They don't need to make their money back because they never invested any, people have already bought the game. The employees are paid, CR has taken his salary. Mission accomplished. It's more nuanced than that, but it is definitely not a traditional invest > produce > reward cycle. It was more like reward > produce > reward/debt, remains to be seen.
The long term goal though is to sell in game currency, and it's that simple I think. I imagine we will see ship sales continue after launch, but you will instead have people paying for in game currency and buying the ships in game. While you could grind for them in game, many people will just buy the currency to save time.
The long term goal though is to sell in game currency, and it's that simple I think. I imagine we will see ship sales continue after launch, but you will instead have people paying for in game currency and buying the ships in game. While you could grind for them in game, many people will just buy the currency to save time.