Forum Is Dead And Game Is Dead

Maybe all the action is over on discord!!

 

What’s the point of this? Other than more pointless heated discussions that lead nowhere? Yeah, I understand why DTG moved, because this is the problem… topics like these!

 

Just a bit of frustration to be honest.

 

16 threads, including this one, have been replied to at least once in the last 24 hours... and that's only counting the TSW General Discussion area.

Yeah seems pretty dead to me....

 

Do you think that is a lot?

I did a similar count and thought it was shocking and that was why i posted.

My expectations might be well out though, i don't know?

I also looked to see which of those had multiple posts today and it was not many.

 

Just ran the VP185 HST from Carlisle to Preston in the snow, swallow livery to boot!. Glorious it was. Forum is quiet, game is most certainly not dead.

 

Yeah, that route does rather save it to be fair.

Roll on the next JT content.

 

Not necessarily "a lot" but it's hardly "dead". Remember, the devs have just had their christmas holidays so there's not much new stuff for people to talk about. It'll pick up in a few weeks.

 

You have obviously been here as long as probably anyone.

How does traffic/engagement etc. now compare to other times in the last decade?

 

Just had a look through the other sub forums and the total is 48.

I mean I've been using this forum on and off but overall traffic isn't much different to how it's always been. Perhaps now it's a bit quieter but not much - tbh I haven't really paid much attention. You do get your quiet periods, as with most things.

 

Well hopefully it stays relevant and people keep engaging.

Some great threads on here sometimes that just could not be replicated on discord et al.

 

Took a peak on Discord a few weeks ago and I have to say there’s hundreds of people engaging in the comments. I still prefer the forums though as my first form of engagement on topics relating to the game.

 

If you think this is a "dead" forum then you have no experience on them.
There's maybe more on some discords but it's less "productive" let's say.
If you don't like the forum, by all means go to Discord.

 

I mean the other forums I use for other games and sports are much, much busier, so maybe my expectations are a bit unrealistic?

Bit old for discord, not my cup of tea at all.

 

Put it this way... how many players do they have in total?
TSW is a TINY player base by comparison to Call of Duty or Fortnite.

 

Yeah, that is a fair point.

It is all relative I suppose.

This place does feel very sparse the last couple of weeks, but that could just be the time of year.

 

People play the game, not sit on the forum.

 

Pretty sure people have lives that don't involve these forums.

 

Forum activity comes and goes as does interest in the game.

The biggest issue with the forum is that despite promises it would remain on an equal footing with Discord, DTG presence in here is now minimal other than the new external CM (who was initially thought to be AI!). Not all of that can be down to negative vibes, if you’re putting out a product that is sub par in many respects or releases with loads of bugs then you need to be man enough to take the criticism on the chin. And I’m sure there’s just as much negative feedback on Discord.

As regards the game itself, I find myself firing it up rather less. At the start of each month to do the Mastery, although even that bugs out more often than not and for a few days after buying a new DLC. There comes a point when the long standing issues really start to rankle (for example the Rivet Class 170 sounds) and you get hit with that wave of foreboding that nothing is ever really going to change, so long as the current management and approach is running the show.

 

Dead forum? Nah, I've got 13 topics with unread posts here in General, since I last logged in late yesterday evening. Given how much is on the roadmap, clearly the game isn't dead either.

I think some people's frustrations at the game not performing well on consoles (especially XBox) at the moment are spilling over into everything.

 

I just had a look on Steam and I'm rather shocked by how little I've played this game in general!

TSW2020 113.2 hours
TSW2 128.5 hours
TSW3 19.3 hours
TSW4 32.1 hours
TSW5 22.5 hours
so far TSW6 4 hours.

Certainly took a dive with TSW3!

 

Looking at the OP’s profile they joined & posted 641 messages since 5 October 2025 - that’s 4 months and the topic is that the forum is dead?
Mind you if his other posts are as banal as this one I’m not surprised it’s dying!

 

Tbh fair Vern Discord is full of nonsense irrelevant chatter about ‘should I buy this route’ or ‘class xx should be in the game’. Unfortunately, it’s a bit like Facebook….great when it started but as it became more popular it lost its purpose completely with people posting pictures of their socks etc…finding a real nugget of useful info in the DTG TSW General channel is very rare. The only real reason I’m in the official DTG Discord is for the News channel - its quicker than logging into the forums for the same news as Im pinged everytime DTG Alex or another Mod releases game news.

