I'm going to be as diplomatic as I can here ... as a lot of things need to be placed into some form of perspective.
Firstly, fans have rarely,
if ever, been able to actively force a change on an issue via online petitions. Even the most rabid and outspoken fandoms have been unable to resurrect cherished television series via the platform ... and we are talking here about expensive single-player DLC for what is now a 2 year old game. For many years now, it has been known within the gaming industry that single player DLC simply does not sell very well. It is only multiplayer, and special stand-alone editions created down the line, that have managed to securely recuperate costs involved with their development. That SE continued with their roadmap for single player DLC for this long was a miracle* in itself. Cancelling this shouldn't come as any real surprise.
Second, with so many new and interesting games to discover, the percentage of players who actually fully complete a game, let alone return to it at some point in the future, is incredibly low. Far from being a distinct metric, but trophy analysis has proven that this is the case. When a massive player in the industry like Rockstar won't even develop any new single player portions to their games because of the massive, and easier, revenue avenues via online and multiplayer components,
despite a massive amount of fan outcry, that should tell you a lot. If there is no continuous multiplayer or online component within a game constantly bringing players back into a 'world', then gamers have already moved on. Monthly multiplayer maps and events can return them for a short time (especially with the added hope of them also spending during the event), but unfortunately, single player DLC does not hold any similar weight here.
There is actually a really interesting discussion about all of this going on right now over at ResetEra:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/ko...-story-dlc-often-doesnt-sell-very-well.79850/
Third, the notion of Nomura delaying development on the VII: Remake in order to concentrate on bringing these DLCs back to life is simply an insane notion. Regardless of how far along anyone believes that the game actually is (or even how far along those DLCs might have been), stopping work on such a massive project in favour of DLC for XV makes absolutely no financial sense. VII: Remake is a massive AAA product, any meaningful and impacting delays would render it in exactly the same predicament that XV was in. Why would you want them to be in that position?
Fourth, though the amount quoted might seem like a lot, a company like SE can more than shoulder the financial burden of this and restructure their efforts elsewhere ... which is exactly what they are doing. They do not need crowdfunding or players trying to throw money at them (though I'm sure
any company would love that) in order to develop a product. But again, you need to put things into perspective here. What you could amass would be a minor drop in the ocean for what would be required to continue work on these DLCs. It is both unneeded and unnecessary. Setbacks can happen in game development. SE do not need any form of charity from fans either.
TLDR - it is always great when fans feel strongly about a product that has touched them on a deep level, but we also need to be realistic here. Whatever anyone's thoughts concerning XV, your petition, and money, certainly won't affect anything I'm afraid. And look at it from the other perspective, you got a heck of a lot out of XV, including the CGI movie, the Brotherhood anime, several mini-games, the DLCs, regular hunts and events added to the main game, and also multiplayer Comrades. And they have stated that the discontinued DLCs will most likely be wrapped up in some way.
XV has had a good run man, no doubt about that.
* Or exchange the word 'miracle' for 'outright surprise', 'mismanaged' or whatever other word you'd prefer really. SE is confusing and hard to decipher at even the best of times
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