The investors should force them to fire Magnusson. After reading that interview I now know that people like him are the problem with FS. I don’t believe that all people in the company are bad at their job, but their management is just a joke. I’ve said since V2 that Fatsharks’ biggest issue is their project management leads and yeah, they proved me correct.
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They are located in Sweden and are probably making somewhere around 40-60.000kr/month due to union laws, and because they are located in Stockholm, which is decent in Sweden but lower if you look at the industry as a whole. Most likely they also receive some kind of bonus if the game sells well.
If you check their glassdoor reviews most people are pretty much confirming just that:
Good atmosphere
Below average pay
Management is chaotic
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APB was a title that comes to mind, I think it changed hands more than once. The first team had no plan or intention of dealing with cheaters and it destroyed the game in short order. The second made some progress there, but butchered the design direction. Not sure if there was a third team that took over, can’t recall, but sounds familiar.
And this is what annoys me so much, I’m not bothered when looking at issues in companies when they have problems with things I don’t understand how it works. But in this case, I’ve worked as a project manager for years and when I look at how much Fatshark botched their project it makes me furious because it’s so easy to fix! This is why people like YoshiP (lead of Final Fantasy 14) need to write a book about how to project manage, he’s an expert at management (he’s an idiot when it comes to design decisions but a master at time/project management). Fatshark doesn’t need developers, or designers, they need to fire the management and bring in people who know what they are doing, because their current managers are incompetent at a professional level.
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Don’t quote me on this but one or two of the reviews claimed that managers are often staffed from devs. Devs being notoriously dogsht at project management would explain a lot.
Tbf Mojang didn’t go under, and Minecraft was already hugely successful when Notch finally cashed out and sold it all off to Microsoft, studio and all. Not exactly the same as hoping someone will pick up the Darktide IP for cheap because FS got liquidated and actually put in more work than the devs who made it to get it up to scratch.
Yeah, that could be it, wouldn’t be surprised if instead of bringing someone from the outside they just gave the role to someone who already worked there.
It did change hands and survived it though. I agree that given DT’s circumstances, the chances are slim, but it’s a chore imagining a worse developer than FS.
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Imo what FS have made isnt the problem, its what they have yet to finish and the time they need to do so. Crappy time management and development pipelines sure, but what they manage to deliver is actually very solid.
As much as people harp on about the monetisation, I really dont see that getting any better if it gets bought up by one of the AAA publishers, who do you think normalised these practices in the first place? And if not them then who? A small studio without the capital or resources to actually develop it, or worse with no love for the game and even more intention to milk it? Or maybe Tencent decides to go for a full acquisition once the company is going for cheap?
Id rather wait for FS to get its ass in gear and keep on carrying on rolling out the rest of the game as soon as their devs can do so, than gamble on which name on the stockmarket would pick at the bones trying to turn a profit and have the game plunge into development hell.
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You never know what’s going to happen cos everything is RNG 
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In a perfect world I think FS collapses and a new studio forms from the survivors with genuine talent, and we get a smaller budget studio that’s more focused.
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The thing is, us VT geezers are still waiting for all the same things to happen to VT 
So nah, I don’t buy this crap.
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Apparently monetisation is rife in the industry these day’s saw a video recently talking about a game aimed at little kids a mario kart style game that was full of it.
A live service game
Which is about to be shut down too by the way lol. Not exactly what you guys want to hear but it happens. Hopefully not here though 
The launcher for V1 still says “mod support coming soon” so yeah… they NEVER keep their promises.
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I admittedly dislike this argument as I recall you were redirected to the Blood Moon Inn discord to opt in for the mod plugin.
I agree with that, but then you know what you can do on a whim at the snap of your fingers ?
A post that says
“Hey guys, we now realize we fukced up. It’ll take some time, but we are planning on changing how the missions are selected, allowing you to chose your mission and modifiers.
We are also reworking the store and crafting systems to allow you to get the weapon you want and work towards the weapon that perfectly fits your playstyle. We are also aware that the penances are not optimally designed, and we’ll be brainstorming on more engaging ways to get and showcase your achievements without it being tedious.
As always, we are working on bugs and have, thanks to all your reports, quite a hefty backlog to go through. We are working on the ones that, to us, feel like are most important. This is slowing down the correction/rework of other features, but we are doing our best.
Finally, we are aware of the contentious state of the premium cosmetics shop. Our artist teams have worked hard to deliver a wide variety of cosmetic content, so we will be working on a way to make the items all apear at once in the future. We would also like to have event-specific items that will appear only temporarily in the future, such as anniversary or holiday skins. We also hear the pricing is not appropriate for a paid game, but it is a way to ensure our long-term economic income since we plan on supporting the game for years to come.”
It would be so easy to just have this very message appear in the announcements, and if they keep to these words the game would be turned around both in quality and in steam ratings.
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Bingo. One message, one display of contrition instead of egotistical posturing that everything is fine would do an immense job at stopping reasonable people from feeling neglected.
Trolls will be trolls anyway, don’t even need to consider how they’ll react. But the majority of the community just wanting to know that they’re being listened to, that patience will be rewarded, when currently we get a lot of silence and see stuff like “yeah, everything’s fine, we’re so happy with the game’s reception!” is catastrophically tone-deaf and harmful to their own reputation and longevity.
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Making more promises and commitments isnt exactly a good way to make up for what’s currently getting them called liars, announcing plans that they couldn’t guarantee timely delivery of is kind of what has gotten them into this mess of a launch in the first place.
Either they have a spaghetti code problem or an inefficient development pipeline but they obviously aren’t in a position to accurately estimate ETAs or immediate solutions for the delivery of things in the immediate future.
I think Aqshy has the right of it by holding back information on current development work in the short term until its actually ready for delivery, because whatever they have planned often feels more aspirational than concrete and the inevitable changes are just going to sting people.
TBH, this game feels like it lacks leadership. They nerfed ranged to keep melee a thing, (Reverse falloff, speed bumps getting ranged out, dodge autofail) and then they gimped w40k melee (must turn on, turns off by itself,) to keep the shovel and hatchet viable.
Then made vet (the ranged specialist) the most effective class and gave us enemies you have to take cover from and counterfire at.
So it doesn’t feel like a game with ranged and melee, it feels like a ranged game and a melee game fighting each other… but the melee game isn’t even a w40k melee game, It’s vermintide melee trying to still a a thing with mundane axes and knives in the year 40k.
This feels like there’s all kinds of internal conflicts of vision.
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