Thank you to Zaaap! for helping me out! www.youtube.com/@zaaap All the currency is in dollars. I have no idea how I missed saying that XD If anything seems off, or I missed something/got something wrong, please be sure to let me know! ♥Just to reiterate, the numbers are very basic, so understand exactly what's going on, we'll need a full breakdown. Let's hope 2024 goes a lot better!
As a german sso player it's surprising that you know Zaaap!. But I'm also happy that sso-content creators work together (or at least communicate and don't do just their stuff). It sets a great example for the community of sso which isn't "that great" towards each other. Thank both of you for your content
sso would have never ended up like this if they just listened to their community and stopped being awfully greedy. And, well, maybe put EFFORT into the content they are releasing.
SSO feels that they got way too content at some point and it slowly went downhill. As sny creative, you dont want to be too content with what youre creating for the most part. Games needs continued maintenance and introducing worthwhile updates that are fleshed out and also improve the game in small or big ways.
@@emily-d1k3d the star coin prices isn't what the issue is here. it's prices of things in-game. a top shouldn't cost 150 sc and a pet shouldn't cost the price of a pony
The irony is their game has an antagonistic evil company who are willing to do anything for money. Star Stable is becoming more and more like GED by the day it seems.
Disapointed but not surprised. As sad as it is to see SSO in this state... it's their own fault. They thought older players didn't matter anymore and they only focused on newer players. But turns out they were wrong and now we're here. This is what happens when you abandon the players who were loyal, supportive and with you from the start.
I never got that... like the kids you earned the loyalty of and begged their parents for starcoins now have JOBS and can buy as many as they want and THEY are the ones you wanna kick to the curb ???
@@baconbits229THIS!! i begged my parents for lifetime back in 2014.. ten years later and i have my own money to put into sso, only idek if it’s worth it anymore.
I agree it’s why I stop playing. it’s sad bc there is so much to do in the early game when they did work hard on it but, now they’re not. It dosent help that they lock things behind dates so if ur busy one year to bad u got to wait another year….
Girl preach we need stuff to do stop making new crappy races, let us herd up cattle and overhaul the championships, take out all these dumb collisions and npcs. Like the hay bales bone ect. Apparently they think their target audience is 5 year old we are not content with this game anymore it’s not being developed. Make things FUN and less grindy. Give us a liberty system, neck ropes, bare back pads. Let us gain experience just by riding the horse for fun not through the same races over and over it’s BORING. Give us more open courses or team races Alicia Online is better than this game because it had TEAM WORK.
I’ve been wanted to play since 2017. Because it was only on certain computers at the time and when it was finally released on mobile I enjoyed playing it but even then there were problems and now SSO is just a mess. I love horse games and sso was the biggest one yet I can get my hands on but turns out we can’t always have nice things
Its awful to see SSO's state as it is right now. They just use excuse after excuse and its awful honestly. They need to sort it out. Thank you for making people so aware Rattle!
Dude I just saw all the comments on Reddit about the rainbow event…people were like giving sso an entire pass on all this and I was so confused. Straight up bullying people for “complaining” when it was legitimate criticism. And then when people asked about free horses they got even more bullied it’s bad.
@@MusicCometyeah I found that out the hard way with Palia recently. They wouldn’t research the “indie team” behind it. I don’t think they understand them chasing off the negative criticism is what leaves the actual complaining. But yeah there was a post saying “people have to stop complaining” while everyone talking about said “complaints” were also complaining about the people wjrh criticisms it was exhausting. I usually don’t care for either side but it’s just disappointing to see someone call a community negative and also actively avoid ways to make communication more open. Oh btw, awesome work as always! I always appreciate your work! It’s never too negative or too positive. I respect the facts and opinions as well! It’s relieving and welcomed! Keep being awesome, Rattle! Oh and I hope you’re doing well and life is treating you okay too! c:
@@MusicComet THIS! Omg! There's so many times I'm like: have you EVER played anything else, besides SSO, in your life? No, it's not "normal" to only be able to put out like 3 quests a year... Imagine playing any other MMORPG that does that. "But it's a small team!" NO, it's not! It's HUGE compared to some MMORPG's and they still act like incompetent idiots! It's crazy O_O
Neh, nothing new honestly, remember when the character downgrade happened? Suddenly all the people who didn't like it became "fatphobic", whether they had legitimate criticism or not, for not being grateful for oh so-wonderful SSO 🤣.
To be fair, I mostly only see people pitching a fit instead of being civil. There's a difference between screeching and offering an opinion, imo. As much as I may also disagree with some of sso's antics, that sort of behavior does not help nor make us look reasonable.
It was an honor to share a childhood with you all and I wish I could of shared it with more. But I think now is the time for me to hang up my dusty hat. Ride on soul riders ! ❤
Relatable, for the first time in my life, I was actually thinking of uninstalling Star Stable for good. I've played other games and I see how much better they are. There are hours of new content in other games, new areas, and better rewards and pricing. If Star Stable just chose to stop running the game, I wouldn't be too sad.
Honestly, in their current case, they should give up expensive, unnecessary office decorations and improve communication management (support in this game is terrible). A significant profit would be provided by new tasks (side quests) that don't last a maximum of 2 days, but more time. This is something that encourages players to sustain themselves and spend money, rather than just events, event horses, new horses. It's been getting boring for a long time now
imma be honest, i cant support star stable anymore, i get everything said in this video and the trouble theyre having, but even if most of it is bcs of covid, a lot of ppl have also stopped playing due to their slacking.
Covid is no longer as big of an issue as it was back then a few years ago. They can't keep using covid as an excuse. But since covid, they've plummeted and sadly haven't recovered
As soon as SSO lost their heart, I feel like that’s where we saw all of this drop. I remember when the game was about magic horse girls stopping bad big companies harming their local communities and environments. It had a very green message to it and having relationships with communities was such a big driving force to unlocking lots of content. Now it’s just…buy the next horse and do the next event and we’re gonna focus more on races/shows and also add in low flash nosebands 🤪 like uh? What happened to my slightly fantasy horse game that was all about connection and friendship?
even the fantasy elements are very meh nowadays went from "shhh, don't tell anyone! the islanders can't know, it's for their own safety" to "*magic unicorn runs past* Hiya player! *magical flying sting ray shits on floor* What do you mean magic? *magic colorful swirls zoom frantically across screen* Magic isn't real, silly, this isn't a game! *cue laugh track*"
All I hope is they learn their lesson, I don’t want to loose SSO especially after the hours and hundreds of dollars spent on it and all the memories and happiness it brings me when not thinking of the BS they’ve pulled. I want them to LEARN not go bankrupt and kill a game with potential.. they just need to work out what worked before and what’s not working now
The Christmas festival was my breaking point; I got a few hours into trying to collect those stupid snowflake things with barely anything to show for it, it wasn't *fun*, it was just...running around on a slippery frozen lake going back and forth. For hours. To unlock carrots and a pittance of money. And that was after the stupidity of 2022 Christmas festival starting without any races or anything to do! I only started playing in March 2020 so I was definitely who they were trying to capitalize off of too.
I feel disappointed about them going downhill. If they lose their shareholders like you proposed everything will just go up in flames. At the same time, I have to think of how they had something like this coming. Guess we can only hope they get back on their feet and learn from all this
Their new recent post about the season/battle pass is really really worrying. They’re trying new ways to get revenue. It might be free for people who already paid but I’m worried they’ll make a paid upgrade for Star riders if it goes well
Usually there is like a free section where you can get free rewards, and like a section where you can pay money for more and better rewards. Who knows, I guess we'll see.
@@bagelcat13 I wasn't even bothered to do the Starshine Ranch event... Same with last year lol. It was too much effort for the little reward you got out of it.
