The $40 tier is a bit worrying. People always say DPC isn't trying to squeeze dollars out of this game, but some things point to the opposite. 1) When he quit his job and did this full time, he said releases would be more frequent. That hasn't been the case. 2) When he got the new tech, he said it would allow him to release episodes more frequently. That's not the case. 3) He now has a $40 tier for promotional materials, which is not only bad marketing, it's also a bit of a cash grab.
I really, really enjoy this game, but the lack of more frequent releases and a growing influence on monetizing the game is worrying. A $40 tier member is paying $200 per episode. It's your money, so do what you want, but he's eventually going to tap out on support if he's only releasing episodes every 5 months for the next 4-5 years.
Eh, I've been a $10 sub to him for nearly a year and a half (although I've dropped this to $1 for the past 2-3 months) and I don't think he's ever actually said that. Everytime he's made a big jump in performance or when he went full time, he's said. That being said, I am also also quite disappointed that the average release time has went from 3 months to roughly 5-6 months now. Then again, you also have to think that the game's render amount and quality, number of animations + length, and overall polishing has increased significantly. Just for example, your first date with Josy in Episode 1 has some pretty good awful lighting (specifically the part where the MC and her smile at the camera for a photo) compared to what we get now. Music has also made leaps and bounds.
And it's not like you're missing out anything. You still get the full episode at the same time as everyone else (within a couple of days or so depending on your tier). The only thing that you're lacking are those special renders he produces for the 75$ club, but you're paying for the exclusivity. If you paid that much money for something, would you really be willing to share it for free?
Not to mention that you really, really don't want to rush a creative process. A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is always bad. And this isn't the kind of game that he can ever patch, or not within reasonable bounds in my opinion.
Perhaps I've just been burned a bit too hard by CP2077, but so far I've been really happy with his work.
That said, I also thought the extended DnD portion last episode was kind of pointless and not very fun. But it was interesting and new, so I'll give him that.
