To be clear, I'm not disagreeing with anything you have said here, with the exception of one thing.
Development costs being massive don't matter entirely at least if we take the assumption SC6 will be used as a base literally speaking (UE4 included), they can practically forward directly this game as the next in a technical sense. Season 2 could be put in the "sequel".
Production costs for SC6 were already WAY smaller than they should have been, they'd be more free to put more into the next since it would practically be an edit in some capacity. They have the freedom of selling a whole game and DLC at a yet again enhanced base. Though it may be more problematic if we consider members of the team to be fair.
My long term point being they aren't going to gain a profit or even satisfy consumers if stages for example were put in as DLC, because people would have to pay for stages which is kind of moot, 2B gained exception as a guest and if stages were pay for they would probably be in rotation far less often thus also coming back to being pointless, if they really approached it openly then it'd be fine, but I doubt they would.
Then we just continue with the inherent problems that people have with this game too.
I'm not denying Season 2 being profitable, that was far from my point, I was saying it was perfect to milk actually. But I mean considering the rest of the problems and circumstances, it being cut wouldn't be a terrible sign either, it was sort of linked to my point regarding Season 3 being a big "lolno" because they would have less to provide at that point and the game already has its own things people despise thus making less popular.
A sequel milking these aspects could milk even further with a Season pass because it has an even better base. I mean take a look, Tekken 7 hasn't added stages (to my knowledge) since home release besides reskins?
Not that Tekken 7 is a bad base, but my point is they've stuck to the same entry and it doesn't suffer from as many strong problems as SC6 that the fan base take issue with. With SC6 having a worse base, I just imagine the chances of milking too far could also fail in their eyes thus yet again profit off of a sequel that they can milk better. Season 2's cancellation can be them planning into this or they can do both.
Assuming they left UE4, then yeah sticking with SC6 is infinitely the better choice when it comes to costs and my point is well... Pointless. A cancellation under that knowledge would mean SC7 and the future is bleak, I suppose I'm being rather presumptuous assuming the UE4 base would be kept?
But regardless, I'm not really disagreeing (Unless I've been a potential moron and missed a different point entirely).
Well here's the thing as to asset portability and development for the next game: it's not going to be great. It always varies somewhat depending on a number of factors, but what we're looking at for the next game is about as work intensive as the options get: the next generation of consoles is landing next year: SCVII will definitely be on ninth generation hardware, and given the time before it is likely to drop, probably ninth generation exclusively. It will also probably be developed for a different engine. Now that doesn't rule out some assets being re-used (FluffyQuakc's probably your guy for more precise speculation as to just how much), but its certainly going to be as much work, relative the overall budget of the game, as any Soulcalibur game can be.
SCII and SCIII are games where they would have benefit from least having to start from scratch again, and SCIV and SCV next, because with those two pairs, the consoles and engines were shared in common between the sequential entries. I do think they have a pretty healthy library of CaS items they can pass along with only so much technical issue in transplanting the object files, but even with those, if you're using entirely new kinds of texturing software, who knows? Stages, story content, menus, netcode/matchmaking for the console networks, and even the balance of the basic visual elements for the new build, all of that has to constructed from scratch. Also, I think we're going to be pressuring them pretty hardcore in the run-up to the next one not to skimp on the basic content (stages especially) so that's even more work.
As you identify though, that is a potential problem: as it is, we don't want them to try to make the next game on a budget. That's why this one is so underwhelming. So it would be nice if they had a head start on content. But unfortunately, I think the next one is going to have to be substantially more expensive for them to make. I totally agree with what
@Dissidia said above: this game feels like a beta version, even a year into its continuing support. I don't know that they can get away with doing that twice. Which is yet more reason why I feel like they will probably view the smart move as being getting at least two season passes out for this game. Fingers crossed anyway!
signs were pointing to season 2, I'm just having serious doubts due to the shitty communication project soul has had and the silence.
Amy was announced in february, we are well past due for an announcement already. The cas packs have been scraps and they couldn't even get the information right for the announcement.
These things signify lack of funds, and makes me question season 2
Lack of funds is a distinct possibility. For a certainty, I do think SC has rather limited priority at that company. But I have to think Cassie has been substantially finished for a while now, even so. So it's possible this is just a very ill-conceived marketing strategy. I really get the feeling sometimes that Namco's corporate culture lets marketing veto more pragmatic concerns among the in-house developers. And they seem to think that all of their consumders are children who A) will respond favourably to surprise announcements and B) you don't want to tell your plans to anyway, because they will respond poorly if you fail to meet projected deadlines. So they wait until the last minute to tell you content is done and then release. And if you plan to sell a second season pass and you got most of the first one out in a hurry, maybe you delay that last one so that you have hostage audience until around the time you want to announce it.
Thing is, at least among those who are likely to stay around for a second season pass anyway, I think the average Soulcalibur consumer is older, and would have no problem waiting patiently for that content, and would in fact be more tolerant of that wait if they knew basically what they were getting. I've been playing these games for two and a half decades....I can wait an extra six months between releases, that's not a problem. But why do I need to be in the dark about what that content is? And can't you at least hint at what your plans for further support are after the season pass? It's not frickin' contract if you say you'd like to do it, and are considering adding X, Y, and Z: we can live with the disappointment if it never ends up happening. Ok, if I'm perfectly honest, some people would be salty about it. But f--- them: those people were never going to be happy--there's just some people you can't please. Target your messaging to those of us who want to have a dialogue with you, and hear where things are going, without being too demanding. Leaving us in the dark too often is testing the loyalty of those of us who have kept the faith through SCV, Lost Swords, long years of silence on the future of the franchise, and now the base release of this game feeling rather incomplete.