I think this sort of thing has been a long time coming. They're feeling the effects of not investing in their game years ago - in that "golden age" 10-ish years ago (2016 era roughly) and letting that tech debt accrue. They have almost sole control of a market niche and consistently fumble it. SSE has consistently made poor decisions and I've said in a comment before that a lot of their recent changes are too little too late, though its not for lack of effort from the employees as the updates when they do arrive have been quite nice. It's clearly upper management strangling the company. I think a lot of SSE employees would want to slap the dummy executive(s) who took that revenue and ran with it without realising it was a soon-to-pop bubble. I think literally anyone, weather they work in accounting or not, could tell that the growth wasn't going to last forever. Most of the community, especially the older players (both older in terms of age and how long they've been playing) have lost faith and either don't play anymore or barely log on and so they've lost the audience that I believe would actually be able to spend money on the game. Working teens/adults who are invested in the game, not kids begging for pocket money off their parents. I haven't brought star coins in years on principle - I log on for the Christmas stuff, that's pretty much it. I haven't even bothered with the story stuff. I want to see this game do well, but I've long since lost faith after literally years of stagnation.
right, ive always said its clearly the upper management that is the downfall of this company! these poor employees cant do shit about it, but just watch as they might lose their job due to their bosses poor decision making and handling of money. it really is just laughable to me that they saw that spike growth and ran with it blind, as if they lost all their knowledge in how sales works and forgot how sudden huge spikes paint false pictures, especially when that spike was so clearly because of the lockdown.
oof so basically they had a spike in income that got into their head, so they became over confident and enthousiastic. I can imagine the feeling, luck strikes and you just want to spend and invest. I don't get how sso didn't think more about it, why they didn't estimate that the situation wouldn't stay the same forever, people whom normally wouldn't play quitting, getting back to their normal lifes, less people playing and paying. I'm not an expert and can't judge from their position, but I think I would have spend the extra money into improving the existing game instead and withhold some just in case instead of all these extra side projects. Maybe 1, but not like 4 or 5.
I just recently completed a quest or whatever where I had to rescue the black pony from the peir and the evil man turned himself into a monster. Not only was there missing dialect in the chat bubbles for that quest, but when you have to cage the monster guy, if he catches you, the whole thing glitches out, I saw my horse in a stable like area, and couldn't move or dismount, my character was also invisible or not there. I had to restart my game multiple times just to complete that quest. What the actual F*ck SSO. Your whole company is one big disappointment.
I have been playing since 2018 and have always felt like they never have fixed bugged properly. It’s one of my biggest problems with the company. I love the game itself but the company needs to start fixing bugs
it's unfortunate to see a game i've played for 10+ years fall down so hard. i'm hopeful they'll bounce back and maybe even improve; but i'm not sure i'm worried about it going away completely. i'm following too many deceased mmo revival projects to worry, i think lol
One thing I will NEVER understand is why companies REFUSE to listen to their target audience. Like, you’re going bankrupt for a reason SSO! If the ones in charge just set away their pride (and wasn’t so financially stupid that they burned more than 40 MILLION in one year) and listened to the fanbase I doubt they’d be in so much trouble. I grew up on this game and I still have a deep soft spot for it, but I have to come to terms that this game likely doesn’t have much life left in it. It’s sad, mainly because all of this could be completely avoidable, but alas. What’s done is done, and hopefully the employees there are able to find more stability and better treatment elsewhere if SSO shuts down.
like you said, because upper management is greedy and blinded by pride, so they make dumb decisions focused on what they think is correct based on what they learned in school and their ignorance, versus the actual environment theyre in and what is actually making success.
Something that would truly fix SSO would be a real competitor in horse MMO but all we got are mobile games with massive amounts of microtransactions. So SSO stays where it is until the servers shut down at some point. SSE got so comfy at their spot that it made them careless. It´s honestly so sad how neglected the horse gaming world is. There are so little actually good single player horse games and barely any MMOs in comparison to the amount of looter shooter/fantasy MMOs. (They have their own issues I know)
For laptops/PCs there's also Rival Stars Horse Racing. It must be bought, but once you do, you don't have to buy anything in the game itself anymore. They update once in a while, but there's nothing in-game that costs real-life money. Only the game itself. These people are devoted to the game and I return to it more often than star stable online.
It's such a sad thing to see. 2020 - 2021 could have been the year SSO really turned around. Perhaps, if they hadn't gotten such big heads and upper management was smart financially, they could have reinvested back into their game. You know, the only thing players actually cared about. They should have NEVER done the animated series. While cool in theory, (I have yet to actually watch it) it was not a smart financial move for the long run. Same goes for the 2 games they tried to start. Instead, they could have taken all that sweet sweet money and extra employees they had at the time and really hunkered down on fixing the game they had in front of them. Also, if they wanted to make things (take the dumb candle incident), invest in more easy to manage items and ship overseas that players ACTUALLY voiced wanting to buy. Physical books, artbooks, stickers, magnets, T-shits, hoodies, travel mugs and openly advertise them as in your face and annoyingly as they do bundles or double star coins. They have done it before, but could have advertised clothes in a cool way of "Hey, if you buy this hoodie/shirt in our shop, we'll send you a FREE in-game hoodie/shirt that your character can wear too!" But hey, I'm just a silly gamer who knows nothing about running a company, so what do I know.
Marcus Thorell very conveniently left the company in January 2020, Which is when it went downhill. (He was the last original team member, as far as I know) (Also apologies for the edits, I had to search the exact date he gave himself, linkedin gave the wrong date)
And according to a comment made by the book author, he was the one who actually tried to keep the books alive. I’d link the FB post, but RUclips doesn’t like links.
i think they thought 2020-2021 were the years they couldve turned around too lmao, which is why they went so heavy handed into it. they just did it in the worst way possible and is exactly what eventually caused their downfall.
I really liked that they did outside projects and I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to do comics and books and RUclips series because hey, it is still set in the game universe. It’s a great way to advertise/showcase the game outside of a game/gamer area. That being said, I def think they bit off more than they could chew at the time. I don’t think a new game was smart, but the books and RUclips series seemed doable as long as they had a set ending. But yeah the candles were…odd. Having an SSO store with actual game merch that you could then wear IN GAME would be super cool
The thing is, they’re right. Because it’s all middle class white girls who play the game. They have the money to spend on it and suck on SSO’s toes. But what SSO doesn’t realize is that that demographic is starting to shrink due to worldwide economic issues, and trends.
while simultaneously not giving users any worthy gameplay to actually pay FOR. they fr think their playerbase is so dumb we'd just give them all our money because of hOrSeS
First they got rid of April fools. Then the rainbow event in March, Then the old Halloween quests that were much more fun with wandering ghosts around jorvik and galloper Thompson running around too to replace it with the boring Halloween island. Now they got rid of cloud kingdom? They might as well get rid of the Christmas village and spring festival. I don't even play the game anymore cause they keep doing this.
@@YTRattleat this point I don’t think much of the game mechanics would change if they got rid of chat. One thing I liked back in the day is that you don’t need social features to play the game, (I was a very autistic antisocial child) but even then everything community-wise was about chat. The game itself though? They can keep literally everything the same if they got rid of chat.
thing is, if they remove chat, they remove the community and there will literally be nothing left to do in the game. role plays, shows and clubs are pretty much carrying sso right now imo.
maybe if they lowered their prices and released story/event content they wouldn’t be dealing with this situation, they think releasing more horses will be the solve to their problems, when in reality its the opposite because nobody wants to spend 30+ dollars on merely 1k starcoins for a single horse. The chat problem is also very bad, i cant say the word FAWN in there and thats INSANE. it makes roleplaying/chatting hard.
Recent update on the chat. Players are now using simple words to confuse the chat filter. "Sing song sing song" or "grass grass horse grass" at the end and can now FULLY SAY THE N WORD, both Gs hard R if they do this. What a mess! Wth.
@@YTRattle sadly it isnt even new, using grass grass etc etc after a sentence has been happening for a long time. the chat filter has always been doogy
Yup. And when the filter “catches on” to those words, they just switch to something else. Think they’re using “necklace necklace” ATM.. it’s pretty ridiculous lol.
Man it seems like Star stable is falling apart at the seams.... I don't think I've played in months not even when they gave out free star coins 😕 It's sad But at the same time kind of expected because the game is like 12-13(?) years old now and there are so many issues with the game that they haven't fixed... Still makes me sad though
as an accountant great job!!! 😊 I love seeing my love for horse games and my job (not necessarily a love of mine… but an interest for sure) intersect! great discussion 🤍
So basically like almost every other tech company after the pandemic: huge ravenue spike -> big development and big investments -> ravenue goes down because people go back to the real world -> company panics because growth wasn't linear (who would have thought, eh?) -> company has financial problems and downsizes Not to be unkind but all of the mentioned was absolutely easy to predict and the consequences could have been avoided with proper management.
