Hi All,

Hope everyone is doing well as fall comes creeping in once more. I know I haven't had much flying time lately but I did want to stop by and draft a note of thanks to Pol and Winder. I recently picked up a new, much anticipated game for my PS4 and last night - during one of the only free evenings I've had in weeks - I encountered yet another gaming moment that made me ever more thankful that we have OBD around.

As I sat down in my chair to play a game I had owned for a grand total of 30 hours I was greeted with: "The game sever is down for maintenance: your progress will not be saved. Please try to reconnect to the server when it is available."

Colorful obscenity followed.

$60 (closer to 70 with tax) plus an online subscription fee and the game is fundamentally broken the day after launch because the servers are down. Not only that, but the game can't even create a local save - so it announces to you, the player, that anything you do in the game - which is now limited to one mode only - will be lost regardless because the game can't phone home.

This is hardly rare these days. Most titles launch with massive "Day One" patches that dwarf the file size of the game on the disc you just bought at the shop. It is almost expected that games will miss their launch dates, and when they do go live, they will be buggy, often broken experiences that are feature thin and unfinished. After all, DLC won't sell itself...

Thank goodness we have OBD - I often think we don't realize just how lucky we are to have a developer that actually launches games that are complete experiences, as free of bugs as possible, and that actually work once you buy them. They can't be broken by a downed internet connection or a server that goes offline. I can fire WOFF:UE up anytime I want and take to the skies - no error messages, no lost progress. Just a few clicks and I'm back in the air again. How rare is that experience these days? And last night, that is precisely what I did.

So I wanted to say thank you for having the integrity to treat your customers with respect. We all know that the next great flight sim from OBD will launch when it's ready - "in two weeks!" - because that's what you tell us. We know that it'll be an amazing experience out of the box. And we know that even years after release, you will still patch the sim - often based on the postings of less than a handful of players - because it matters to you that the game is right. I wish I had a way of helping to fund the studio with a heaping of cash - but know that when WoTR is ready, I will be first in line, credit card in hand (huzzah for employment after grad school!). As mainstream games keep moving in this direction, I feel more inclined to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt and start voting with my wallet.

Just wanted to say that I am very grateful that you guys are still around. We'll be here supporting you all the way!

Cheers!