Yesterday, concerns began to circulate that much of the development team working for Polychop Simulations had departed the third party DCS World developer. The developer has been responsible for the DCS: OH-58D Kiowa Warrior most recently as well as the DCS: SA342 Gazelle modules. Now Sven from Polychop has responded with a comment on the situation.

“Not gone or dead”

The DCS World community remains somewhat on edge these days. It’s been a difficult year but it has had some bright spots, among them the release of the DCS: OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module and a significant updates to the DCS: SA342 Gazelle – the later which I finally got around to a full review of last year.

Now there are comments going around the community (and seemingly originating in a post from r/DCSExposed) that much of the developer team has departed Polychop. It’s not clear if this is actually what has happened or if there is more to the story. We do have a response to the comments swirling around the community by Sven from Polychop with the following message:

Dear Community,

After recent events and “news” I first of all want to thank each one of our customers and partners for the trust and support during the recent times. As some of you may have noticed, there has been some speculation regarding Polychop and our modules. I would like to calm any concerns and reassure you that the modules are neither gone nor “dead.” They will continue to work in future updates. Unfortunately, I cannot share more details on the current matter at this time, and I hope for your understanding. Best regards,

Sven on the Polychop Discord community

As with other recent troubles, it seems that there is some sort of internal issue within Polychop and that the full details are, for now anyways, remaining somewhat hidden. Internal disputes often are and we don’t necessarily hear about (or need to report on) every dispute. But this one does seem to have spilled out partially and it of course does concern consumers of these products as ongoing support is a requirement for continued enjoyment.

Polychop’s statement does say that they intend to continue on so despite the dispute, it does seem that the intent is to continue support both release products – at least in some fashion.

If past history is any indication, Polychop has gone through a few developer arrivals and departures over the years. Their longest standing module, the Gazelle, has remained functional and has gained significantly with recent overhauls. Hopefully both it and the recently released Kiowa continue on.

The situation here is also unlikely to be directly related to the one at RAZBAM but I can understand this adding to the anxiety already being felt within the community. The news on both coming in at the same time also adds to the feeling though the proximity may well be coincidence as well. Time, as they say, will tell.


17 responses to “Polychop responds to rumours of turmoil”

  1. I believe they’ll pull through this and when they do, I bet they’ll announce their next helicopter module. Whatever it will be is anyone’s guess, but I hope it will be an attack helicopter, like the AH-1 SuperCobra. That would be cool.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      I hope they will pull through as well. Just seem to be going through those times where things are a bit turbulent…

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I remember a time when there were no 3rd party modules so I’m thankful for what we get but am under no illusion that there is a risk to it (and to date we’ve only had the Hawk be depreciated). I have no idea what is in the agreement with ED but I can assume that if a 3rd party maker was to implode ED doesn’t have an obligation to keep it running (they may or may not want to and depending on the departing module maker they might get the source code).

    I think in this case – think we are going to be OK.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      Great perspective! Yes, I remember those times too. I hope everything will turn out ok as well!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I agree. With the mig-19 likely to disappear into oblivion in the future, I’m just thankful for the opportunity to gain an insight into aviation history. There’s so many fantastic modules on the horizon but I’m sure they will expire by the time a decade is up too and I’m comfortable with that.

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      1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        I hope it doesn’t! I quite like the MiG-19. It just needed a little more work to become truly great.

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  3. Unpopular opinion here but DCS modules (especially modern area aircraft) are maybe priced too low for the complexity and these many years of free updates.

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    1. Hi Chris – I personally agree with you though sure some people would see “upgrades” as being part of the roadmap and people purchased with that knowledge.

      I sometimes wonder how any of the 3rd parties make any money from DCS – these are multi year endeavours which are likely propelled forward with a whole lot of passion

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      1. I think that there is also a lot of relatively low cost labor. Heatblur is based on Poland, where wages are a third of those in the US. Ugra Media seems to use a lot of Russian students to do the work.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      You’re right that its unpopular but also maybe not wrong.

      There’s been backlash against upgrade prices to V2 upgrades but it may be a necessity over the long term. The trick will be creating the value in the upgrade to make it feel worthwhile for consumers.

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    3. Volume is key, especially in the digital sphere. There is little difference in cost between selling 10k or 20k modules. I remember in the earlier days of kindle, authors who sold their books for 2.99 really saw volume that gave a lot more profit than 9.99 books. (Of course now the market is pretty saturated) The price of pixels is pretty arbitrary, even if the cost of development and maintenance is not.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. More Drama just what we need to fuel the fire. I would love more developers with lots of cool modules and I think we are well on the way to that. So try to look at the positives and wait for more info before you go master ARM, fuse on. 🙂

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      You probably know me that I prefer to think positively about the overall flight sim scene as well. It does have its share of drama that folks need to know about, like this one, but I do hope that things continue on alright.

      The Gazelle went through a lot and its still with us and better than ever. So fingers crossed!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. The article states that Polychop aims to continue supporting both modules. That is not what the Discord message says. It merely says that the modules will continue to work. That is not the same thing.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      Hi Julian. Fair comment. I’ve slightly adjusted the article… in my mind it’s roughly analogous as DCS modules have typically needed regular maintenance but I can see where there’s room for interpretation between work and support.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. […] that its going to be read and seen as having a lot do with the ongoing saga with RAZBAM and the recent turmoil at Polychop. Fair enough, this is focused on other things and we did learn one or two new […]

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  7. I wouldn’t call it rumors, more like actual turmoil, since there’s literally zero doubt that the devs we got to know are all gone. Good article and summary nevertheless though.

    Polychop has already recovered from a serious crisis in the past and managed to become a decent team despite all that, so I wouldn’t give up hope entirely that they will recover in some way. But realistically, we also have to realize that without some of the former team members, they probably wouldn’t have gotten to where they were and that support, that talent is now gone. So it’ll be significantly harder for the team lead on his own.

    All in all, it’s a sad and concerning situation. Good to know that at least basic maintenance is -for now- ensured.

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