It is hard to believe that it has been three years since we have been on this "new" era of DCS World, the post-cloud update period. I found myself reflecting a lot about all the content that has been released, all the updates and all the controversies that have happened since then, and I thought to myself: "Why don't I talk about this for our next article?".
Three years ago this game was quite different, yet still a very familiar sight. Update upon update fixing issues, adding features and delivering long-time promises in a somewhat timely manner; the main difference being that nowadays the game's population is not separated between the Open Beta and Stable versions. For good or bad, DCS has been united under a single version which, in theory, simplifies maintenance and streamlines updates.
Maybe it is because of some of those changes that thousands of new players have joined since time, but it still seems that most DCS players were already there by the start of the pandemic and had the time to spare to join a new hobby. We did a two-day poll on our X/Twitter account to see when our audience joined the skies of DCS World.
Most had already played DCS World by 2021, or joined before it. This is very interesting to me, since I thought more people would have joined these past three years due to the sheer amount of sales that ED has pushed to attract new players. Does this mean that DCS' population is stagnant? No, I do not believe so. I feel like it has grown, but not at the fast rate that we assumed. Our population sample was only 99 players, so we cannot assume anything from that simple size, other than that it does give us a nice visualization of this data.
Another aspect that might have influenced growth, and the most warranted one, is the sheer amount of content that has been pushed in the past three years. We went from getting a module every couple of years to one every couple of months, be them maps, planes, helicopters and more. These past years have felt like a pseudo golden era for the platform, and I have been very happy to see some highly anticipated modules like Heatblur's F-4E Phantom II and even RAZBAM's F-15E get released.
Speaking of the F-15E, this brings us to the other side of the conversation. These past three years have also been some of the most controversial for the platform as a whole, with the biggest one being the still ongoing situation with RAZBAM Simulations. We spoke about this situation in a previous article, but suffice it top say that this situation is still ongoing and has no signs of it having been resolved by both parties. This means that all development of RAZBAM products for DCS World is still on hold, indefinitely.
On the more positive end of things, we have seen the rise of the Cold War community, mostly due to the effort of communities such as Enigma's and some others that have pushed that time period to the limit. This rise is a well deserved one, as those who have pushed for it have innovated inside the multiplayer scene and given players a completely new sandbox to play with, which is what the game needs the most. Does that mean that everyone's happy? No.
We also have had some smaller controversies, but the main concern of players right now is the state of the game as of 2024. Even with all of these advances in the core engine tech and all of these releases, it is clear that there is a generalized feel of uneasiness in the community that has permeated it over the past three years. It has slowly festered and taken root in some corners and rotted people's perspectives of the game. I remain hopeful for DCS' future, but I cannot deny that I have been somewhat affected by some of the actions taken by certain parties. All we can do, as players, is vote with our wallets and hope that the people behind the awesome platform remain loyal to us, their fanbase.
These last years have been a journey that, while a bit bumpy, is still trending up. I want to see this sim become even better and to give everyone a taste of combat flight that cannot be beaten by anyone else in the market.
About the writer
Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000s, leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities, but only started being active around the mid 2010s. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder and writer ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy
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