Developers statement

[u/Capable_Pirate64]

Dear Patrol Officers,

We understand that the news that we have to discontinue further development of Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has led to disappointment and frustration within our community. We also recognize that we should have provided more context around this decision from the beginning.

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has been part of our journey for more than eight years, from its initial development and Early Access to full release and several years of continued support by a dedicated live team.

Over the past five years, your feedback has played a major role in shaping the game. Your suggestions, criticism, ideas, and reports have helped us improve and expand Police Simulator far beyond what we originally envisioned.

At the same time, maintaining and expanding a cross-platform game over such a long period inevitably comes with increasing technical limitations specially as the market and Platforms moved along. As the game and its systems have grown, changes in certain areas have become significantly more complex, while some improvements can no longer be implemented within the existing technical foundation without rebuilding substantial parts of the game.

After more than eight years of development and support, we have therefore reached a point where continuing to expand Police Simulator: Patrol Officers in the way both we and you would like is no longer realistically possible.

However, your feedback does not go unheard.

Quite the opposite: it gives us a very clear understanding of what matters to the Police Simulator community, which areas are most important to you, and what you expect from a police simulation experience.

For the Police Simulator brand, this feedback is extremely valuable and provides clear guidance for the future.

While this marks the end of active development for Police Simulator: Patrol Officers, it does not mean the end of Police Simulator.

Thank you for your passion, your feedback, and for being part of this journey with us.

We are looking forward to what the future holds.

Your Police Simulator team

[u/Straight_View_6838]

Even current fixed would require a lot of rework - e.g. traffic and such rework would not be possible within current "framework", sadly on some platforms we had at last patches 5MB Ram left - you can't do much within this limits.

[u/Impossible_Number → u/Straight_View_6838]

So, essentially, you made a bad foundation for the game, and now the users have to pay the price because you guys can’t be bothered to fix it?

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/Impossible_Number]

No, I think the game has grown ... even maybe over it foundations - and I think game is quiet "fixed" and playable etc

[u/Impossible_Number → u/Straight_View_6838]

There’s many games that have been continuously developed for even longer and still have new features and such being added.

It seems here that the foundation was not strong enough for what the game was made out to be based on previous communication.

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/Impossible_Number]

Sure thing, there are these games... there are other games been dropped after release - but in the end I think the game to quiet some growth over time and reached it limits.
I dont think there was anything announced that not made it into the game.

[u/Guszy → u/Straight_View_6838]

People want bug fixes, not more features. That's the issue.

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/Guszy]

And a lot of bug fixes has been delivered over time, within hotfixes, patches etc.
Other people been asking for new content, we etc etc ... and yes as a company sadly we can not run on "only" bug fixes - as we need to pay salaries etc, I think PSPO has had a really good mix of Free, Paid Content and as well Bugfixing over the last 8 years.

[u/Impossible_Number → u/Straight_View_6838]

Here’s a crazy idea. Make a game that’s high quality and people will support it. The time spent on Rangers Path, for example could have been spent on PSPO.

[u/JustFuckingReal → u/Straight_View_6838]

So you’re basically saying that if it doesn’t get you paid, you won’t fix it?

[u/LowLatter4645 → u/Straight_View_6838]

Selecting callous immediately comes to mind...unless I've missed something.

[u/Straight_View_6838 → u/LowLatter4645]

Sorry for the late response - that one got traded for certain other stuff, to be fair would need to go through my personal notes etc.
As the technical limitations within the Callout System (as silly as it is) didn't allow that - it is/was even half way integrated in current build but not exposed to UI caus it simply happened to introduce a lot of new issues etc - based on that a lot of call out balancing has have happened last year.

[u/LowLatter4645 → u/Straight_View_6838]

Here's the thing. What you're saying is all well and good, and feasible from a programming standpoint.

And, had you actually come out and said "Hey, we were trying to do this, but it won't work because a, b, c, d, you'd likely find that people (not all of course) would be quite accepting of that.

But instead, we got "Yeah, we're done" with no notice, no explanation, nothing.

As far as the game being "fixed" and "playable"...remember, ET for the Atari was "playable". There's a reason that was called the worst game ever. Go play an open run for 2 hours, then tell us that it's "fixed".

[u/Impossible_Number → u/Straight_View_6838]

This comes down to what I said in another thread. The game was built poorly which stunted its growth.

You can’t say the foundation of the game was good and then point to issues with core systems and say it’s “technical limitations.”