The Saga Of 'Star Citizen,' A Video Game That Raised $300 Million—But May Never Be Ready To Play

[moproblems99]

But for me, the last 400$ I spend on modern titles and games like elite felt far more wasted than the 400$ I threw at this unfinished game.

I don't know anything about Star Citizen. I won't support it until he reigns himself in but I 100% agree with you about that quote. Good games are hard to come by now. Most everything is just 'how fast and how little attention and resources can we put into this and still make money.'

One day the game will finished an it will probably be one of the greatest PC games ever made.

That certainly is a possibility but knowing what we know, I give it a higher chance of having development stop due to lack of money. IF it gets finished, I have no doubts it will likely be one of the greatest games ever. Assuming you like space themed sims/do it all games. It can't not be given the breadth and scope of what they are trying to do.

But, that breadth and scope, is the biggest reason it has the chance to run out of money and stall. Plus, that breadth and scope don't seem to stop growing. I would say they grow faster than the money comes in now.

The fact they don't have a full beta, heck even a full alpha is hugely concerning. Not sure about some of the biggest AAA titles, but I would think that $300mil ought to be enough to get to alpha stage.

 

[64K]

But the money is still rolling in. Cloud Imperium is employing 500 people to develop this game. If it was a scam then why waste so much money on employees? Roberts could just pocket the extra money.

 

[sepheronx]

My friend spent $500 on this kickstarter for a special kind of ship. Don't know much about it but I ask him at least every 3 months or so about the game. So far, he feels dissapointed. Hopefully it does finish so he gets his ship.

 

[erocker]

Lol. THE CONCERN!!!! Every year, this time someone writes an article telling people how to think and it gets posted. It's perpetual and a great exercise in expunging independent thought.

*I mean, I do agree that things definitely haven't been managed optimally. It's taking a long damn time.

 

[64K]

People get frustrated with how long Star Citizen is taking and they don't understand where all of the money went but some games are expensive to make. Heck, Destiny took 500 million dollars to develop.

 

[Vario]

People get frustrated with how long Star Citizen is taking and they don't understand where all of the money went but some games are expensive to make. Heck, Destiny took 500 million dollars to develop.

The problem is the business model seems to be selling virtual ships and not actually selling a game.

 

[moproblems99]

But the money is still rolling in. Cloud Imperium is employing 500 people to develop this game. If it was a scam then why waste so much money on employees? Roberts could just pocket the extra money.

I never said scam. It is clearly being mis-mananged. Roberts probably has every desire in the world to make the greatest game ever. But his inability to put a clamp on ambition and build a game has a very high chance of dooming him.

Money may be rolling in now but for how long? Every time Roberts needs more money, they do a fundraiser promising new stuff. Which of course adds more time, which means more money which means another fundraiser will be needed because each fundraiser is covering money for promises from the last fundraiser. If this was a hedge fund, it would be called a Ponzi Scheme.

Again, I really hope he can get is shit together because it will likely be a fantastic game. But he needs to learn how to stop promising. His money is going to run out at some point. Hopefully, he has a product that fits the expense.

GTA V cost less than $140 mil. And that was for a complete game for Playstation, XBox, and PC. They are double that now and don't even have an alpha of the game they promised if they made it to $100 mil.

 

[Vario]

I never said scam. It is clearly being mis-mananged. Roberts probably has every desire in the world to make the greatest game ever. But his inability to put a clamp on ambition and build a game has a very high chance of dooming him.

Money may be rolling in now but for how long? Every time Roberts needs more money, they do a fundraiser promising new stuff. Which of course adds more time, which means more money which means another fundraiser will be needed because each fundraiser is covering money for promises from the last fundraiser. If this was a hedge fund, it would be called a Ponzi Scheme.

Again, I really hope he can get is shit together because it will likely be a fantastic game. But he needs to learn how to stop promising. His money is going to run out at some point. Hopefully, he has a product that fits the expense.

GTA V cost less than $140 mil. And that was for a complete game for Playstation, XBox, and PC. They are double that now and don't even have an alpha of the game they promised if they made it to $100 mil.

Eventually people will stop buying the ships and then they will run out of cash.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Eventually people will stop buying the ships and then they will run out of cash.

Whether because of no more desire for ships or something else, eventually people’s limits will be reached and I fear you may be right about no mor influx of cash after that.

