A lot has been said about Universal, the communication or lack thereof, the good old expectations and ofc the "support" of the game. For me personally, the heart of the issue is this: This is now the third game in the series and we still have to deal with the same shenanigans, issues, limitations and bugs. And while I like a lot of the things Frontier does, at some point, the patience is running thin. Or if I want to use an example instead: The game is now half a year old, how long does it take to create a functional bridge?
Now to the actual topic:
We don't know why the "delays" happen (may it be an issues with Universal, technical issues, a new approach, the reallocation of resources or the muted reception of JWE3), but it's now obvious that something is not going according to plan. And while I don't think that the support for the game has come to an end, not everything is just black or white. It's not just support or no support, there is also a third potential option on the table: Less support. At the end of the day, however you want to call it, it could lead to one thing and the topic of the day - Longer development cycles.
More development time would be a good thing, IF it leads to either (A) a higher quality product and/or (B) larger/more complex changes. The obvious issue with that: I think both of these points could have been communicated and people would have understood. They didn't do that... and while this could be another Frontier blunder, it doesn't bode well.
As such, I have to look at the potential risks and consequences:
- Expectations: Some people hope now that we might get 2 free species or that the next update/DLC will be massive. This is not at all guaranteed and might be a recipe for disaster. If that is not the case, Frontier has to disarm that bomb NOW.
- Longer droughts (aka more time to play something else). Frontier should at least look into the possibility to introduce something like a Franchise mode or Custom Challenge to add some replayability to the game. (Especially for the non-park designers out there).
- The cascading effect. Even if it is just an issue with this update/DLC, it might still delay all the following updates.
- Less DLC per year and the game overall.
- And the biggest issue with all of this: Until now, all the substantial updates were paired with a DLC. After all, they are moving in herds. No DLC = No updates and this might hurt the game the most.
As it stands, we might have to wait longer for new content and updates. That means we also have to (potentially) deal with certain limitations and issues for longer. And worst case, the game will get less meaningful changes. Paired with this broken promise, the future of this game is currently uncertain.
It's on Frontier to clean this mess up. Until then, it might be better to wait and see.