So Sylen, Can you educate us on this complex process of porting the update? Or when you say you don’t want to give us false hopes do you know something you don’t want to share with us?
As some have posted that IG actually does the port, so other then the fact it will cost money. Which most of us have asked about a kickstarter, to see if we can offset the cost to TFP.
Maybe you could explain it so we do understand. Or do our requests fall on deaf ears.
First, TFP has to strike a new contract with IG. This will require lawyers, and several months of deliberation. Just this alone will cost a few mil.
Second, IG will need to resume work on the port. Do they have the same team members that worked on it before? If so that will be easier. Otherwise they will almost be starting over from scratch. Just to finish the current build that was almost ready for release will take several months, and will cost several million dollars.
Then once that happens, do they continue? Do they just drop it there? These kinds of things would have been negotiated back in the first step. It does not make sense to spend several million dollars just to release a patch though.
Which leads us to the other issue...
The only thing i need to know about 7 Days and Console is:Imagine:
let's say in 2 years, there will be a team that will port the game to console
maybe it will be A20.
will the console get an update to the same version or will they have
to buy the game again?
Say they decide to continue and work into aligning the console to the final build. This is going to take a couple of years, and won't be released until after TFP have finished the original PC game.
(This is really the next step, because after finishing the next update, any new updates hat aren't hotfixes for current code would require a new save.)
The issue with all of this is that it will break current saves. Both Sony and Microshaft have a rule set against this. So they would be unable to update the current version without designing a new process for keeping the old format semi-compatible. Which will take a lot of time and several million dollars. So in order to release the actual finished version, this will likely require a second game release.
Thank you TTG for ♥♥♥♥ing over console players on this one by announcing an Alpha build as a finished product.
Now after all of that is considered, you have the primary consideration before you even go onto any of this. Money.
Will continued support of the console port be financially feasible?
If TFP goes into this process and spends 30 million dollars on it, is there any chance of recouping that cost? They are a small indie developer. They don't have that kind of money to just throw away. Much research into sales forecasts will need to be done to determine if this will end up at least breaking even. And that also costs money.
So once again, I have given you a detailed description, but kept it simple enough for most people to understand. This is just the tip of what all is involved in doing a port. If you want more details, Google is your friend. I don't know why so many people have a problem using it for finding out simple information.