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

[INSTG8R]

You know there can't be a Squadron 42 until they hit at least Alpha 99.999. Because scope.

Yeah but it/was supposed to be FIRST until Roberts went full idiot with his grandiose never ending feature creep that’s taken over all the focus or lack thereof. Give me my SQ42 and you can faff around for another decade for all I care with the rest of that nonsense list of “content”

 

[bug]

Yeah but it/was supposed to be FIRST until Roberts went full idiot with his grandiose never ending feature creep that’s taken over all the focus or lack thereof. Give me my SQ42 and you can faff around for another decade for all I care with the rest of that nonsense list of “content”

That would be sane way to do things. That ship has sailed. (And my HOTAS is still waiting for Squadron 42)

 

[INSTG8R]

That would be sane thing to do things. That ship has sailed. (And my HOTAS is still waiting for Squadron 42)

Yeah it’s literally been tossed aside for Roberts ever changing “Grand Vision”

 

[64K]

I've been saying for years that Cloud Imperium should just finish what they already have and release it. Then continue to expand the game and release those as updates. What Roberts obviously wants to do is release the greatest PC game ever made whenever that can be accomplished. He said he doesn't want to release the game until it's perfect but perfection isn't possible. There will always be something else that could be improved. There are the core fans that are fine with his vision but more than a few are getting pissed that they don't get the finished game by now when they bought a package years and years ago.

Roberts seems to want to keep selling ships, hangar bay decorations, ship weapons and armor upgrades and plots of virtual land to keep the cash rolling in. All of this pulls part of his team off of just finishing the game. Why keep making ships to sell? Because people are spending a lot on them. Cloud Imperium a while back offered a Ship Package for $27,000 that contained every ship in the game. I read recently about one guy that spent $30,000 on ships. That's insane to gamble that much money on a game that might never be finished. On the other hand if he can't keep the cash rolling in then the game is certain to never be finished.

 

[INSTG8R]

I've been saying for years that Cloud Imperium should just finish what they already have and release it. Then continue to expand the game and release those as updates. What Roberts obviously wants to do is release the greatest PC game ever made whenever that can be accomplished. He said he doesn't want to release the game until it's perfect but perfection isn't possible. There will always be something else that could be improved. There are the core fans that are fine with his vision but more than a few are getting pissed that they don't get the finished game by now when they bought a package years and years ago.

Roberts seems to want to keep selling ships, hangar bay decorations, ship weapons and armor upgrades and plots of virtual land to keep the cash rolling in. All of this pulls part of his team off of just finishing the game. Why keep making ships to sell? Because people are spending a lot on them. Cloud Imperium a while back offered a Ship Package for $27,000 that contained every ship in the game. I read recently about one guy that spent $30,000 on ships. That's insane to gamble that much money on a game that might never be finished. On the other hand if he can't keep the cash rolling in then the game is certain to never be finished.

Yeah considering the most I’ve done with my one ship is walk around it n the hanger and tour the cockpi. “All he Ships Guy” must spend A LOT more time doing that...

 

[the54thvoid]

For a dispassionate expose on Star Citizen, I'd like to know how many people have already 'bought' their copy of SC. I did, way back with a $75 ship purchase. Point being, when it's released, for marketing and profit; how many more people will buy in? If it's already swallowed hundreds of millions, and that investment is prepayment, how can it possibly pull in such a niche crowd? It's an fps space sim. The development model is ingenuous, but the post development sales model is hideously broken. Marketing will cost tens of millions alone. I don't think SC will work as a business, even when it's 'perfect'.

 

[64K]

For a dispassionate expose on Star Citizen, I'd like to know how many people have already 'bought' their copy of SC. I did, way back with a $75 ship purchase. Point being, when it's released, for marketing and profit; how many more people will buy in? If it's already swallowed hundreds of millions, and that investment is prepayment, how can it possibly pull in such a niche crowd? It's an fps space sim. The development model is ingenuous, but the post development sales model is hideously broken. Marketing will cost tens of millions alone. I don't think SC will work as a business, even when it's 'perfect'.

I'm one who never bought a package. I've never pre-ordered and I don't crowd fund. I want to know what I'm paying for before I buy it. I will certainly buy Squadron 42 when it's finished and patched. I will gladly pay full price if the game is as good as I think it will be when finally finished. Now I'm just one person but I have seen numerous people over the years say the same thing. According to the Star Citizen site they claim around 2.4 million Star Citizens. If that represents the number of unique people who have bought a package then my estimate is that Star Citizen will sell several million more copies when complete so if the finished game sells for $60 and sells another 3 million copies then that's another 180 million dollars in revenue. imo they could sell even more than 3 million copies after the game is completed and then there are ships that people will potentially buy, weapon and armor upgrades purchases, insurance, extras and such so who knows how much more revenue Star Citizen could generate when finished.

