What's the use of that site (never seen it before)? And why is it so urgent that you're pinging Alex on the weekend? Use this for whatever you need it for... https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/train-sim-world/news
I think I knew that website before. It just was used as PR site to showcase TSW if I recall correctly. But what is the reason for abandoning it? Less traffic? But I'm concerned whether it is a good sign giving up that domain completely. Usually you wouldn't give up a domain like that because someone else could use it for some discouraging things.
Maybe they need the money. Giving up such a .com domain that features your product name doesn't really make any other sense. (Usually companies try to acquire more domains - even with often made typos, just for redirecting purposes.) Seems a bit like selling your grandma's jewellry... trainsimworld.com is indeed now available, minimum offer at € 111,287.81. Anyone? And trainsimulator.com is also available directly for sale. Their company name domain railsimulator.com is still registered though.
that’s an insane price tag, I can see why only rich companies would be the only customer even then it’s a push.
I can't imagine anybody paying that price to DTG/Focus. What should you do with "trainsimworld.com"? For a community site it's too much, for a business probably uninteresting. At least, they've reduced maintenance cost
Just when you think you've splurged as much as you need to... Oh, that'll be another 23 pounds for monthly maintenance, sir. "WHAAAAT?"
I think it seems they want to go a yearly route, they are free to deny they are doing it any point but as with other years it’s usually just said it ain’t announced.
I can say this: I fully understand why the various platforms might like a new game every year. That way all of the new stuff is always available on the newest game and the older ones get sunset. That means everyone has to buy the new games to keep up. It's not like buying one DLC every few months; this time they would have to buy the entire brand new game before getting that new DLC. I imagine the main games therefore have much better sales rates than any DLC would. And this is why platforms would love a new numbered title every year. Because it forces us to do the thing we don't like; spending a lot of money to keep up. But I don't believe this is related to the Web site. After all, there is no number on the name of the site. And they might be finding a cheaper site to use. We'll see.
I used that domain for TSW3 and 4. TSW5 would most likely have used the same domain, should it exist. It is true that it was mainly used for marketing, but I liked looking at it from time to time. I'm weird. It was also where I got the latest articles (including the roadmap) from. Perhaps tomorrow we can get an explanation as to why the domain has expired. Meanwhile, I remembered there used to be a trainsimworld2.com, so I checked to see if there was a trainsimworld4.com, and it has a similar message to the one I posted above.
Tin foil hat says Focus has decided TSW is too costly and DTG will go back to their roots as being a pure AddOn developer. Domain not needed anymore.
I think it's at least weird why DTG dropped the website all of the sudden with no information. Nobodys says that "Train Sim World" will even continue. Maybe DTG or Focus decided to rename the game to wash off the bad connections some people associated with. A little bit exaggerating here now but similar things already happened in the past with other products and companies. Many people complaing about the part "World", because they think the there is not enough "world" in the game (either because it's only about the big 3/4 with austria now or the open world isn't accessible enough). DTG justified it in saying something like "We see the world aspect that you can walk around stations and visit landmarks etc." I mean would it be possible that they say we have a "Train Sim Classic" why not simply renaming the TSW game to "Train Sim" again? Hmmm... I already can see the next poll thread in coming: "What is your favorite new title for the TSW franchise?" 1. Train Sim. 2. All Trains. 3. Trainaddict. 4. Train de La Creme. 5. TrainNation. 6. Game of Trains.
Why would they annouce that they weren't renewing a lease on a domain? "hey everyone, this website that hardly anyone ever went to won't be there anymore" seems like the kind of annoucement you just don't bother making.
lonely... Joking aside, I do agree that there is no obligation to announce the dropping of the domain. I do, however, remain curious as to how and why this happened.
Well, I think although we don't know for sure whether the website was efficient enough and made sense to keep up, it's still a but suspicious why they would abandon the domain with the name of a product series they want to high probably keep on going for the next years. I mean they also could have improved the website and maybe release they roadmap informations, sales and other announcements or even a way to access the Community Club or Dovetail Live account. And it's even more suspicious why not even today on Monday somebody replied.
Matt has talked about costs on websites before for something else, if it’s just an expense they ain’t particularly using there’s no reason to keep, and they don’t need to inform potential customers of such changes unless there’s a direct affect like the forums or stores etc.
Hey all, looks like there were some technical issues cropping up over the weekend, our IT team has looked into it and the website should now be available again. Just as a note, I was able to access the site normally just now, but it might take time to spool up completely. If it's not working right away for you, please give it just a little bit more time. All the best, Jan
"Train. Speed. Wow." Very good, Jan! Glad to hear it was a technical thing, did seem kind of odd that the site would just vanish.