It's so sad that mine and many other's SSO memories are tainted by what they have become. I started playing in 2016 and was fortunate enough to get 2 good years of magic, back when updates were good, the story was GREAT, the community felt welcoming and the servers were full of drama but it kept things entertaining. The support system was wonderful, they always had warm and thoughtful responses to my e-mails, and most importantly: they listened. The bugs were plenty but nothing too game-breaking (I still remember the fly sound glitch that wouldn't stop playing in our ears xD). It's sad bcs if I flip what I just said to change it to the opposite it describes the state the game is in, I can just try to keep alive the Sso I remember in my mind 😔💔
SSO's biggest problem is that it's trying to solve the problem of not having funds by raising the prices and pumping more and more horses out. When in fact the actual way to raise money is to focus on the game itself, the story and the visuals and thus making an actual game with something to do in an interesting environment. That's why they drifted off with the comic and other games because it's hard for them to keep working with SSO and the limitations they've put on themselves with it. SSO has made almost all of the mistakes a game company can do (stalling the story, veering off to different projects, shooing away old and committed players, being unable to fix their multiple issues within the game itself etc) so I will be here just sipping my tea and waiting, when this whole game will shut down for good.
I've found a new problem too, I have a new gaming laptop and the game now runs RIDICULOUSLY slow. I can barely play, and it's definitely a server issue because it runs much bigger games just fine. My trust is at 0. Can't even play it anymore.
That´s because SSO has horrible optimization or was never properly optimized. It has been this way since a long time and will always be this way. With the (not quite top notch) graphics and everything it should even run on way older machines but even my 2023 gaming PC for 1000€ has a laggy SSO experience. Especially at crowded times. I run Black Desert on Ultra settings and had Tarisland on second to highest setting in Beta.
I started playing when I was 8 in 2012 and I honestly miss the game so so much. I haven't played in years now because of the awful updates, but I'd do anything to play the old sso
Another sign of this is that the horses from the SSO Horses phone app are currently available to purchase at the blazar at a discount. Which could mean that they intend to shut down that app as well
Its so hard to see these statistics because at the same time as being mad and upset with all the changes sso is making, you can really see the trouble theyre going through financially
@@HawkinaBoxthats true but I also think the downfall from covid hit them hard. Sure, I agree, giving the players what they want would bring more money in and their attempt to aim the game at brainless children is what will eventually be the downfall, but they’ve struggled with the increasing costs like most games have. Its simply because sso is so big that the fanbase are so aware of the statistics.
Let’s be honest here, the easiest way to fix all of this for some amount of time at least, is to better train the chat AI so that no more scandals in game will happen. This’ll satisfy older players and make parents of children feel more safe about their kids playing Star Stable. They should put the Cloud Kingdom in the game this coming week, since they most definitely still have the files, and even if it didn’t get a rework from last year, people will still be happy to see it one more time before they change it next year. They should give out more generous Star Coins Codes or tack (even if it’s just recolors or clothes for lifetime Star riders in the Bonus Item Shop). They also should work on fixing their current bugs and in game glitches. Once players realize, that THEIR own wishes are being heard and supported, they’ll be happy to play again and will actually enjoy the game. If they then lower the Star coin and Star rider prices, people will be more willing to buy because it’s 1) cheaper and 2) they are investing in a GOOD game where their voices are being heard by the company/game developers (= they will most definitely profit from it and it WILL give them better income). They need to start being more transparent and communicating better with their community and they HAVE to stop working on projects that THEY want to add and need to start working on things that WE want in game. After this they can rework and add new stuff, but they should stop all of their projects that are way too big (for now) and take way too much time for now, because they obviously don’t have the budget and employees for it. Once they’ve saved up money they can pick their projects up again.
or, or they could NOT use the ai as their main way of filtering because why would you trust ai to filter out real people's conversations? they could just have actual moderators alongside it. the easiest fix for them to do is to LISTEN TO THEIR COMMUNITY.
@@iimdone They need to add moderators, yes. But they obviously don’t have the money to hire them currently? SO the best solution for now is to improve their AI to save some money, before they actually hire..
As far as I know they didn't outright say that the cloud kingdom is cancelled. Just saying "it's not coming back AS WE KNOW IT" there is a possibility that it will come back with a new look in the next year(s).
(about the level 27 bans) i'm in level 25 and i've only been playing since 2016, (2017 with starrider) and i haven't even been grinding during special events. so being able to reach 27 is super possible and i can't even understand why sso thought it wasn't
Didn't play SSO actively in years so I might be wrong but I remeber talking to some friends like a year ago abt the fact that SSO said smt abt a max level of 26 or at least that they planned to do that.. so maybe thats the cause for the bans? SSO being SSO again by wanting smt without working for it? And since some players dared to reach a level SSO didn't want anyone to reach, they got mad? But again, I can be wrong lmao
@@000lost6 there's never been a max level, just a max amount of possible xp, and no one knows the exact amount, but people that started playing during release and have been playing until now will have reached level 27, especially considering the recent quests have like 100+ xp rewards it is possible that they planned to make a max level but imo it's too late now
Up until about 2015 you could only reach level 15, then they changed it to 20, then they changed it again. It had a cap for years. I know because I was there. I’m level 24 and about halfway to 25 with no way to earn EXP but a little bit here and there on the FIRST DAY of events and festivities.
I’m being truly honest at this point that I actually don’t care about the nostalgia factor anymore. (Someone else can just make a game with the old art style, it was lower poly and quality in technical aspects and mechanics, it isn’t nearly as expensive as making a clone of new star stable or a more realistic horse game.) I just genuinely think that the company needs to get a reality check and go bankrupt or something along those lines. Online game companies never last this long, I’m surprised SSO didn’t go bankrupt years ago. They are holding on by the luck that no other games fill the niche. They are blinded by thinking that they are better than other online world game companies, but they are slowly reaching the same reason that other online world game companies went bankrupt.
@@zixea3318it’s kinda reminding me of that httyd mmo that got shutdown. It was full of bugs and it was just soo old and they weren’t making much money because their player base simply got older and can’t play as much.
All they needed to do was keep the lore going and build a great lore experience for those who wanted it and build a stable area where people/clubs/individuals can customise care and RP their own horses. They could make money of custom schools/enviroments/stables and accessories Cause at the moment Jorvik feels like an overworld shop. I used to play daily when I had story quests but now I wait 9 weeks log on buy a horse with my life time coins and log off.
Same, I get the "damn, sso would be fun" urge, log in, remember that it's not the game I was thinking of (that would be the game I grew up with, which modern sso does not resemble in any way outside of its name), buy a horse because I have 1k star coins, ride around in a circle for a few minutes, log out, repeat in 2-3 months
idk i‘ve been playing sso since 2020 and its insane how much changed😭 i mean its nice that everything’s looks more 'modern' and realistic now, but the vibe is just.. gone. i’m not even sure what it is, maybe i just grew up, but even the storyline isn’t hitting anymore. we didn’t get any new areas for years and we just get horses and unnecessary updates😭 also what’s up with new players getting super pretty accessories, LIKE WE DIDNT HAVE THAT???
A lot of comments, I know. But, I think they should shut it down for good, just like wildworks did with feral, simply because the game wasn’t doing too good. There are a lot of underrated horse mmos out there. I believe in 2-4 years, Sso will be shutting down, and maybe be pulling the company down with it.
I might just be wrong, but my understanding is that players don't even get bonus stats beyond level 25. If that is the case, why does it even matter if people are higher level? Does it even impact anything? Seems a silly thing to ban people for when we got people who have been on the leaderboards for ages with 2 second course clear times rofl >.>
Ive been a player of sso since 2018 when I begged my mother to buy me a laptop so I could play it. When I did get one I played it everyday after school up until 2021 where I moved and didn't have a lot of time for it. However in 2022 when i went back to it I found out everything had changed and the game wasn't working on itself as much and only releasing horses it made me sad because I had such fond memories of the game. I have now accepted the game is crashing and burning and in a weird way im glad because they will finally learn that old players matter and to not give up on the things that MADE your game instead of just money.
FFS, again with the removing, not replacing with anything worthwhile. "It's too much work." You have 200 people, WTF are all those people doing?! Maybe a game like this is just too much responsibility for the current management. It's still is just falling apart!
i loved this game so much growing up and have spent a ton of money on getting event horses and crap like that, it pisses me off that a game i love so much is turning out this way.
I really hope that SSO turns this around. I grew up with this game, I have loved it since I was a small child. And my loyalty to the game is undying. I want the company to really think and weigh their options on what they can do with such a small budget I want the company to make itself think it's Indie and believe that just like other Indie Developers, they can do great things either with or without money. It doesn't have to be quest focused. But fixing the problems sso already has before making more decisions and stopping weekly updates would be great.
hey rattle! have you made a video about the history of SSO yet? If not, I'd really like to know how the company behind it sort of. devolved over time. my personal theory is that part of why SSO has gotten so bad over the years is due to the constant changes of hands the game seems to fall into. Love your videos!