Roberts is clearly not suited to heading a company. He is a case of the developer needing a publisher to keep them on task.

 

[moproblems99]

He is a case of the developer needing a publisher to keep them on task.

It's always a red flag (to me) when a creative is at the helm. Doubly so when they are incredibly passionate about what they are doing. When you working on your love, it is hard to make those tough decisions that need to be made.

 

[64K]

But the thing is he's not. He's just not.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Hopefully they release a stable version someday, even if the whole vision is incomplete. I think there’s a market for something like that, where fans can commit years to a game knowing the adventure will grow. A stable release would be an immense boost of confidence.

Not to get off in the weeds, but I wish we could see more studios expand on old work to make these mass open worlds. Like Destiny 2 should have expanded off Destiny so all of both worlds were still accessible. Instead they torched what made the game great.

 

[moproblems99]

But the thing is he's not. He's just not.

He's not what?

 

[R-T-B]

Wise or not it's still money. One day the game will finished an it will probably be one of the greatest PC games ever made.

If the money keeps coming sure. But the stream is not infinite, it's actually drying up.

 

[64K]

If the money keeps coming sure. But the stream is not infinite, it's actually drying up.

But it's not drying up. Gaming whales we keep this project going.

 

[kapone32]

The thing with Star Citizen is that I really looked forward to it. Then Squadron 52 was announced and got me even more hyped. Unfortunately Elite Dangerous is playable and is the exact same concept. Eve Online already does some of what Star Citizen promises as well. Then you have the X series that has so much content it is not funny. It has been 7 years and games like Everspace are great. It is to the point where I updated my PC the other day and did not bother to re-install the launcher. It may be 2020 before this game gets released but I am not holding my breath.

 

[Vayra86]

But it's not drying up. Gaming whales we keep this project going.

Perhaps for a little while, but all good things come to an end someday.

There is another problem though. How will they monetize the PU. That question remains shady at best, and I have a feeling people won't like the harsh reality of it, the moment they get to see that in all its glory might be the game's demise. Its either going to be pay to win, or its pay to play. And I won't even mention all those ships that were purchased and will be translated into organizations with varying strength. People might have the idea its going to be another EVE, think again, because the concept of this game totally does not suit that type of scale and again, this will destroy a large part of the fanbase at the same time.

This is the biggest red flag for me. In the early days you could read 'ship insurance' as a subscription model of sorts that could/would scale alongside your playtime. But today I'm not so sure that's going to be enough. After all, if you can make all the currency 'by playing', ship insurance kinda falls away as a realistic and only monetization and income - and if you can only earn it through real money, bad players will be gone after a month of having blown up ships and still being at rock bottom + lost money in the process. They'll need more. Skins/cosmetics is another dead end because really, those are inherent to the ship models themselves already. So what's left? Paid DLC and content updates in a persistent MMO? Not gonna happen given their pace of releasing content and again it will fragment the playerbase. What remains is a big question mark.

People get frustrated with how long Star Citizen is taking and they don't understand where all of the money went but some games are expensive to make. Heck, Destiny took 500 million dollars to develop.

Yeah right. Only 2,5 million of that was budgeted annually since 2010 towards actual development of the game. The rest was marketing. And it shows, Destiny 1 barely had content.

I think World of Warcraft is more interesting comparison to make.
Vivendi stated it cost 63 million dollars to make over a period of 4.5 years. - not corrected for inflation! And 4.5~5 years is considered looong in game development.

 

[R-T-B]

THE CONCERN!!!! Every year, this time someone writes an article telling people how to think and it gets posted.

This article is careful to distance itself from telling you whether or not the purchases are justified, meaning its not telling you how to think. I'd suggest reading it as it's very well written.

Perhaps for a little while, but all good things come to an end someday.

My concern in the liquid funds as stated here are already showing signs of that.

Unfortunately Elite Dangerous is playable and is the exact same concept.

This. So much this. Elite Dangerous is Star Citizen done competently. Is it perfect? No. But I promise you it'll be a lot more perfect than whatever Star Citizen puts out when it comes out with a strange development waste/model like this. Why? Because for all it's faults, at least Elite has the brains to know perfection cannot be achieved.

 

[Vayra86]

This. So much this. Elite Dangerous is Star Citizen done competently. Is it perfect? No. But I promise you it'll be a lot more perfect than whatever Star Citizen puts out when it comes out with a strange development waste/model like this. Why? Because for all it's faults, at least Elite has the brains to know perfection cannot be achieved.

