Enough Is Enough!!! The Ongoing Saga!!! It's Almost The 3 Year Anniversary

No restriction in the U.S., and the financials were posted fairly early this year:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06751125/filing-history

Regarding the claim sometimes made that dev staff are being let go in favor of marketing, here is the staff breakdown for the past two fiscal years.

 

Yeah, but Metro Rivals was cancelled in April. So the effect of that wont be in the yearly report until next march.

 

Fair comment but all those “Studio” staff doesn’t quite fit with the pattern we are seeing of fewer in house routes being produced or what sort of contract they are on - whether part time, zero hours etc. And without treading on the toes of anyone at DTG it does seem a very high level of staffing for a company that now effectively has just two products in active development (TSW and Sodor) with Catan and Fishing dropped, and TSC on life support. Though obviously we don’t know what other work they might be doing behind the scenes for other developers or professional applications, phone/tablet apps etc.

Of course it is absolutely up to DTG how they run the company and how many and where they deploy their Human Resources. But nevertheless it is not unreasonable to expect the paying customer to raise an eyebrow and at least ponder the matter when faced with a significant price rise on what they are selling, with likely no real improvement in the overall quality.

 

SimRail looks like a more innovative game with greater potential. In essence, this game has embodied almost the entire spectrum of railway environment — the work of a driver, a dispatcher, automated communication- just jump and play. All this together creates a unique living environment, just like in real life, where each day can be unlike the previous one. With single player aspect everthyng is normal. Thanks to the workshop in Steam, we now have a very wide selection for single-player scenarios directly from the community. Just like with TS — one click and the scenario is already in the game.. It’s a massive network! The fact that this is happening in one country is purely a matter of money ( Dev team comsist of 10-15 empl). I always smile at the argument, saying, “Look at how many countries there are...in TSW”. But there aren’t many countries; it’s just short sections without a chance to create a fully-fledged railway network.
What we have with TSW? The product does not represent any integrity in any way. It’s reaching its technical and conceptual peak, with no hint of a further breakthrough in the simulation part. And the cherry on top is the inflated prices that don’t match the quality.

 

But it also only has Poland, which without being disrespectful, doesn't have the appeal of the US, UK and Germany an the general wide country base that tsw has, which is only growing, not to mention a multiplayer focus, which a lot of people, myself included, aren't interested in when it comes to train sims

 

Well said Denis.

 

I think if the technical debt can be overcome and the game had its quality more equally across DLC as opposed to the one or two third party developers who (in my opinion) actualy truely care, then TSW could still make the line go up.
it is just a shame that it seems more about the number of total players and the total yearly sales numbers on a spreedsheet nowadays and not so much about the game, its quality or the players.

shame like

 

It's always been about making money for the company and its shareholders, it just feels more egregious as the differences across different platforms become more and more pronounced.
"Tell them you're looking into it. Now tell them it'll take longer than you anticipated. Now show them the fancy new features we have coming soon. Now tell them you'll definitely look into it."

 

SimRail is the more innovative game but on X|S it's probably the most broken game I have ever played...and due to the fact that I've already had confirmation that our build will never be fixed, that innovation doesn't really count for anything.

It was also mentioned that because it was set in Poland, SimRail is less appealing than the more travelled TSW, but I'm not fully sold on that theory. On a personal level I would take a working 500km network (with a varied selection of trains) in a single country over a few miles of track in multiple countries any day of the week. It's just a shame SimRail is just too broken to allow me that to happen.

 

I've never really understood the need/want of other players to have local routes in their train game as a prerequisite for enjoyment (i.e. being from the UK and only playing UK routes). I suppose it's one thing if you prefer a certain country because of familiarity with or preference for the signals/safety systems/etc. I do admit the differences between countries can be appealing for that reason. I really like the procedural feel of the German signaling and safety systems if I'm in that kind of mood.

However, I play train sims to simulate driving a train, not to look at familiar scenery. The most important part of a simulator to me is having accurate and in-depth simulation. That's the meat. A train sim could be set on the moon for all I care and I would still enjoy it so long as it was immersive and meaty.

I guess another factor would be people who want to drive specific locos, but again, that preference would never prevent me from trying or enjoying something else. Different strokes as they say I guess.

 

I first got TSW during the pandemic when I was unable to travel due to lockdown so it allowed me to travel vicariously. It also allows me to drive trains I was amazed by in my youth, or travel along lines I'm already well familiar with in the case of Manchester Airport Commuter. I do enjoy seeing the Schwebenbahn in Wuppertal, and the experience of driving the LIRR. It's experiences I'm not likely to be able to experience, and new ways of looking at transit routes I used to take for granted.

 

People prefer familiarity, or they want to operate equipment they see on their daily. It isn't surprising this is a barrier for some people to try SimRail, myself included.