What i found really weird is that why are there still 104/105 servers up, why not merge it? So sso pay less for electricity, for hosting.(And live mod would be so much easier) Also the prices didn't have to go higher for the customers, if they just look at what could go away in the company itself
they’re servers are old af, they would collapse with that many players trying to log in. it would make the game unplayable for some people, some get laggy just by standing in crowded areas
I personally like not having lvl gap, since there isnt really much other ways to show you are a long time player (unless you wanna use ur statless 1st birthday stuff but imo that just feels more like trying to shove it in other people's throats). Retired horses began only at 2017. I just like seeing my hard work somehow showcased. Now that stats no longer increase after lvl 25 there isn't much harm there either; it is just a number now. Or maybe I have bias since I'm 1k exp from lvl 27..?
i think we are all kind of still in the shock of how poorly they are managing the game nowadays..Its so sad. I am just trying to play when i can because i am actually waiting when one day they shut down the servers..
4:19 Sorry if this has been mentioned already (I haven't checked all comments 😉), but a 50% revenue growth to 44 million in 2020 does not mean that the revenue was 22 million in 2019. It was about 30 million. 50% of 30 = 15, 30 +15 = 45. See also 11:10, that should really be corrected (unless I'm the one who's in the wrong here obviously). 11:46 One more nitpick: 28 is not almost half of 44 by any stretch of the imagination. It's much more than that (about 63.6%). I understand the point you're trying to get across, but I think that's possible without such exaggerations. 11:39 Minor point: Here you make it sound (to me at least) as if SSE moved from Stockholm to a different city. As far as I know, their new offices are in Södermalm, which is a part of Stockholm. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make SSE look better than they do (in any respect), but I think these points should be addressed.
It breaks my heart to see what sso has become. I remember loving this game when I was a kid and seeing it just dissolve into a money hungry corporation makes me so sad 😢
Sometimes I really question their reasoning about anything, especially lately. And I bet they only unbanned those level 27s because everyone was getting angry at them for it xD and a friend of my friends reached level 27 legit bc she'd been around since the start, and she was wrongfully banned. Thankfully though SSO came to their senses and unbanned her, it was very unfair of them to ban loyal players like that. And since the player stats are capped at level 25, it really makes no sense to me that they would make a big deal to ban players who get to level 26-27 legit, as they do not gain any more advantage with stats. What would be a big deal is if players actually hack their levels and hack extra stats on, especially after level 25.
SSO added message with chat rules? Im sorry what message??? There was no message! HUH?! Also deleting Cloud Kingdom sucks... really there's nothing to do in this game WITH EVENTS and they're deleting them... 😤 damn
the recurring problem with sso is they're too short-term thinkers. it's been proven time and time again and it will be their complete downfall if they don't learn how to be long-term thinkers instead.
Honestly I sometimes wonder if sso is still like really active? Like every server I go on is so empty like it use to be SO busy back in the day now it’s like “where is everyone?”
Reason for bad finance: the little kids are becoming traumatized and terrified and they just leave because they are scared of the chat. Thank me later, ima play SSO so i can buy more horses.
I feel like this game is in a freefall and nothing can stop it atp. The snowballing effect of not listening to the community, raising prices, cutting events and ignoring bugs will kill sso im afraid. it sucks, been playing since 2014 and its just sad to watch my favourite game fall apart
The management has prioritized a new target audience, the one that in reality doesn't even exist in that big amount to let them get away with keeping thinking of players as idiots and not doing the bare miminum and still get a big profit
am i the only one who just.. doesn't understand why we have so little in the updates and has no idea what takes the team so long to do anything. i'm currently studying in a games design college course, and we dabble in 3d modelling and texturing. this new event had, what, a few new sets? those sets can't have taken a WHOLE team a long time. they look incredibly simple to create and texture especially with multiple people working on them. and the magic horses. they're just retextures of horses with a few new parts on. don't get me wrong i LOVE the new magic horses, but like... they look incredibly easy to make. why is it we never get anything with magic horses?! those horses can't have taken a long time to create??
Oh dear. I've been on hiatus for a while, it's sad to hear things aren't going well in SSO. I was really looking forward to extended projects and merch and so on and even posted some enamel pin designs a few years ago on social media - it got shared by an SSO employee via instagram story and the voting ended with over 90% yes to whether the players would like to see SSO enamel pins like those. I was hoping maybe they'd release official enamel pin merch or something one day. :(
Not surprised, as some one who has played it for a long time, it is boring now, it is hard to level up your rider, they are not extending their map and story they are just upgrading and creating new horses.
"moved offices from stockholm"... no they have moved it from just outside the central station to a little further south. still in Stockholm City. just located at a less fancy street.
i've been playing SSO because of a friend of mine. I am a regular gamer and it's a disappointment that they call SSO a game. They charge so much, as much as a "triple A" game, for the game. They don't even have a "report bug" section when the game is super buggy. They are so stingy with in-game currency and heavily rely on little kids' parents' wallets to sustain them. How about putting in more into the game instead so that people WANT to invest in the game.
I was so excited to participate in the cloud Kingdom event after taking a break from Star Stable for YEARS. I hadn't played SSO in over 7+ years, but I'd seen videos of when Cloud Kingdom first came out, when I returned this year to find out that they just got rid of it was pretty disappointing.
Thank you to Zaaap! for helping me out! www.youtube.com/@zaaap
All the currency is in dollars. I have no idea how I missed saying that XD
If anything seems off, or I missed something/got something wrong, please be sure to let me know! ♥Just to reiterate, the numbers are very basic, so understand exactly what's going on, we'll need a full breakdown. Let's hope 2024 goes a lot better!
Really nice done, great video
As a german sso player it's surprising that you know Zaaap!. But I'm also happy that sso-content creators work together (or at least communicate and don't do just their stuff).
It sets a great example for the community of sso which isn't "that great" towards each other.
Thank both of you for your content
@@zaaap Thank you, Zaaap! And thank you for letting me know about all of this! ♥^^
@@zaaap not the crossover I ever expected, danke Fabi 🙏
Sorry, but what happened to the Sherlock Holmes Awakened review?
sso would have never ended up like this if they just listened to their community and stopped being awfully greedy. And, well, maybe put EFFORT into the content they are releasing.
SSO feels that they got way too content at some point and it slowly went downhill. As sny creative, you dont want to be too content with what youre creating for the most part. Games needs continued maintenance and introducing worthwhile updates that are fleshed out and also improve the game in small or big ways.
And maybe lowering the prices of the coin!!!
Meanwhile ffxiv:
@@emily-d1k3d the star coin prices isn't what the issue is here. it's prices of things in-game. a top shouldn't cost 150 sc and a pet shouldn't cost the price of a pony
We've been saying they need to stop pushing out so many horses for years but they never listened 😭
The irony is their game has an antagonistic evil company who are willing to do anything for money. Star Stable is becoming more and more like GED by the day it seems.
😂 omg so true i cant
wait yeah that's SUCH a good point
And they think releasing more horses and not prioritizing events/content is going to fix their money problems 🤣
As always
Well said lmao
and the new horses kinda suck too..erm
But that's going on for years
New horses are great. But they're not worth anything if theres no new content you can play through with all the new horses
Disapointed but not surprised. As sad as it is to see SSO in this state... it's their own fault. They thought older players didn't matter anymore and they only focused on newer players. But turns out they were wrong and now we're here. This is what happens when you abandon the players who were loyal, supportive and with you from the start.
I never got that... like the kids you earned the loyalty of and begged their parents for starcoins now have JOBS and can buy as many as they want and THEY are the ones you wanna kick to the curb ???
Strange how this seems to be an epidemic among modern companies.
"Haha fanbase, we hate you!"
@@baconbits229THIS!! i begged my parents for lifetime back in 2014.. ten years later and i have my own money to put into sso, only idek if it’s worth it anymore.
@@katiemarie3266 Yep, there are much better games to spend money on
@@baconbits229 well, we can buy as many star coins as we want but it isn’t worth it. Kids are still the easiest way to make money.
Well if there was anything to do in the game besides buying horses and running in circles, maybe they wouldn’t have this problem🤷🏻♀️
So true, I would spend those 50€ on horses if I could actually DO something with them
I agree it’s why I stop playing. it’s sad bc there is so much to do in the early game when they did work hard on it but, now they’re not. It dosent help that they lock things behind dates so if ur busy one year to bad u got to wait another year….
real.
Girl preach we need stuff to do stop making new crappy races, let us herd up cattle and overhaul the championships, take out all these dumb collisions and npcs. Like the hay bales bone ect.
