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

[R-T-B]

Elite dangerous is garbage.
Shoo.

I like garbage then. Especially garbage that improves massively over time. Garbage that simulates the whole milky way to scale, like Elite. It shows vision and amazing techological advancement from the garbage of yesteryear. Seriously, the progress from the old bannapeel garbage is nothing short of astounding...

 

[Kursah]

Elite dangerous is garbage.
Shoo.

Poor choice of words, be more constructive and useful with your posts please, otherwise there's really no point to posting. Thousands of folks like Elite for numerous reasons, so a simple blanket statement that its garbage is neither useful nor welcome, please refrain from posting this kind or I'll be the one asking you to shoo.

 

[Vayra86]

Elite dangerous is garbage.
Shoo.

Really? I paid 20 bucks and had a pretty good 20-30 hours floating around in space. A good part of that was simply just flying out in a general direction, taking pictures along the way. Very immersive and unique at that, and it has some smart gameplay elements too with scooping fuel and all.

Did the fun last for me, no, its too empty for me in terms of scripted/handmade stuff, you really do notice its an RNG machine at work after a while. But... gameplay wise, the flight system is very nice, combat works well, and interdictions are pretty exciting.

 

[R-T-B]

Poor choice of words, be more constructive and useful with your posts please, otherwise there's really no point to posting. Thousands of folks like Elite for numerous reasons, so a simple blanket statement that its garbage is neither useful nor welcome, please refrain from posting this kind or I'll be the one asking you to shoo.

But I mean I kinda like the idea that Frontier literally advanced from making boxes full of hot rotten garbage to something as awesome as Elite though. I mean seriously, that'd be like a world record in progression.

Sadly, I liked Zoo Tycoon as a kid so can't say that either though...

 

[Splinterdog]

Which was trash, but at least it didn't cost $300 million.

According to you.

 

[Sora]

Poor choice of words, be more constructive and useful with your posts please, otherwise there's really no point to posting. Thousands of folks like Elite for numerous reasons, so a simple blanket statement that its garbage is neither useful nor welcome, please refrain from posting this kind or I'll be the one asking you to shoo.

Perfect choice of words, the game came out with no content and using it as a benchmark to say "this how X should have been" is inane and demonstrates how stockholmed game buyers are to getting games that are actually complete on release.

Not my fault you're all "i want it now" consumers with no concept of design time or money involved.

Really? I paid 20 bucks and had a pretty good 20-30 hours floating around in space. A good part of that was simply just flying out in a general direction, taking pictures along the way. Very immersive and unique at that, and it has some smart gameplay elements too with scooping fuel and all.

Did the fun last for me, no, its too empty for me in terms of scripted/handmade stuff, you really do notice its an RNG machine at work after a while. But... gameplay wise, the flight system is very nice, combat works well, and interdictions are pretty exciting.

I can do that from my backyard with a telescopic camera, stop defending a barren release and wake up to the reality of real game development.

Ya'll are the perfect example of why No Mans sky didn't end in mass refunds and a lawsuite.

Electronic Arts has done a real number on you.

 

[R-T-B]

Perfect choice of words,

Nope, being brief like that will never be a wise choice of words.

the game came out with no content

That's an appeal to a past, not present state... and regardless' It had little replay value, but hardly no content. I played it, enjoyed it and yes, burned out. But also, I bought in fully understanding I was supporting an ongoing project. Kind of like Star Citizen only they now have a meaningful game (unlike Star Citizen).

Electronic Arts has done a real number on you.

Or you know, not everyone thinks like you and that's a fact one day you are going to realize isn't due to some sort of mental deficiency, but just enjoying different things. Sorry you didn't like the game, don't take it our on everyone who did.


The game isn't trash simply because trash doesn't generate what Elite has.

Ya'll are the perfect example of why No Mans sky didn't end in mass refunds and a lawsuite.

That game is actually decent now too. Maybe a lawsuit would've made it better though, who knows?

 

[INSTG8R]

Perfect choice of words, the game came out with no content and using it as a benchmark to say "this how X should have been" is inane and demonstrates how stockholmed game buyers are to getting games that are actually complete on release.

Not my fault you're all "i want it now" consumers with no concept of design time or money involved.



I can do that from my backyard with a telescopic camera, stop defending a barren release and wake up to the reality of real game development.

Ya'll are the perfect example of why No Mans sky didn't end in mass refunds and a lawsuite.

Electronic Arts has done a real number on you.

Whoah whoah!! Stockholm? ED is a finished product with consistent content updates. Anyone defending SC is someone wth a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome. Holding on for yet another Alpha release and another ships pledge drive.
Just give me my SQ42 and. You take another decade farting about with your “grand vision”

 

[Tatty_Two]

We appear to be drifting away from SC and it's evolution to other games, lets not, on topic please.