That is the main reason that I have never considered Star Citizen a scam. There's just too much money yet to be made when completed. When is the million dollar question.

 

[Whitestar]

Digital Foundry:

 

[dorsetknob]

Star Citizen: Is this £200m game becoming too ambitious?
Article from BBC.

Star Citizen: Is this £200m game too ambitious?

In development since 2012 Star Citizen wants to build an entire universe for game players.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Vayra86]

Star Citizen: Is this £200m game becoming too ambitious?
Article from BBC.

Star Citizen: Is this £200m game too ambitious?

In development since 2012 Star Citizen wants to build an entire universe for game players.

www.bbc.co.uk

Jesus, again? How many outlets chewed on this story now? BBC being fashionably late at it too

Ah nvm what I said Its a neutral piece, neat! Title is a tad misleading

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

Jesus, again? How many outlets chewed on this story now? BBC being fashionably late at it too

Ah nvm what I said Its a neutral piece, neat! Title is a tad misleading

It's actually more positive piece than I thought. If it was neutral they'd interview that derreck guy and/or some confirmed refundees.

On one hand I understand the frustration this game is. Just think about it, how many backers might be dead now before being able to fully play the game.

On the other hand, the scope of this game merits the long cooking time imo. It's basically released but in early access form.
But I kinda don't get the pay2win gripe people have with outright buying ships. In real world, rich people have advantage. Same rules apply here.

 

[Space Lynx]

It's actually more positive piece than I thought. If it was neutral they'd interview that derreck guy and/or some confirmed refundees.

On one hand I understand the frustration this game is. Just think about it, how many backers might be dead now before being able to fully play the game.

On the other hand, the scope of this game merits the long cooking time imo. It's basically released but in early access form.
But I kinda don't get the pay2win gripe people have with outright buying ships. In real world, rich people have advantage. Same rules apply here.

I still say the very first backers on kickstarter, aka me, should be granted like a bonus ship or two for making all this possible when no one ever heard of this game to begin with, and for them lying on when the game would ship. I have been waiting x amount of years now and no end in sight. I deserve some bonus ships.

But just like you said, the real world is corrupt, and so is this game, so eh I doubt that ever happens for me.

 

[Vayra86]

It's actually more positive piece than I thought. If it was neutral they'd interview that derreck guy and/or some confirmed refundees.

On one hand I understand the frustration this game is. Just think about it, how many backers might be dead now before being able to fully play the game.

On the other hand, the scope of this game merits the long cooking time imo. It's basically released but in early access form.
But I kinda don't get the pay2win gripe people have with outright buying ships. In real world, rich people have advantage. Same rules apply here.

Totally agree apart from the p2w aspect, there are ramafications to that and they influence the game experience even for those that have no interest in accruing lots of power or wealth. Its a pitfall many many MMOs have fallen into. Even without P2W there will be lots of asymmetry in the game economy and faction strengths etc. just because people have varying amounts of time to invest in it.

The presence of great asymmetry in faction power and influence may be intentional, but still, introduce a direct monetary conversion into gameplay advantage and what you get is all the filth that belong to power and money; it corrupts, and it makes things a tad too real for many who think their presence in a video game can be a substitute for whatever they lack in the real world; that is what games intend to do, but that is also why any ties with that real world are dangerous, volatile psychology.

I still say the very first backers on kickstarter, aka me, should be granted like a bonus ship or two for making all this possible when no one ever heard of this game to begin with, and for them lying on when the game would ship. I have been waiting x amount of years now and no end in sight. I deserve some bonus ships.

But just like you said, the real world is corrupt, and so is this game, so eh I doubt that ever happens for me.

Not really. Your bonus ships are the same urge to 'cheat' in a multi player environment and the fact they sell them is also paid cheating. Its the axe on the roots of the PU as a fair playground.

The lifetime insurance on its own was bad enough already.

This whole topic comes down to: do you want whales to govern the game economy and progression rate, or would you like it tailored to healthy and sane investments of time? If you want the latter, you should oppose any and all P2W influences. If you support the former, what you will get is yet another bot infested grind and zergfest and rat race plus massive evonomy inflation and a constant race to the next best exploit. And a game that is not immersive, but feels like a rat race.

As a student of philosophy, you cannot possibly miss this..

 

[Space Lynx]

Totally agree apart from the p2w aspect, there are ramafications to that and they influence the game experience even for those that have no interest in accruing lots of power or wealth. Its a pitfall many many MMOs have fallen into. Even without P2W there will be lots of asymmetry in the game economy and faction strengths etc. just because people have varying amounts of time to invest in it.

The presence of great asymmetry in faction power and influence may be intentional, but still, introduce a direct monetary conversion into gameplay advantage and what you get is all the filth that belong to power and money; it corrupts, and it makes things a tad too real for many who think their presence in a video game can be a substitute for whatever they lack in the real world; that is what games intend to do, but that is also why any ties with that real world are dangerous, volatile psychology.