 

I enjoy all routes not just UK routes. However I wouldn't stick to just Simrail as it only has Polish routes. The reason I haven't got Simrail yet is because it doesn't have what I want in single player mode.

 

SimRail definitely has its pluses. I didn't think I cared for multiplayer until I tried the signal box mode. I really wish this was implemented in TSW. But the PS5 version is sooo broken and the devs appear to not to care about it at all.

@pinxtonpaws, can you share what confirmation you have that the xbox version won't be fixed, as it's likely the same fate for the PS5 version?

 

Looks like their business model is quite fine from the finance stand point, plus the 4.7M tax break doesn't hurt either.
Interesting spread of ww sales though... I get why UK routes are dominant these days, but I wonder who's their largest market outside Europe (N. America, China?)

 

Glad to see them financially healthy - we all want the franchise to continue and improve. It’s optics and engagement that matter, a happy consumer base on the whole will never grumble at forking out a few quid more. But a player base that is on the whole resigned to more of the same or worse, apathy, will not. Time will tell how this pans out, but I really do see TSW7 and future roadmaps before TSW8 as the final chance to prove DTG can get a large portion of their customers back on side and crucially re-engage them again. Get some excitement and optimism back in the room.

Sincerely, I wish them well. But they need to listen, learn, and act.

 

Fair enough. I suppose I understand the appeal on that level.

I guess for me it's more about just enjoying train tech and operations in general rather than being attached to any particular loco or region. Might just be my lack of growing up with significant rail services in my area so depth of simulation is far more appealing to me than most anything else. I used to be really into MSFS as well, and the parts that were most appealing came from actual operations (fully functional interior for expert level aircraft, accurate screen functions, etc.).

In my experience, any videogame adaptation of a familiar area just ends up being disappointing rather than endearing. When I'm playing something with unfamiliar scenery it's easy to just enjoy it and not nitpick any inaccuracies or what have you.

One of my favorite things when first getting into TSW was all the train tech, things to learn, etc. I especially love the more monitored and "tech heavy" things like what you see with LZB in Germany, or the monitored systems on the NY routes. Ironically though as an American, the US routes are some of my least played.

SimRail got me good with the ETCS implementation especially, but I especially like how functional almost everything is in the cab. It feels meaningful and consequential. Picked up all the DLC while it was on sale and it just hits the spot (for me). Despite all being in Poland I find all the route extensions/map areas have a significantly different look and feel. Haven't bothered to do any multiplayer yet and I've got around 30 hours sunk into it.

I respect that. I think all the big players have something unique to offer, just depends on what you want out of it. I didn't really mean to make my post another "pro-SimRail" thing, but I guess the implication is there anyway. That being said, for me it was/is a nice breath of fresh air as another true simulator outside of the TSW sphere. I have yet to touch the multiplayer myself, and probably won't until I exhaust all of the single player scenarios.

Run 8 is a non-starter for me despite being set in my home country as I don't usually do non-Steam games these days. There's Zusi, but I think the lack of graphical fidelity is too extreme for my own preference.

 

Br 161 for you

 

Well, not really. If you read the entire document then unit sales have pretty much stagnated over the past year and gross profit has fallen by almost £2m. Sure net profit has improved during that time, but that's largely down to a huge drop in overheads.

 

In deference to earlier comments, I will be watching the streams and make an informed (ha!) decision whether to go for the £40 Standard version rather than the free update. It is three routes for the equivalent of £13 each so any Steam sale will be hard pushed to beat that. However I don’t see the value in the Deluxe Pack this time round. The GP49 is an oddity, I’m not a fan of ICE’s and only really the 333 which is needed to round off the Leeds route. So that can wait until it’s going for £7 or £8 in a sale next year.

 

You also have to bear in mind that in 6 or so months time you'll be able to buy the standard edition for anything upto 50% off (with even bigger savings beyond that), which makes it a very tempting proposition if you want all three routes instead of just the one at a bargain price and can let go of the old fomo thing.
The other thing that puzzles me is why on earth sell the DX edition for £115 when you can just as easily buy the TSW6 bundle with exactly the same content for less than £20 and add it to the £40 standard edition later this month.

 

Let’s just say if I do decide to go Standard rather than free, I’ll be using my infamous two hour refund window very wisely. Particularly the Leeds route, paying close attention to the route quality (assuming Rivet are involved),the night lighting and the 331 sounds.

 

Well, I know the Leeds > Ilkley route extremely well (I even 'drove' a class 101 between Guiseley & Menston when I was 4½ years old) so I'm curious as to which landmarks they've missed out. The one I guarantee will be missed is the almost 200 year old milestone marker outside the forge (displaying the exact halfway point between London & Edinburgh) because although it's a famous landmark, it's not really that well known outside of West Yorks. A bit like mischievous night on 4th November