We have been given to understand that Schine has (deliberately) never yet used any of the free advertising and marketing options long available to them through Steam.
I think that once a stable Galaxy reboot has been pushed to release and patched, it might be a good time to tap the least of those free options, in order to seed the player base a bit. Even if the remaining marketing options are being held in reserve for a concerted, broad-spectrum marketing drive later on.
There are already plenty of playtesters currently for simply working on the engine, of course (though I do miss occasionally getting onto crowded servers) but those busy servers provide a lot in terms of feedback on performance. It would boost morale a bit as well, and undermine some of the meaningless number-humping constantly issuing from the troll gallery.
The main reason though, is the game's learning curve:
It takes months to years for new players and server administrators to become relatively competent. So a large marketing push in the future would actually require a substantial ramp-up period if there isn't already an existing bedrock of knowledgeable players and server owners. Currently there would not be enough competent server owners and active veteran players to support a truly massive influx of new players.
So even if a larger marketing push is planned for later, in order for that to have maximum effect, it should be preceded by a few smaller pushes some time out. A small marketing event on releasing Galaxy 2.0 (lol - sounds like a DLC release... TFG it's not DLC - looking at you, Paradox, EA) would increase the base of players and servers, which is probably needed after the (expected and anticipated) substantial loss of players who were too inflexible and resistant to change to cope with a new dynamic for power generation.
I think that once a stable Galaxy reboot has been pushed to release and patched, it might be a good time to tap the least of those free options, in order to seed the player base a bit. Even if the remaining marketing options are being held in reserve for a concerted, broad-spectrum marketing drive later on.
There are already plenty of playtesters currently for simply working on the engine, of course (though I do miss occasionally getting onto crowded servers) but those busy servers provide a lot in terms of feedback on performance. It would boost morale a bit as well, and undermine some of the meaningless number-humping constantly issuing from the troll gallery.
The main reason though, is the game's learning curve:
It takes months to years for new players and server administrators to become relatively competent. So a large marketing push in the future would actually require a substantial ramp-up period if there isn't already an existing bedrock of knowledgeable players and server owners. Currently there would not be enough competent server owners and active veteran players to support a truly massive influx of new players.
So even if a larger marketing push is planned for later, in order for that to have maximum effect, it should be preceded by a few smaller pushes some time out. A small marketing event on releasing Galaxy 2.0 (lol - sounds like a DLC release... TFG it's not DLC - looking at you, Paradox, EA) would increase the base of players and servers, which is probably needed after the (expected and anticipated) substantial loss of players who were too inflexible and resistant to change to cope with a new dynamic for power generation.