Competently? They've made some pretty nasty adjustments in content, pushing a lot into paid expansions. It says alot about game development and promises made Its almost impossible to scope such a project accurately.

I mean what did the Vanilla game really have? Two starbase models, a handful of ships and lots of RNG.

 

[moproblems99]

There is another problem though. How will they monetize the PU.

Don't forget you can buy land!

 

[Vario]

Perhaps for a little while, but all good things come to an end someday.

There is another problem though. How will they monetize the PU. That question remains shady at best, and I have a feeling people won't like the harsh reality of it, the moment they get to see that in all its glory might be the game's demise. Its either going to be pay to win, or its pay to play. And I won't even mention all those ships that were purchased and will be translated into organizations with varying strength. People might have the idea its going to be another EVE, think again, because the concept of this game totally does not suit that type of scale and again, this will destroy a large part of the fanbase at the same time.

This is the biggest red flag for me. In the early days you could read 'ship insurance' as a subscription model of sorts that could/would scale alongside your playtime. But today I'm not so sure that's going to be enough. After all, if you can make all the currency 'by playing', ship insurance kinda falls away as a realistic and only monetization and income - and if you can only earn it through real money, bad players will be gone after a month of having blown up ships and still being at rock bottom + lost money in the process. They'll need more. Skins/cosmetics is another dead end because really, those are inherent to the ship models themselves already. So what's left? Paid DLC and content updates in a persistent MMO? Not gonna happen given their pace of releasing content and again it will fragment the playerbase. What remains is a big question mark.



Yeah right. Only 2,5 million of that was budgeted annually since 2010 towards actual development of the game. The rest was marketing. And it shows, Destiny 1 barely had content.

I think World of Warcraft is more interesting comparison to make.
Vivendi stated it cost 63 million dollars to make over a period of 4.5 years. - not corrected for inflation! And 4.5~5 years is considered looong in game development.

Whatever game comes out from this is not going to be a game that is going to be fun for anyone to play. Peasants won't play it because the content will be behind paywalls or it will be repetitive fly back and forth grinding to do the same emergent quests repeatedly. Whales won't have any peasants to impress with their extravagant lack of impulse control. The enjoyable content will not be there. At best it will be like how GTA Online is now.

 

[R-T-B]

Competently?

Yes. I didn't say "perfectly, or even " done well," I said competently, meaning at baseline, most of what they said is finally there. It was/sometimes still is bumpy but it exists.

I mean what did the Vanilla game really have? Two starbase models, a handful of ships and lots of RNG.

It was more like six starbase models, but I am looking at the end result today. It was admitedly a rough launch.

Still, it's budget was much much less. And yet there is a playable game. That is the difference.

 

[moproblems99]

Still, it's budget was much much less. And yet there is a playable game. That is the difference.

I don't think you can just compare budgets. I don't know anything about Elite Dangerous but I would surmise the scope, if not just the vision, are probably not comparable. If we wanted to look at budget only, I would look at GTAV and say: I expect 1.5x to 2x GTAV. Either in content, scale, or something like that.

Heck, Destiny took 500 million dollars to develop.

By the way, according to wiki, Destiny only cost less than $140mil to develop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop

 

[R-T-B]

I don't think you can just compare budgets. I don't know anything about Elite Dangerous but I would surmise the scope, if not just the vision, are probably not comparable.

They are actaully quite comparable. If anythingz the Elite Dangerous Universe is far (exponentionally, it's the complete milky way to scale) bigger but utilizes RNG to achieve that. I'm pretty sure that's part of why they succeeded whereas SC has "almost 2 planets and a handfull of moons and asteroids" done.

 

[danbert2000]

I'm in for $35 since forever ago. I actually have to make sure I still have access to my RSI account to get the game if/when it actually releases. If Squadron 42 comes out and is as entertaining as Freelancer was, I will be tickled pink. If it happens to have a huge persistent MMO going on in the background, even better. If it never comes out, well, I spent that $35 like 8 years ago. I'll be fine. I'll be a bit mad, but at least they tried.

People buying $500 ships for an unreleased game though... please stop. That's ridiculous. Make sure the loss if this game never comes out is akin to buying a shitty game, not buying a shitty game and console that break immediately.