 

Im also not a big fan of Discord. Its time by time very childish. Discord is drowning on its own succes. Its nice for kids with an age of 15 but not for older people in guess.

 

This.

I’m also reducing time spent on internet / smart phone in general this year, so my participation around the Discord communities and Forums will drop off naturally with time reinvested into more fulfilling activities

 

I literally use Discord as an alternative to some kind of SMS service to keep in touch with friends overseas and at home in the same place. I wouldn't use any large server because it just descends into inane spam. Trying to scroll to find large, well reasoned comments about topics I am interested in is a mug's game on there. It's not the same thing as a forum at all.

 

Someone got the receipts!

 

It’s there for all to see….

 

It's also been Christmas/festive period and others might have had other things going on.

 

Game seems very much alive to me. I'm using it more than ever, considering a year ago I had it uninstalled. It does have it's frustrations of course.

I try and spend less time on the forums as they seem so negative and I find the manufactured drama banal, I would rather play the sim, however I'm still on here every day generally though, even if I endeavour not to be.

I think we forget that only a very small number of users are on any kind of social media, actively participating.

 

It’s always quiet on here in early January. Once things start moving again I’m sure forum traffic will increase.

 

Nah, the forum is doing just fine. I've noticed it's been quiet over Christmas and New Years, but that is to be expected when people have things going on!

It'll pick back up in the next few weeks.

 

Kind of hard to discuss anything, when there is hardly anything to talk about.

 

LOL wow pointless/nonsensical post without any meaning or question implied, you should try twitter or tik-tok you would fit right in

 

Not sure what you mean by the "Game is Dead"
There's about 900-1,000 players online at any given time (just on Steam)
So, if we figure there's over 80% on console, that's probably around 5,000 players between all platforms.
That's not the 1.2 million for Counterstrike, but it's not a shooter.
Almost the whole top 10 on Steam are shooters.
Then again, those (like CS 2, DOTA 2, etc) aren't available on console, except for GTA V.
The only "transport sim" that is anywhere popular is the ETS/ATS series.
However, you aren't saying "not popular", your claim was that it's "dead"
But it's still about as popular as it was before.
It's just small in general.

TSW isn't far off from where it started, it had dips and spikes but it's still it's own small niche.

Ironically I think the only competition for TSW would really be a "cheaper" version more like ATS/ETS that is a fraction of the price.
A "TEMU" version so to speak with much less physics, less features, etc as that's the big selling point for that series which sells much better.

In short though, you can't really compare a niche railroad sim with a huge general shooter. TSW is still chugging along despite all the people saying it was "doomed" over the years.

 

"Simulator games" on Steam


After ETS and FS 25, it's pretty slim for simulators in general.
A few thousand is considered a "hit" since the player bases are so small.
I don't think people understand just how SMALL the railfanning community really is.

 

I'm surprised ( or maybe not ) that so many people have responded to this pointless trolling thread.

 

If the same thing keeps popping up, it can be used as a learning experience.
A lot of people have sincerely talked about how "popular" TSW is how big the playerbase is and in the larger picture, it's not.
There aren't a lot of players to spread costs of new DLC across for example.
A $39.99 DLC that only sells 5,000 units is only $200,000 in income.
Minus the DTG commission, minus Steam sale costs, etc... it's far less than $200,000 to pay your whole team and pay for an office.
They aren't really "getting rich" at even that price.
Now a game like ETS that can sell 40,000 copies of a DLC at $11.99 can make about $500,000 for likely a similar sized team.
The people demanding things being done for $19.99 or less then expecting an expert product are going to be disappointed.
Even a loco for $9.99 or under that sells only 5,000 copies is still only generating about $50,000...which doesn't go very far for a company.
That's maybe 1 skilled dev for maybe 4 months on a project, or 2 for 2 months, or 4 for a month.

Economy of scale is how the other games/devs get to offer cheaper products. TSW doesn't have that. It's too niche. Too few players.
I'm not like the OP saying it's "dying"... but that it's ALWAYS been a small playerbase.