Apparently they think their target audience is 5 year old we are not content with this game anymore it’s not being developed.
Make things FUN and less grindy.
Give us a liberty
system, neck ropes, bare back pads. Let us gain experience just by riding the horse for fun not through the same races over and over it’s BORING.
Give us more open courses or team races Alicia Online is better than this game because it had TEAM WORK.
It does break my heart how SSO has gone so downhill :( I've played it since 2012 so just seeing this is so sad.
I’ve been wanted to play since 2017. Because it was only on certain computers at the time and when it was finally released on mobile I enjoyed playing it but even then there were problems and now SSO is just a mess. I love horse games and sso was the biggest one yet I can get my hands on but turns out we can’t always have nice things
ive been here since 2012 as well, but i honestly feel no empathy for them at this point.
@@iimdoneI have no empathy for the company, however I’m sad that SSO has gone the way it has. It was my childhood game I grew up on 🙁
@@Korlkoreoh my gosh same exact experience with me
idk what they’re doing at this pooint
Digging their own grave
I don't think they even know what they're doing at this point.
literally things just keep getting worse
They don't. And even if the social media team is listening that doesn't mean they have an effect on how things go in the upper management
They don’t either lol
Its awful to see SSO's state as it is right now. They just use excuse after excuse and its awful honestly. They need to sort it out. Thank you for making people so aware Rattle!
Go woke go broke.
And what’s awful is too see so many players rabidly, religiously defend them and attack anyone who dares to call them out on their garbage practices.
anything negative about sso is not surprising at this point.
Dude I just saw all the comments on Reddit about the rainbow event…people were like giving sso an entire pass on all this and I was so confused. Straight up bullying people for “complaining” when it was legitimate criticism. And then when people asked about free horses they got even more bullied it’s bad.
Usually when I see SSO defenders it's people with no MMO experience. It's like the only game they play and it's sad to think about tbh.
@@MusicCometyeah I found that out the hard way with Palia recently. They wouldn’t research the “indie team” behind it. I don’t think they understand them chasing off the negative criticism is what leaves the actual complaining. But yeah there was a post saying “people have to stop complaining” while everyone talking about said “complaints” were also complaining about the people wjrh criticisms it was exhausting. I usually don’t care for either side but it’s just disappointing to see someone call a community negative and also actively avoid ways to make communication more open.
Oh btw, awesome work as always! I always appreciate your work! It’s never too negative or too positive. I respect the facts and opinions as well! It’s relieving and welcomed! Keep being awesome, Rattle! Oh and I hope you’re doing well and life is treating you okay too! c:
@@MusicComet THIS! Omg! There's so many times I'm like: have you EVER played anything else, besides SSO, in your life? No, it's not "normal" to only be able to put out like 3 quests a year... Imagine playing any other MMORPG that does that. "But it's a small team!" NO, it's not! It's HUGE compared to some MMORPG's and they still act like incompetent idiots! It's crazy O_O
Neh, nothing new honestly, remember when the character downgrade happened? Suddenly all the people who didn't like it became "fatphobic", whether they had legitimate criticism or not, for not being grateful for oh so-wonderful SSO 🤣.
To be fair, I mostly only see people pitching a fit instead of being civil. There's a difference between screeching and offering an opinion, imo. As much as I may also disagree with some of sso's antics, that sort of behavior does not help nor make us look reasonable.
It was an honor to share a childhood with you all and I wish I could of shared it with more. But I think now is the time for me to hang up my dusty hat. Ride on soul riders ! ❤
Relatable, for the first time in my life, I was actually thinking of uninstalling Star Stable for good. I've played other games and I see how much better they are. There are hours of new content in other games, new areas, and better rewards and pricing. If Star Stable just chose to stop running the game, I wouldn't be too sad.
see yall riders on the other side. ❤️
I had to say goodbye to my horses, ride my starter for the last time… I have now said goodbye to Jorvik. Star Stable has changed for the worse
Honestly, in their current case, they should give up expensive, unnecessary office decorations and improve communication management (support in this game is terrible). A significant profit would be provided by new tasks (side quests) that don't last a maximum of 2 days, but more time. This is something that encourages players to sustain themselves and spend money, rather than just events, event horses, new horses. It's been getting boring for a long time now
imma be honest, i cant support star stable anymore, i get everything said in this video and the trouble theyre having, but even if most of it is bcs of covid, a lot of ppl have also stopped playing due to their slacking.
Covid is no longer as big of an issue as it was back then a few years ago. They can't keep using covid as an excuse. But since covid, they've plummeted and sadly haven't recovered
As soon as SSO lost their heart, I feel like that’s where we saw all of this drop. I remember when the game was about magic horse girls stopping bad big companies harming their local communities and environments. It had a very green message to it and having relationships with communities was such a big driving force to unlocking lots of content. Now it’s just…buy the next horse and do the next event and we’re gonna focus more on races/shows and also add in low flash nosebands 🤪 like uh? What happened to my slightly fantasy horse game that was all about connection and friendship?
even the fantasy elements are very meh nowadays
went from "shhh, don't tell anyone! the islanders can't know, it's for their own safety" to "*magic unicorn runs past* Hiya player! *magical flying sting ray shits on floor* What do you mean magic? *magic colorful swirls zoom frantically across screen* Magic isn't real, silly, this isn't a game! *cue laugh track*"
All I hope is they learn their lesson, I don’t want to loose SSO especially after the hours and hundreds of dollars spent on it and all the memories and happiness it brings me when not thinking of the BS they’ve pulled. I want them to LEARN not go bankrupt and kill a game with potential.. they just need to work out what worked before and what’s not working now
i know right, they wanted to learn the hard way i guess
The Christmas festival was my breaking point; I got a few hours into trying to collect those stupid snowflake things with barely anything to show for it, it wasn't *fun*, it was just...running around on a slippery frozen lake going back and forth. For hours. To unlock carrots and a pittance of money. And that was after the stupidity of 2022 Christmas festival starting without any races or anything to do! I only started playing in March 2020 so I was definitely who they were trying to capitalize off of too.
I feel disappointed about them going downhill. If they lose their shareholders like you proposed everything will just go up in flames. At the same time, I have to think of how they had something like this coming. Guess we can only hope they get back on their feet and learn from all this
Their new recent post about the season/battle pass is really really worrying. They’re trying new ways to get revenue. It might be free for people who already paid but I’m worried they’ll make a paid upgrade for Star riders if it goes well
i think a battle/season pass will be okay if done well with worthy content but knowing them theyre gonna make the grind for it horrible…
Usually there is like a free section where you can get free rewards, and like a section where you can pay money for more and better rewards. Who knows, I guess we'll see.
@@bagelcat13 I wasn't even bothered to do the Starshine Ranch event... Same with last year lol. It was too much effort for the little reward you got out of it.
@@bagelcat13no dont even give them the idea
I think this sort of thing has been a long time coming. They're feeling the effects of not investing in their game years ago - in that "golden age" 10-ish years ago (2016 era roughly) and letting that tech debt accrue. They have almost sole control of a market niche and consistently fumble it.
SSE has consistently made poor decisions and I've said in a comment before that a lot of their recent changes are too little too late, though its not for lack of effort from the employees as the updates when they do arrive have been quite nice. It's clearly upper management strangling the company.
I think a lot of SSE employees would want to slap the dummy executive(s) who took that revenue and ran with it without realising it was a soon-to-pop bubble. I think literally anyone, weather they work in accounting or not, could tell that the growth wasn't going to last forever.
Most of the community, especially the older players (both older in terms of age and how long they've been playing) have lost faith and either don't play anymore or barely log on and so they've lost the audience that I believe would actually be able to spend money on the game. Working teens/adults who are invested in the game, not kids begging for pocket money off their parents. I haven't brought star coins in years on principle - I log on for the Christmas stuff, that's pretty much it. I haven't even bothered with the story stuff.
I want to see this game do well, but I've long since lost faith after literally years of stagnation.
right, ive always said its clearly the upper management that is the downfall of this company! these poor employees cant do shit about it, but just watch as they might lose their job due to their bosses poor decision making and handling of money. it really is just laughable to me that they saw that spike growth and ran with it blind, as if they lost all their knowledge in how sales works and forgot how sudden huge spikes paint false pictures, especially when that spike was so clearly because of the lockdown.
oof so basically they had a spike in income that got into their head, so they became over confident and enthousiastic. I can imagine the feeling, luck strikes and you just want to spend and invest. I don't get how sso didn't think more about it, why they didn't estimate that the situation wouldn't stay the same forever, people whom normally wouldn't play quitting, getting back to their normal lifes, less people playing and paying. I'm not an expert and can't judge from their position, but I think I would have spend the extra money into improving the existing game instead and withhold some just in case instead of all these extra side projects. Maybe 1, but not like 4 or 5.
