the next step in our support to the game, we will keep on monitoring feedback and evaluate future changes. For clarity,…

[image] jesper: Actions speak louder than words. Yes and no. The thing is they are so slow that there are no actions. Some start thinking devs don’t work or care, and even just wanting to have somewhat fast and constant updates isn’t a crime. So first people just worry and ask questions how things are going on, they recieve no answer and become even more worried. But more important probably is when you don’t have testing server/realm, then communication is kinda work like a surrogate. Player could give their feedback or rise concerns in before, especially with such game like DT, where you can’t predict will be there even more timers and rotations. And if you don’t want to communicate about game’s future like in a proper GaaS, then remove crappy player retention mechanics and run your game like a regular game with minor free updates and big paid DLC’s. Either way MTX and retention tricks is the only part of GaaS we have.

The same 20~ dudes are going to keep telling you this game is perfect, despite having just about all the same problems it had since game launch. The developers really haven’t said anything since November, which was 4 months ago. I don’t know where you live where it’s completely normal to take 3 months paid vacation, but I’ve never been afforded more than 14 days in my lifetime. In the end, companies only respect two ways of voting, with your wallet or with your feet. I’ve voted with both, I’m not paying Fatshark a cent or playing this game another minute until we see real update with content beyond a new mission or 2 new weapon marks (that add nothing to the game and further dillute the weapon drop pools). I mean, real fixes to the bad RNG in this game, new enemies, new mechanics, new events, actual fixes to the bugs and crashes, you know, standard content for literally any other game as a service?

[image] Riku: now the thing someone can critisize GW for is, why don’t they team up and Fund a mega project? and thats the million dollar question That’s exactly what I was saying. We are in agreement. Not sure if I typed my initial reply wrong or something, don’t care too much but I do believe I mentioned outsourcing as in letting Indies use their IP if I use the terms correctly.

I believe a few years back they did actually try to fund and make an MMO but that might have been the thing that scared them off doing it anymore since I’m pretty sure it basically went nowhere and was a big money sink. I imagine that also part of it was THQ filing for bankruptcy and for a while basically taking the 40k license down with it for a period. As a result someone at GW is likely very against anything that could be considered a mega project or pitting all their eggs in one basket hence where so many different companies get access to the warhammer 40k ip.

Active players down over 95% from peak, Crafting thread has 2,000 comments but no dev response, No significant content since Patch13, Studio vacation has been over for months with no product updates. Has Fatshark just moved on?

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion

fbolduc March 5, 2024, 8:47pm 196

I believe it was in this thread back in August:

Topic		Replies	Views
Another nail (patch) in the lid General Discussion	40	1289	February 25, 2024
Communication please General Discussion	93	4517	February 18, 2024
Are there any Fatshark supporters after these months of Silence? General Discussion	101	1964	April 1, 2024
Stepping back for a bit... and feedback for Fatshark General Discussion	81	2455	February 18, 2024
The future of Darktide is vague (a transparency issue) General Discussion	128	2362	May 30, 2024

Active players down over 95% from peak, Crafting thread has 2,000 comments but no dev response, No significant content since Patch13, Studio vacation has been over for months with no product updates. Has Fatshark just moved on?

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