(For reference, I'm not saying there's only 5,000 players. That's how many are online at any given time. It's likely closer to 100,000 total people who own any of the TSW products. However, most people play rarely and only buy the main product, so the total number of active players willing to buy any one specific DLC I'm putting at maybe 5,000 as an example. It may be more or less, but not everyone buys everything. I'm figuring there are probably 20-30,000 "regular" players with different niche "tastes." Many people will "only buy UK stuff" or things like that. It's just a number thrown out there to illustrate the example, the details will change based on what the DLC is)

The issue of "value" does come up all the time, and it's honestly worth looking at even if the OP was a troll. At the end of the day, devs don't work for free and the "value" for them is what they can put into it and make a living. The "value" to the player is what enjoyment they get out of the DLC they buy.

This is why I suggested that the only true "threat" to TSW would be a cheaper competitor in the ETS/ATS style. Not exactly a threat (since many TSW fans wouldn't accept such a "low quality" game as one based on ETS trains would be, but a game like that WOULD probably sell better than TSW because it'd be a lot CHEAPER. (You get what you pay for)

If it came on console, that'd be a "cheaper option" to TSW and still let them "drive a lot of stuff" and "do a lot of stuff." It would likely succeed due to its lower cost simply though economy of scale. It wouldn't be "better" in quality but it would SELL better. In some ways, it'd more directly rival TSC I think to be honest since there'd be no character avatar, etc.

But no, TSW is not dead...it's just small.

 

You got me!!

Honestly, I was just hoping to get people a bit fired up again and thought a clicky baity title with a fairly mindless comment might do the trick.

And it did to a certain extent. Though I was hoping for a lot more interaction with people discussing the game and the forum to be honest, as well as a lot more railing against DTG, but this will have to do.

Seems like everyone just given up recently and accepted the status quo and poor state of the game.

 

If you want to read messages from people pointing at DTG for every small issue, you can read the "Enough is Enough" thread.

If you want to be a part of a community with hundreds to thousands of posts every day, you will need to search for a different type of game.

What interests me the most, how can you judge the overall activity on the forum and use a term like "everyone just given up recently", if you created your account only a couple months ago?

 

We have umpteenth threads like that.

Maybe remember that many are actually enjoying the sim.

Why would you want to specifically rail against DTG, does it make you feel happier? That's pretty much most threads on here anyway. It just cements this forum as an echo chamber. Don't assume everyone hates the sim or DTG. Too many people on here think they speak for everyone.

If things are that bad maybe you need a break?

 

I have played the game for years and been a forum lurker for most of that time, same as many, many others.

Only signed up here when I stopped using reddit though.

Is that ok?

I definitely show deference to those who have been here a long while and have many thousands of posts, but the good thing about a forum is that other than the mods, we are all equal as long as we stay within the rules.

Your opinion is no more or less valid than mine and vice versa.

I take your other points though.

All good discourse.

 

Fair points and I might caution you of the same thing.

I have been taking a break from the game to be honest, the Xbox experience is frustrating.

My main annoyances is that there is so obviously a great game there with a few tweaks and fixes, but they never seems to be forthcoming.

If I was a PC player with access to all the mods and better performance, then it is quite possible that my whole outlook would be quite different.

 

Its not all rosy for us PC players but we do seem to suffer less than console players.

 

Yes there are issues, I certainly don't have the blurry texture problem consoles suffer from, which would probably drive me up the wall.

My postings reflects my views, I enjoy the sim and get a lot of pleasure out of it, but there are things which frustrate me which I get vocal about when I feel so moved. I just think it is a mistake for people to assume everyone is at breaking point and ready to march towards Chatham with pitchforks.

 

Agree that the game is dead

 

Forum might be a bit quiet at the moment since there is nothing really to talk about, we are still waiting the latest Roadmap or info from developers about ongoing projects. It's quiet because it was the Christmas break.

When is the next scheduled roadmap/update thingy? I thought it was this past Monday :/

 

There is a thread about the roadmap here in the general area.
DTG has said that there will be no roadmap in January.
The next roadmap will not be available until the beginning of February.

 

In what rational way is the game dead? There are several items of DLC in production, new countries being introduced.

There is a lot of hyperbole with little substance to back it up.

 

Thanks, I must be going blind :/

So no Roadmap is fine but I hope they at least give us some kind of update post as after all, January is 18 weeks long