I just recently completed a quest or whatever where I had to rescue the black pony from the peir and the evil man turned himself into a monster. Not only was there missing dialect in the chat bubbles for that quest, but when you have to cage the monster guy, if he catches you, the whole thing glitches out, I saw my horse in a stable like area, and couldn't move or dismount, my character was also invisible or not there. I had to restart my game multiple times just to complete that quest. What the actual F*ck SSO. Your whole company is one big disappointment.
aww man, the nightdust quests are bugged? one of the best questlines in the game and now people can't experience it properly
I have been playing since 2018 and have always felt like they never have fixed bugged properly. It’s one of my biggest problems with the company. I love the game itself but the company needs to start fixing bugs
it's unfortunate to see a game i've played for 10+ years fall down so hard. i'm hopeful they'll bounce back and maybe even improve; but i'm not sure i'm worried about it going away completely. i'm following too many deceased mmo revival projects to worry, i think lol
SSO just can't help getting into trouble I swear
One thing I will NEVER understand is why companies REFUSE to listen to their target audience. Like, you’re going bankrupt for a reason SSO! If the ones in charge just set away their pride (and wasn’t so financially stupid that they burned more than 40 MILLION in one year) and listened to the fanbase I doubt they’d be in so much trouble.
I grew up on this game and I still have a deep soft spot for it, but I have to come to terms that this game likely doesn’t have much life left in it. It’s sad, mainly because all of this could be completely avoidable, but alas.
What’s done is done, and hopefully the employees there are able to find more stability and better treatment elsewhere if SSO shuts down.
like you said, because upper management is greedy and blinded by pride, so they make dumb decisions focused on what they think is correct based on what they learned in school and their ignorance, versus the actual environment theyre in and what is actually making success.
Something that would truly fix SSO would be a real competitor in horse MMO but all we got are mobile games with massive amounts of microtransactions. So SSO stays where it is until the servers shut down at some point. SSE got so comfy at their spot that it made them careless.
It´s honestly so sad how neglected the horse gaming world is. There are so little actually good single player horse games and barely any MMOs in comparison to the amount of looter shooter/fantasy MMOs. (They have their own issues I know)
For laptops/PCs there's also Rival Stars Horse Racing. It must be bought, but once you do, you don't have to buy anything in the game itself anymore. They update once in a while, but there's nothing in-game that costs real-life money. Only the game itself. These people are devoted to the game and I return to it more often than star stable online.
Its honestly sad that SSO has turned out like this. SSO was once a good and thriving game and now its just crashing and burning
I hate how consumerism-based mica’s “quest” was 😭 literally just lead you to the shops and horses…sad
I've tried SO hard to get back into SSO. Clubs, events and simply training. I can't spend more than an hour on it and its honestly so saddening
rattle video just in time for lunch
real!!!! Eating good tonight literally and figuratively
Live laugh love eating Rattle videos.
It's such a sad thing to see. 2020 - 2021 could have been the year SSO really turned around. Perhaps, if they hadn't gotten such big heads and upper management was smart financially, they could have reinvested back into their game. You know, the only thing players actually cared about. They should have NEVER done the animated series. While cool in theory, (I have yet to actually watch it) it was not a smart financial move for the long run. Same goes for the 2 games they tried to start. Instead, they could have taken all that sweet sweet money and extra employees they had at the time and really hunkered down on fixing the game they had in front of them. Also, if they wanted to make things (take the dumb candle incident), invest in more easy to manage items and ship overseas that players ACTUALLY voiced wanting to buy. Physical books, artbooks, stickers, magnets, T-shits, hoodies, travel mugs and openly advertise them as in your face and annoyingly as they do bundles or double star coins. They have done it before, but could have advertised clothes in a cool way of "Hey, if you buy this hoodie/shirt in our shop, we'll send you a FREE in-game hoodie/shirt that your character can wear too!" But hey, I'm just a silly gamer who knows nothing about running a company, so what do I know.
Marcus Thorell very conveniently left the company in January 2020, Which is when it went downhill. (He was the last original team member, as far as I know)
(Also apologies for the edits, I had to search the exact date he gave himself, linkedin gave the wrong date)
And according to a comment made by the book author, he was the one who actually tried to keep the books alive. I’d link the FB post, but RUclips doesn’t like links.
i think they thought 2020-2021 were the years they couldve turned around too lmao, which is why they went so heavy handed into it. they just did it in the worst way possible and is exactly what eventually caused their downfall.
I really liked that they did outside projects and I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to do comics and books and RUclips series because hey, it is still set in the game universe. It’s a great way to advertise/showcase the game outside of a game/gamer area. That being said, I def think they bit off more than they could chew at the time. I don’t think a new game was smart, but the books and RUclips series seemed doable as long as they had a set ending. But yeah the candles were…odd. Having an SSO store with actual game merch that you could then wear IN GAME would be super cool
A big problem is that they think raising their prices will give them more money
TRUEE
The thing is, they’re right. Because it’s all middle class white girls who play the game. They have the money to spend on it and suck on SSO’s toes. But what SSO doesn’t realize is that that demographic is starting to shrink due to worldwide economic issues, and trends.
while simultaneously not giving users any worthy gameplay to actually pay FOR. they fr think their playerbase is so dumb we'd just give them all our money because of hOrSeS
When they should actually lower it
so true, theyre really braindead lmao
First they got rid of April fools. Then the rainbow event in March, Then the old Halloween quests that were much more fun with wandering ghosts around jorvik and galloper Thompson running around too to replace it with the boring Halloween island. Now they got rid of cloud kingdom? They might as well get rid of the Christmas village and spring festival. I don't even play the game anymore cause they keep doing this.
i am amazed they didnt simply remove chat entirely at the rate they 'fix' things LOL
YESS I would have done that a LONG time ago
@@YTRattleat this point I don’t think much of the game mechanics would change if they got rid of chat. One thing I liked back in the day is that you don’t need social features to play the game, (I was a very autistic antisocial child) but even then everything community-wise was about chat. The game itself though? They can keep literally everything the same if they got rid of chat.
exactly, especially since they already had made the chat basically unusable in 2015 when the same issues came around lmao
thing is, if they remove chat, they remove the community and there will literally be nothing left to do in the game. role plays, shows and clubs are pretty much carrying sso right now imo.
maybe if they lowered their prices and released story/event content they wouldn’t be dealing with this situation, they think releasing more horses will be the solve to their problems, when in reality its the opposite because nobody wants to spend 30+ dollars on merely 1k starcoins for a single horse. The chat problem is also very bad, i cant say the word FAWN in there and thats INSANE. it makes roleplaying/chatting hard.
Recent update on the chat.
Players are now using simple words to confuse the chat filter.
"Sing song sing song" or "grass grass horse grass" at the end and can now FULLY SAY THE N WORD, both Gs hard R if they do this.
What a mess! Wth.
Oh my God. You gotta love SSO XD
@@YTRattle sadly it isnt even new, using grass grass etc etc after a sentence has been happening for a long time. the chat filter has always been doogy
i was wondering why people who were saying bad things kept saying weird words after like that, that explains it
Yup. And when the filter “catches on” to those words, they just switch to something else. Think they’re using “necklace necklace” ATM.. it’s pretty ridiculous lol.
and this is why you dont trust ai LMAO like its so ridiculous.
Man it seems like Star stable is falling apart at the seams.... I don't think I've played in months not even when they gave out free star coins 😕
It's sad But at the same time kind of expected because the game is like 12-13(?) years old now and there are so many issues with the game that they haven't fixed... Still makes me sad though
Their prices have gone ridiculous. 500 sc costs 30 dollars. No wonder why they’re loosing money. 500 sc aren’t worth 30 DOLLARS.
as an accountant great job!!! 😊 I love seeing my love for horse games and my job (not necessarily a love of mine… but an interest for sure) intersect! great discussion 🤍
Ahhh! Thank you! This was a stressful video to make as someone who is not that great with numbers XD
So basically like almost every other tech company after the pandemic: huge ravenue spike -> big development and big investments -> ravenue goes down because people go back to the real world -> company panics because growth wasn't linear (who would have thought, eh?) -> company has financial problems and downsizes
Not to be unkind but all of the mentioned was absolutely easy to predict and the consequences could have been avoided with proper management.
