[2021] How come this game is still in alpha?

Originally posted by Sprocket66:

Originally posted by Seftak: Because it is not done yet? Games are GENERALLY not released before they are done.

Except when you have a publisher behind you saying "release the game right now because i'm not paying you anymore" which is the case for 80% of the AAA titles lately...



If they did that they would have released the game in like version 14. Sales are pretty much non existent for probably 2 years+ now compared to when it was a fresh early access title... You are just another naysayers, nothing surprising there.

Yes, I'm sure the sales aren't what they were. But obviously the revenue stream is still enough to support the 50+ employee's that they currently have. I highly doubt they are currently losing money or they would be shedding employee's instead of adding them. I'm not knocking the business model, it's actually fairly clever.

It should position them properly for the next title that the 7 or so employee's are working on. From the time table on 7d2d and when they started working on the new project it should be ready for EA when 7d2d goes gold.

You're making the mistake of assuming that 'losing money' means 'Already near $0 and going into debt'. I've done some back of the napkin approximation in other threads; But basically while they have made a crap ton of money in total, It is far less than people think; But at the same time, it is still multiple millions of dollars that they have in the vault. They could coast on that paying employees(yes, even the increased employee count)/leases/maintenence fees/other fees for several years before hitting the point where they're fretting over finances even if they make $0 for those several years.

They are potentially(likely) in the red on continuing profits; By which I mean the incoming revenue from sales is potentially beneath their expenditures. But if they make 500k a year and spend 600k, it's still going to take a LONG time before they've dug through the money they've stored up and employees have to start worrying about it. Ideally they'll still have enough money to start work on the next game too; But they certainly have enough to shoulder the onus of finishing the game the way they intended.


TL;DR: Even if sales are lower than expenditures, It does not automatically follow that 'omg bankruptcy, mass employee exodus'.

(If you'd like to see the napkin approximation, lemme know. I'll go dig it up later.)

Originally posted by player144: I think the general public is accustomed to things going certain ways.. And when it doesnt, they start to complain.

For example, the general idea is for game development is that it takes about 5 years for a project to complete.

YES. Exactly. Only, The general idea that the general public has is that games are finished in 1-2 years; Because that's how long it is between the announcement at something like E3/Nintendo direct and eventual release.

It's painfully rare for a game to be announced more than 2 years ahead of time- And typically, if it is, it probably just got cancelled and they're hoping you forgot about it. There are examples of it, games being announced as much as 3 or 4 years before the eventual release- But that's bad for business, It's too long to maintain the hype for.

And so, To the average layman, Game development as a whole basically fits within that 1-2 year period, since they dont really think about it; It's not a natural logical path to think "oh hey this must have been in the works for 3-5+ years before the announcement" unless you're 'in the know' on the subject. (And game developers/publishers/etc want to keep the general public in the dark about it, because of topics like this- It's an incessant negative feedback loop of "OMG ITS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT!!!??!" that just demoralizes, and makes them seem like a bad company in the eyes of the public.)

Originally posted by player144: @Shurenai

One point: i don't think its entirely true what you said, because the marketplace didnt start to complain after 2 years... its now, after 5-7 years...

People have been complaining that 7DTD has been in development for too long since a bare 8 months in. This isn't a new line of complaint that only started after 5-7 years.