[2023] ES2 ends up a failure (data)

I'll be brief.

I was with Rockfish during the entirety of EA, and i pointed to many a things which, in my opinion back then, would make ES2 a failure in the long run. I asked Erik once, during a stream, whether Rockfish wishes to have their game - ES2 - to be played for a long time after the release, and the answer was - Rockfish very much hopes that ES2 would be played for years.

Yet many things mentioned above - which i and many others, during EA, desperately tried to bring to attention and improve (mainly gameplay-related) - were not reworked / improved, and the game was released as a shallow, good-for-a-few-evenings shape and form.

Now, as anyone can see on SteamDB, ES2 goes on with 300sh concurrent players in steam. To compare: the famous "failed" game launch, which is No Man's Sky (huge rage and witch hunt and all) - never had less than 900 concurrent players ever since launch. Both games are space and arcade style, both are made by a small / indie team. Yet No Man's Sky even in its darkest day having 1k or more concurrent players, and nowadays with all the extra work going on with (edit: not 3k+, which was after 1st NMS major post-release update, but actually nowadays) 7k+ concurrent players - is the ultimate proof: ES2 did not become "a new freelancer", nor even "better made than No Man's Sky" - quite the contrary. Nor is it that "space arcade" genre is dead: NMS being played as much as it is - is proof enough of this.

It pains me to write this all, because i loved, and still love, any game with fair and full six degrees of freedom. ES2 had the potential to become one of the best games of this kind. Instead, for (possibly solid?) reasons - it didn't.

And unlike NMS, i don't even think the failure will be fixed by any later date. I think, ES2 is largely done for.

Sad panda me.

P.S. Michael and Erik: you did not believe me when i predicted this failure would come - back during late EA. You told me things are going swell. Well, turns out, far from. Rose glasses or developer bias or being too tired or whatever else was the cause - i don't know. But now, the numbers are clear to see. But given the release - its content and nature - i don't think you can now fix the wrongs even if you'd try your hardest to do so. Certain core gameplay systems which much define the nature of the game - are too deep embedded now. Perhaps your next game would avoid this sad fate - if you'd make any? I wish you luck with it, if you do. Farewell!