 

[Splinterdog]

This is a very balanced assessment of Star Citizen funding, past, present and future from Bored Gamer.
Well worth a watch all the way through.

 

[moproblems99]

Star Citizen is both an expose into modern funding principles and an exercise in psychology. Fun to watch and worth all zero pennies I have invested. I will happily invest $60 in 2030 when the beta comes out.

 

[StrayKAT]

Sad, sad, sad.. since the Wing Commander series is in my top 10. But he's one of those developers who needs someone to keep him in line, I think. People could have seen the writing on the wall just by looking at Freelancer. Microsoft gave him a wide berth at the time, but he was inclined to the same aspirations as Star Citizen back then: He wanted a huge MMO type space for the game, and it was just about to suffer from feature creep. MS pulled the plug and just rushed a basic space shooter release. People blamed them at the time (evil Microsoft/evil game publishers blah blah blah), but there's a reason why they do what they do. It's not always their fault. Some creative geniuses are chaotic and need to be managed. Tim Schafer is another example. Some of his games (Grim Fandango, Full Throttle) are some of my favorites too.. but he has a hard time getting things done on his own.

 

[64K]

Well, here we go again...

Squadron 42 beta delayed 3 months.

Chris needs another 100 million dollars.......for work

Squadron 42, Star Citizen's single-player campaign, beta has been delayed by 12 weeks

Cloud Imperium has announced that Staggered Development is coming to both Star Citizen and Squadron 42. However, and due to this development model, the beta date for Squadron 42 has been delayed by 12 weeks. In case you aren’t aware of, Staggered Development is an approach that splits the...

www.dsogaming.com

 

[moproblems99]

To me, all the delays ultimately mean nothing if the game is brilliant. Doubly so if the game is brilliant on release.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I see nothing wrong in that article. Switching to a staggered development schedule would cause a three month delay on the first release.

 

[64K]

I see nothing wrong in that article. Switching to a staggered development schedule would cause a three month delay on the first release.

Assuming this is the last delay of course which doesn't coincide with previous Developer performance.

To me, all the delays ultimately mean nothing if the game is brilliant. Doubly so if the game is brilliant on release.

Same here. I'm very patient. Most gamers are not.

If the game gets finished then all is good. If the game doesn't get finished then I've lost nothing as well. I didn't crowdfund and I never will anymore than I will ever pre-order. I'm no gambler.

 

[blobster21]

 

[Space Lynx]

I wish I could get a refund on my $25. I backed this game at its original Kickstarter. What a load of lies.

 

[Vario]

I wish I could get a refund on my $25. I backed this game at its original Kickstarter. What a load of lies.

The space stuff is cool but much like No Man's Sky, I think its just not possible for this type of space sandbox multiplayer game to be anything but boring and empty. So I didn't back it. Then it became obvious it was a scam with the high priced ship sales and the cult like fan base.

 

[Assimilator]

To me, all the delays ultimately mean nothing if the game is brilliant. Doubly so if the game is brilliant on release.

What about if the delays are infinite?

 

[LFaWolf]

I hope the game will be out by 2040. That is when I will be retiring and finally have time to play a good game. I am not being sarcastic. I have a feeling that with NVIDIA pushing Raytracing, and AMD on the wing talking about it, this game will get the Raytracing treatment and there will be more delays to add Raytracing support. 2040, that is what I am hoping.

 

[Kovoet]

Thank God I never got involved in this one

 

[Divide Overflow]

I'm disappointed by the feature delays, but am familiar with how common they are in a software development program of this size. I can see a lot of progress and there's great communication from the development team. I also regularly spend quite a bit of time in the PTU and Live servers watching game mechanics being deployed and refined. There's a long way to go, but it's pretty amazing already!

 

[Space Lynx]

I'm disappointed by the feature delays, but am familiar with how common they are in a software development program of this size. I can see a lot of progress and there's great communication from the development team. I also regularly spend quite a bit of time in the PTU and Live servers watching game mechanics being deployed and refined. There's a long way to go, but it's pretty amazing already!

thats not the issue... the Kickstarter said a timeline way before now... while some delays are acceptable, this long of a delay is blatant false advertising and I should have a right to get me $25 kickstarter back. especially since this guy has plenty of time to enjoy his mansion and mini yacht looking boat

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Reminds me Gran Turismo on Playstation. Polyphony spends an eternity perfecting those titles, and Playstation owners wait years for a first party racing title to play on the latest generation consoles. Then the games don't even end up that great.

I wonder if a big-name studio will swoop in and make a similar style of game to see if they can capitalize on what is clearly a "want" for a group of well-heeled gamers.