It's so sad that mine and many other's SSO memories are tainted by what they have become. I started playing in 2016 and was fortunate enough to get 2 good years of magic, back when updates were good, the story was GREAT, the community felt welcoming and the servers were full of drama but it kept things entertaining.
The support system was wonderful, they always had warm and thoughtful responses to my e-mails, and most importantly: they listened. The bugs were plenty but nothing too game-breaking (I still remember the fly sound glitch that wouldn't stop playing in our ears xD). It's sad bcs if I flip what I just said to change it to the opposite it describes the state the game is in, I can just try to keep alive the Sso I remember in my mind 😔💔
I am so grateful that you make these videos. We truly need you in the comunity
SSO's biggest problem is that it's trying to solve the problem of not having funds by raising the prices and pumping more and more horses out. When in fact the actual way to raise money is to focus on the game itself, the story and the visuals and thus making an actual game with something to do in an interesting environment. That's why they drifted off with the comic and other games because it's hard for them to keep working with SSO and the limitations they've put on themselves with it. SSO has made almost all of the mistakes a game company can do (stalling the story, veering off to different projects, shooing away old and committed players, being unable to fix their multiple issues within the game itself etc) so I will be here just sipping my tea and waiting, when this whole game will shut down for good.
If you don't keep the players happy, you don't make money. This is basic game logic SSO.
Really makes me wonder if those codes were one of their few attempts at trying to appeal to people so that they can get out of this situation.
Sso never ceases to make me feel concerned. Great video Rattle!
I've found a new problem too, I have a new gaming laptop and the game now runs RIDICULOUSLY slow. I can barely play, and it's definitely a server issue because it runs much bigger games just fine. My trust is at 0. Can't even play it anymore.
That´s because SSO has horrible optimization or was never properly optimized. It has been this way since a long time and will always be this way. With the (not quite top notch) graphics and everything it should even run on way older machines but even my 2023 gaming PC for 1000€ has a laggy SSO experience. Especially at crowded times. I run Black Desert on Ultra settings and had Tarisland on second to highest setting in Beta.
@@sahaara7946It's sadly hilarious that old PCs can run the game better than new ones since they match the age of optimisation better 😅
I started playing when I was 8 in 2012 and I honestly miss the game so so much. I haven't played in years now because of the awful updates, but I'd do anything to play the old sso
I need to know where that stupid candle fell in this
HAHAHAHA How did I miss the candle??? LOL
Another sign of this is that the horses from the SSO Horses phone app are currently available to purchase at the blazar at a discount. Which could mean that they intend to shut down that app as well
It's been lovely watching you Rattle! I remember when you were just a wee channel, and now look at you! Keep up the great work and the awesome videos!
It's still a bit surprising to see people enjoy my content, so thank YOU!! ♥♥
Its so hard to see these statistics because at the same time as being mad and upset with all the changes sso is making, you can really see the trouble theyre going through financially
They wouldn't be in this problem if they listened to their fanbase.
@@HawkinaBoxthats true but I also think the downfall from covid hit them hard. Sure, I agree, giving the players what they want would bring more money in and their attempt to aim the game at brainless children is what will eventually be the downfall, but they’ve struggled with the increasing costs like most games have. Its simply because sso is so big that the fanbase are so aware of the statistics.
Change isn’t always a good thing.
sad to see my favourite childhood game waste like that. I hope they can turn this around somehow
Remember guys, there's too much of us who love this game, no matter what'll happen to SSO, we'll somehow renew it back to it's old glory.
Let’s be honest here, the easiest way to fix all of this for some amount of time at least, is to better train the chat AI so that no more scandals in game will happen. This’ll satisfy older players and make parents of children feel more safe about their kids playing Star Stable. They should put the Cloud Kingdom in the game this coming week, since they most definitely still have the files, and even if it didn’t get a rework from last year, people will still be happy to see it one more time before they change it next year. They should give out more generous Star Coins Codes or tack (even if it’s just recolors or clothes for lifetime Star riders in the Bonus Item Shop). They also should work on fixing their current bugs and in game glitches. Once players realize, that THEIR own wishes are being heard and supported, they’ll be happy to play again and will actually enjoy the game. If they then lower the Star coin and Star rider prices, people will be more willing to buy because it’s 1) cheaper and 2) they are investing in a GOOD game where their voices are being heard by the company/game developers (= they will most definitely profit from it and it WILL give them better income). They need to start being more transparent and communicating better with their community and they HAVE to stop working on projects that THEY want to add and need to start working on things that WE want in game. After this they can rework and add new stuff, but they should stop all of their projects that are way too big (for now) and take way too much time for now, because they obviously don’t have the budget and employees for it. Once they’ve saved up money they can pick their projects up again.
or, or they could NOT use the ai as their main way of filtering because why would you trust ai to filter out real people's conversations? they could just have actual moderators alongside it. the easiest fix for them to do is to LISTEN TO THEIR COMMUNITY.
@@iimdone They need to add moderators, yes. But they obviously don’t have the money to hire them currently? SO the best solution for now is to improve their AI to save some money, before they actually hire..
As far as I know they didn't outright say that the cloud kingdom is cancelled. Just saying "it's not coming back AS WE KNOW IT" there is a possibility that it will come back with a new look in the next year(s).
I don't understand why camp western lasted for such a short time in comparison to the last equestrian event that lasted for WEEEKS
(about the level 27 bans) i'm in level 25 and i've only been playing since 2016, (2017 with starrider) and i haven't even been grinding during special events. so being able to reach 27 is super possible and i can't even understand why sso thought it wasn't
Didn't play SSO actively in years so I might be wrong but I remeber talking to some friends like a year ago abt the fact that SSO said smt abt a max level of 26 or at least that they planned to do that.. so maybe thats the cause for the bans? SSO being SSO again by wanting smt without working for it? And since some players dared to reach a level SSO didn't want anyone to reach, they got mad? But again, I can be wrong lmao
@@000lost6 there's never been a max level, just a max amount of possible xp, and no one knows the exact amount, but people that started playing during release and have been playing until now will have reached level 27, especially considering the recent quests have like 100+ xp rewards
it is possible that they planned to make a max level but imo it's too late now
Up until about 2015 you could only reach level 15, then they changed it to 20, then they changed it again. It had a cap for years. I know because I was there. I’m level 24 and about halfway to 25 with no way to earn EXP but a little bit here and there on the FIRST DAY of events and festivities.
Celebration at the club when SSO goes bankrupt. Everyone is invited. 🎉🎉🥳🎊🎉
I’m being truly honest at this point that I actually don’t care about the nostalgia factor anymore.
(Someone else can just make a game with the old art style, it was lower poly and quality in technical aspects and mechanics, it isn’t nearly as expensive as making a clone of new star stable or a more realistic horse game.)
I just genuinely think that the company needs to get a reality check and go bankrupt or something along those lines. Online game companies never last this long, I’m surprised SSO didn’t go bankrupt years ago. They are holding on by the luck that no other games fill the niche. They are blinded by thinking that they are better than other online world game companies, but they are slowly reaching the same reason that other online world game companies went bankrupt.
I’ll be the first to come, trust me.
@@zixea3318it’s kinda reminding me of that httyd mmo that got shutdown. It was full of bugs and it was just soo old and they weren’t making much money because their player base simply got older and can’t play as much.
All they needed to do was keep the lore going and build a great lore experience for those who wanted it and build a stable area where people/clubs/individuals can customise care and RP their own horses. They could make money of custom schools/enviroments/stables and accessories
Cause at the moment Jorvik feels like an overworld shop.
I used to play daily when I had story quests but now I wait 9 weeks log on buy a horse with my life time coins and log off.
Same, I get the "damn, sso would be fun" urge, log in, remember that it's not the game I was thinking of (that would be the game I grew up with, which modern sso does not resemble in any way outside of its name), buy a horse because I have 1k star coins, ride around in a circle for a few minutes, log out, repeat in 2-3 months
idk i‘ve been playing sso since 2020 and its insane how much changed😭 i mean its nice that everything’s looks more 'modern' and realistic now, but the vibe is just.. gone. i’m not even sure what it is, maybe i just grew up, but even the storyline isn’t hitting anymore. we didn’t get any new areas for years and we just get horses and unnecessary updates😭 also what’s up with new players getting super pretty accessories, LIKE WE DIDNT HAVE THAT???
I’ve been playing since 2013, it’s not even the same game anymore.
A lot of comments, I know. But, I think they should shut it down for good, just like wildworks did with feral, simply because the game wasn’t doing too good. There are a lot of underrated horse mmos out there. I believe in 2-4 years, Sso will be shutting down, and maybe be pulling the company down with it.
