There comes a point in every game's development where the powers that be have to make the decision to stop adding features and actually release it. With Elite, and with hindsight, I think that most would say it was probably 6 months too soon -- certain features that were detailed in depth in the design archives were very basic at release, and the fact of release effectively baked them so they're subsequently hard to change. But it's unfortunately a financial reality that *had* Frontier waited another 6 months, they'd have been putting the very business at risk. While Elite was in development they effectively had no solid revenue, as all sales to that point were "deferred" income and so couldn't be booked as revenue. Being self-funded there's no publisher to increase the budget or to bail them out, so money is a solid driver.



The same thing goes for Planet Coaster. I'm sure that the developers would love to be given an extra n months to continue adding features and content to the game. But again, they have a large team working on it and at some point they have to start generating income from the game. So they draw a line in the sand, and work toward that goal. What this means is that at first release some people might be disappointed that some feature they wanted didn't make the cut. But what I'm certain of is that like with Elite, Frontier will continue to add to Planet Coaster after its release. The biggest thing I learned about the developers during my day with them is that they're *hugely* passionate about this genre, and they don't want to just drop it and move on.