 After 4 weeks of near full silence from Frontier, lead community manager Arthur Tolmey has today issued a statement to the official forums regarding the company's lack of official community engagement. To make sure you don't miss any of our videos hit like and subscribe, remember to click the little bell icon and select all notifications and to help directly support this channel you can also join our Patreon via the link in the video description. After a challenging year in 2021 in the run up to Christmas, Frontier had garnered a lot of community goodwill and expectation for Elite Dangerous Horizons and Elite Dangerous Odyssey going into the new year. In both versions of the game the Azimuth saga was reaching a conclusion with the machinations of salvation edging further into the light. The company had promised to talk to the community about the planned rebalance of horizons level material gathering and in Odyssey after the release of the new Scorpion SRV the player base was eagerly waiting to hear more about fleet carrier interiors and the year ahead. When this year started the community felt like it had hit the ground running into a bright new year but it rapidly became apparent that fdev was seemingly not sprinting alongside us all yet alone being seen out front leading the charge. Up until now at the start of every week the company issued its plans for the forthcoming week usually pitching a duo of upcoming live streams as well as community highlights on social media such as the commander creations and stellar screenshots but the pattern didn't surface again as the year got going. As the weeks have gone on with the near silence continuing there's been an understandable degree of disquiet expressed in the community and fdev's continued lack of meaningful engagement beyond necessary patch notes etc has drawn commentary from just about every community media outlet, podcast and content creator including this one with no solid answers coming from the Cambridge Development House. The silence has been such that there has even been speculation that the game was entering maintenance mode or even being abandoned by Frontier, especially when it had seemingly timed in on the back of Frontier's half year results speculation was rife. The concern in the community has however not gone entirely unnoticed and today community lead Arthur Tolme broke the company's silence with a post to the forums to address the issue specifically. In his statement which we've linked below Arthur notes that the team is excited to share details of the content for the forthcoming year noting that it will include content expansions, the finale of the Azimuth saga and the next phase in the ongoing narrative. He also makes note that the team are working on a new streaming format and schedule with their regular live streams returning to a weekly rather than bi-weekly affair. With those live streams set to include new segments what Arthur refers to as studio quality production once they're able to return to the office environment and year round twitch drop campaigns. Whilst all that is good to hear it could have done with being said much earlier in the year to keep the momentum going plus it's also kind of what you'd expect to hear from a community team going into a new year. But it's actually the third paragraph of the statement that we feel is most interesting. It reads as follows quote however there are several questions that must be answered internally to inform this communication plan. It is important to me that we address key subjects by priority and when we do that the information we provide is clear. The team and I are working incredibly hard behind the scenes to gather this information and provide these answers end quote. Whilst at first sight this paragraph might read as nothing there are some key points here when taken in all important context. Right before Christmas whenever Frontier put their head above the parapet the sticky question of Odyssey's release on consoles was always without a doubt fired at them and they never had an answer beyond some version of we have nothing to announce currently. In his statement Arthur says quote there are several questions that must be answered internally unquote and he also says quote it is important to me that we address key subjects unquote. The singular key most important subject from the community at the moment is absolutely Odyssey and its release into the console market. It dwarfs almost every other issue that the community throws at the CMs and the community team has made it quite clear that they do not have an answer for that question currently. Arthur then continues quote the team and I are working incredibly hard behind the scenes to gather this information and provide these answers unquote. Paraphrasing Arthur's own words when he talks about gathering answers for key subjects from within the company to inform his communication plan reading between the lines. It sounds as though Arthur and the CMs are attempting to garner an answer on the issue of Odyssey's console release from within the company before they talk about anything else for the year ahead. It's undoubtedly getting quite difficult for Frontier to be heard above the sound of the 800 pound gorilla in the corner of the room and it makes complete sense to us that you'd want to rugby tackle that particular gorilla to the ground before moving on. If consoles are indeed causing the current hold up in communication then the answer whatever it is will need to come from the corporate arm of Frontier first who has their eye firmly on the stock market and the company's share price. Announcing anything about consoles and Odyssey good or bad is almost certain to have an effect on that share price and the company will be looking at the timing of that announcement keenly. The Odyssey delay and the lack of communication with regard to consoles from the corporate arm of Frontier has been met with patience from the console community but it would be nice now to see an answer for them on this itchy subject. And whilst Arthur's statement today is very light on specific detail we're hopeful that it bodes well for some solid answers soon with a clearer idea of the schedule and what content we can expect for everyone moving forward into 2022. Are you reassured to have heard from Frontier what did you make of Arthur's statement? Let us know in the comments below. That's it for now. Thanks very much for watching. If you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now.