Not really. Your bonus ships are the same urge to 'cheat' in a multi player environment and the fact they sell them is also paid cheating. Its the axe on the roots of the PU as a fair playground.

The lifetime insurance on its own was bad enough already.

This whole topic comes down to: do you want whales to govern the game economy and progression rate, or would you like it tailored to healthy and sane investments of time? If you want the latter, you should oppose any and all P2W influences. If you support the former, what you will get is yet another bot infested grind and zergfest and rat race plus massive evonomy inflation and a constant race to the next best exploit. And a game that is not immersive, but feels like a rat race.

As a student of philosophy, you cannot possibly miss this..

Oh I am against P2W models of every kind, I'm just being realistic that the CEO of Roberts Space Industries doesn't give a damn about what me or you think, quite frankly, if I could get my $25 kickstarted investment back from 7 years ago I'd gladly do so. This game has not interested me in the slightest, I tried it once last year and it was so unoptimized... horrible experience on gtx 1070. eh. screw it at this point.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Oh I am against P2W models of every kind, I'm just being realistic that the CEO of Roberts Space Industries doesn't give a damn about what me or you think, quite frankly, if I could get my $25 kickstarted investment back from 7 years ago I'd gladly do so. This game has not interested me in the slightest, I tried it once last year and it was so unoptimized... horrible experience on gtx 1070. eh. screw it at this point.

Like all p2w models in all games, the only time the devs care about it is when the community as a whole starts barking wildly about it and it starts costing the developers profits. It's no surprise thats the CEO's current attitude, he will be that way until he starts losing money when the player base starts to disappear. Look what Archeage was "forced" to do, [sadly] they madescammed enough players to make a non-p2w version.

 

[bpgt64]

Oh I am against P2W models of every kind, I'm just being realistic that the CEO of Roberts Space Industries doesn't give a damn about what me or you think, quite frankly, if I could get my $25 kickstarted investment back from 7 years ago I'd gladly do so. This game has not interested me in the slightest, I tried it once last year and it was so unoptimized... horrible experience on gtx 1070. eh. screw it at this point.

You really should give it another go, they just introduced SOCS(server side object container streaming). I am getting about 60 FPS at 4K on a 2080 ti... it’s still buggy but it’s a lot better than it was....

 

[moproblems99]

You really should give it another go, they just introduced SOCS(server side object container streaming). I am getting about 60 FPS at 4K on a 2080 ti... it’s still buggy but it’s a lot better than it was....

S42 or Open Worldy kind of stuff?

 

[R-T-B]

You really should give it another go, they just introduced SOCS(server side object container streaming). I am getting about 60 FPS at 4K on a 2080 ti... it’s still buggy but it’s a lot better than it was....

That's nice and all, but I literally ran Elite with "high" settings at first on a GTX 580...

Granted, this game is probably prettier than the elite beta.

 

[Vayra86]

Oh I am against P2W models of every kind, I'm just being realistic that the CEO of Roberts Space Industries doesn't give a damn about what me or you think, quite frankly, if I could get my $25 kickstarted investment back from 7 years ago I'd gladly do so. This game has not interested me in the slightest, I tried it once last year and it was so unoptimized... horrible experience on gtx 1070. eh. screw it at this point.

Doesn't that investment still get you SQ42? I also pledged 35 and it included that, at least.

 

[bug]

Doesn't that investment still get you SQ42? I also pledged 35 and it included that, at least.

And by "included" you mean you got about squat so far

 

[Space Lynx]

Doesn't that investment still get you SQ42? I also pledged 35 and it included that, at least.

I only pledged 25, so I am not sure. I will have to login to my kickstarter and check.

 

[Kapone33]

This is absolutely insane. The one truism for me is that if Star Citizen releases after CP 2077 it will wait even longer for me to play.

 

[Space Lynx]

This is absolutely insane. The one truism for me is that if Star Citizen releases after CP 2077 it will wait even longer for me to play.

even if it is released before then it will not be fully done, they will constantly be polishing and adding stuff. really it's a never ending early access concept of a game. /shrug

but hey, the CEO gets to home to a mansion and a nice mini-yacht from the pictures I seen he lives very very well, so more power to him for being able to scam everyone legally.

 

[Kapone33]

even if it is released before then it will not be fully done, they will constantly be polishing and adding stuff. really it's a never ending early access concept of a game. /shrug

but hey, the CEO gets to home to a mansion and a nice mini-yacht from the pictures I seen he lives very very well, so more power to him for being able to scam everyone legally.

Exactly I am actually surprised (or I think there has been) that a class Action lawsuit has not been filed against Cloud Imperium. How long has it been 10 years? I am not even sure anymore.

 

[londiste]

This is absolutely insane. The one truism for me is that if Star Citizen releases after CP 2077 it will wait even longer for me to play.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been in planning to some degree since 2011 or 2012.