I might just be wrong, but my understanding is that players don't even get bonus stats beyond level 25. If that is the case, why does it even matter if people are higher level? Does it even impact anything? Seems a silly thing to ban people for when we got people who have been on the leaderboards for ages with 2 second course clear times rofl >.>
Ive been a player of sso since 2018 when I begged my mother to buy me a laptop so I could play it. When I did get one I played it everyday after school up until 2021 where I moved and didn't have a lot of time for it. However in 2022 when i went back to it I found out everything had changed and the game wasn't working on itself as much and only releasing horses it made me sad because I had such fond memories of the game. I have now accepted the game is crashing and burning and in a weird way im glad because they will finally learn that old players matter and to not give up on the things that MADE your game instead of just money.
"They have money problems!"
Good. Good. Proceed and let's see if they learn THAT way. =u=
They'll get worse by this. They're making more F***ING horses, nothing else! 😢
FFS, again with the removing, not replacing with anything worthwhile.
"It's too much work." You have 200 people, WTF are all those people doing?!
Maybe a game like this is just too much responsibility for the current management.
It's still is just falling apart!
Rattle, your upload schedule has been blessing everyone recently, love you for that.
LOL when horse games stop losing their minds, I won't be making anymore content XD
@@YTRattle Oh, damn well, can't wait for your videos in 2070!
As a long-time player, I think SSO started having somewhat major issues when they came into new management in what, 2017/2018?
i loved this game so much growing up and have spent a ton of money on getting event horses and crap like that, it pisses me off that a game i love so much is turning out this way.
I really hope that SSO turns this around.
I grew up with this game, I have loved it since I was a small child. And my loyalty to the game is undying.
I want the company to really think and weigh their options on what they can do with such a small budget I want the company to make itself think it's Indie and believe that just like other Indie Developers, they can do great things either with or without money.
It doesn't have to be quest focused. But fixing the problems sso already has before making more decisions and stopping weekly updates would be great.
hey rattle! have you made a video about the history of SSO yet? If not, I'd really like to know how the company behind it sort of. devolved over time. my personal theory is that part of why SSO has gotten so bad over the years is due to the constant changes of hands the game seems to fall into. Love your videos!
What i found really weird is that why are there still 104/105 servers up, why not merge it? So sso pay less for electricity, for hosting.(And live mod would be so much easier) Also the prices didn't have to go higher for the customers, if they just look at what could go away in the company itself
they’re servers are old af, they would collapse with that many players trying to log in. it would make the game unplayable for some people, some get laggy just by standing in crowded areas
I personally like not having lvl gap, since there isnt really much other ways to show you are a long time player (unless you wanna use ur statless 1st birthday stuff but imo that just feels more like trying to shove it in other people's throats). Retired horses began only at 2017. I just like seeing my hard work somehow showcased. Now that stats no longer increase after lvl 25 there isn't much harm there either; it is just a number now.
Or maybe I have bias since I'm 1k exp from lvl 27..?
One thing i can say from inside information. They’re understaffed.
Got anymore inside info?
i think we are all kind of still in the shock of how poorly they are managing the game nowadays..Its so sad. I am just trying to play when i can because i am actually waiting when one day they shut down the servers..
4:19 Sorry if this has been mentioned already (I haven't checked all comments 😉), but a 50% revenue growth to 44 million in 2020 does not mean that the revenue was 22 million in 2019. It was about 30 million. 50% of 30 = 15, 30 +15 = 45. See also 11:10, that should really be corrected (unless I'm the one who's in the wrong here obviously).
11:46 One more nitpick: 28 is not almost half of 44 by any stretch of the imagination. It's much more than that (about 63.6%).
I understand the point you're trying to get across, but I think that's possible without such exaggerations.
11:39 Minor point: Here you make it sound (to me at least) as if SSE moved from Stockholm to a different city. As far as I know, their new offices are in Södermalm, which is a part of Stockholm.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make SSE look better than they do (in any respect), but I think these points should be addressed.
It breaks my heart to see what sso has become. I remember loving this game when I was a kid and seeing it just dissolve into a money hungry corporation makes me so sad 😢
Well, oh and behold, apparently sso is risking to shut down
Yeah, all my money would go on a waste. It's sad that "The biggest horse game" cant easily earn 200k players in one moment
point and laugh everyone! but nah for real, it is sad. what a waste. i just cant feel empathy for them though.
Sometimes I really question their reasoning about anything, especially lately. And I bet they only unbanned those level 27s because everyone was getting angry at them for it xD and a friend of my friends reached level 27 legit bc she'd been around since the start, and she was wrongfully banned. Thankfully though SSO came to their senses and unbanned her, it was very unfair of them to ban loyal players like that. And since the player stats are capped at level 25, it really makes no sense to me that they would make a big deal to ban players who get to level 26-27 legit, as they do not gain any more advantage with stats. What would be a big deal is if players actually hack their levels and hack extra stats on, especially after level 25.
SSO added message with chat rules? Im sorry what message??? There was no message! HUH?!
Also deleting Cloud Kingdom sucks... really there's nothing to do in this game WITH EVENTS and they're deleting them... 😤 damn
sadly this isnt a new problem, sso has had the same problems for years and years
the recurring problem with sso is they're too short-term thinkers. it's been proven time and time again and it will be their complete downfall if they don't learn how to be long-term thinkers instead.
never miss a rattle video SPILLEDDDD
Honestly I sometimes wonder if sso is still like really active? Like every server I go on is so empty like it use to be SO busy back in the day now it’s like “where is everyone?”
Reason for bad finance: the little kids are becoming traumatized and terrified and they just leave because they are scared of the chat. Thank me later, ima play SSO so i can buy more horses.
I feel like this game is in a freefall and nothing can stop it atp. The snowballing effect of not listening to the community, raising prices, cutting events and ignoring bugs will kill sso im afraid. it sucks, been playing since 2014 and its just sad to watch my favourite game fall apart
It’s so ironic how by being greedy for money they lost more money than if they hadn’t been greedy
I’m absolutely shocked how this in the past great game now goes downhill
This is such a cautionary tale about how even in boom times companies should behave frugally.
The management has prioritized a new target audience, the one that in reality doesn't even exist in that big amount to let them get away with keeping thinking of players as idiots and not doing the bare miminum and still get a big profit
am i the only one who just.. doesn't understand why we have so little in the updates and has no idea what takes the team so long to do anything.
i'm currently studying in a games design college course, and we dabble in 3d modelling and texturing. this new event had, what, a few new sets? those sets can't have taken a WHOLE team a long time. they look incredibly simple to create and texture especially with multiple people working on them.
and the magic horses. they're just retextures of horses with a few new parts on. don't get me wrong i LOVE the new magic horses, but like... they look incredibly easy to make. why is it we never get anything with magic horses?! those horses can't have taken a long time to create??
Oh dear. I've been on hiatus for a while, it's sad to hear things aren't going well in SSO. I was really looking forward to extended projects and merch and so on and even posted some enamel pin designs a few years ago on social media - it got shared by an SSO employee via instagram story and the voting ended with over 90% yes to whether the players would like to see SSO enamel pins like those. I was hoping maybe they'd release official enamel pin merch or something one day. :(
Not surprised, as some one who has played it for a long time, it is boring now, it is hard to level up your rider, they are not extending their map and story they are just upgrading and creating new horses.
"moved offices from stockholm"... no
they have moved it from just outside the central station to a little further south. still in Stockholm City. just located at a less fancy street.
1:38 Holy shit. Wow. Literally killing loyal players. At this point, SSO gets whatever happens to them.
WHAAAT so you mean, when you do bad quests, change the story, does not have a linear story people will notice and stop play and pay for the game 🤔
Who would have thought!!???
@@YTRattle 😂🤪
start listening to your player base and you'll get your money back
UNDER AN HOUR!!! Hell yeah. Time to listen to this while i draw gay men :)
i've been playing SSO because of a friend of mine. I am a regular gamer and it's a disappointment that they call SSO a game. They charge so much, as much as a "triple A" game, for the game. They don't even have a "report bug" section when the game is super buggy. They are so stingy with in-game currency and heavily rely on little kids' parents' wallets to sustain them. How about putting in more into the game instead so that people WANT to invest in the game.
There's no report bug bc they want money, but work nothing.
I was so excited to participate in the cloud Kingdom event after taking a break from Star Stable for YEARS. I hadn't played SSO in over 7+ years, but I'd seen videos of when Cloud Kingdom first came out, when I returned this year to find out that they just got rid of it was pretty disappointing.