Star Citizen Has Made Over $200,000,000

Status
Not open for further replies.

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
According to Roberts Space Industries’ official funding stats page, Star Citizen has managed to breach the $200m barrier: 2,121,513 pledgers have raised $200,020,994 thus far, cementing the franchise’s place as one of the most successful crowdfunding projects of all time. But as Eurogamer notes, “eight years and $200m later, Star Citizen still doesn't have a final release date.”

The project began life in 2012 as a Kickstarter campaign that pitched an ambitious spiritual successor to Chris Roberts' much-loved Wing Commander series. Then, Star Citizen was due out in 2014. But as the money rolled in the scope of the project grew and this release window was pushed back. It's currently at the alpha stage of development, with the recently-released 3.3.0 patch currently keeping players occupied.
 
o_O Did I drink too much... sleep too long.... and wake up in 2020? o_O

“eight years and $200m later, Star Citizen still doesn't have a final release date.”
Star Citizen was announced in 2012 as a Kickstarter crowdfunding

I understand it's been awhile since I was in school...
I also understand Math today has somehow changed....

BUT is this NEW MATH 2018-2012 = 8? or .... 2018 - 2012 = 6....
 
money.gif
 
o_O Did I drink too much... sleep too long.... and wake up in 2020? o_O




I understand it's been awhile since I was in school...
I also understand Math today has somehow changed....

BUT is this NEW MATH 2018-2012 = 8? or .... 2018 - 2012 = 6....

Come on now, you know junk grade journalism is the norm these days.

The fall of everyone else's standards just reinforces the value we find here at the [H].
 
How can anyone say this is still not a scam at this point is odd. If the game comes out you will have 200 million USD in ships and what not, so at the least the economy will be a cluster F. I think the most likely outcome is they keep selling ships for as long as they can then put out a subpar game after pocketing %90 of the money.
 
In terms of pure business, they almost have no incentive to ever make a final release. Keeping the game in perpetual development seems to be working wonders for them.
Kind of reminds me of Farmville or the other Facebook games that use the "shield" of beta to cover up any issues, but still bring in tons of money.
 
This is the current state of the software market, and the fault is in Linux. The Linux mentality for the majority of software is continual "release" of alpha code without a decent installer, and adding more and more features while never fixing bugs. Most Linux software I've had to deal with, from Salt to Graylog to ElasticSearch to WINE, is like this. Few in the Linux market actually finish anything, or even make it operational for most users. Bug after bug is reported, but the developers ignore them in favor of adding "new features" that just makes things worse. Non-commercial software groups lack the direction and financial motivation to actually finish. People keep handing them money, because it is non-commercial and it makes them feel good because it isn't what they see as capitalism, and they keep putting out unfinished crap.
 
This is the current state of the software market, and the fault is in Linux. The Linux mentality for the majority of software is continual "release" of alpha code without a decent installer, and adding more and more features while never fixing bugs. Most Linux software I've had to deal with, from Salt to Graylog to ElasticSearch to WINE, is like this. Few in the Linux market actually finish anything, or even make it operational for most users. Bug after bug is reported, but the developers ignore them in favor of adding "new features" that just makes things worse. Non-commercial software groups lack the direction and financial motivation to actually finish. People keep handing them money, because it is non-commercial and it makes them feel good because it isn't what they see as capitalism, and they keep putting out unfinished crap.

Those are some nice mental gymnastics you've got going on there. Be a shame if someone ruined it with logic.

The Linux mentality is FOSS not raising $200m for closed source software and shovelware art.
 
How can anyone say this is still not a scam at this point is odd. If the game comes out you will have 200 million USD in ships and what not, so at the least the economy will be a cluster F. I think the most likely outcome is they keep selling ships for as long as they can then put out a subpar game after pocketing %90 of the money.
The issue is Chris Roberts generally has fantastic sounding ideas. Unlike Peter Molyneux, he also has the technical ability to back up those visions.. if you want a flashy, beautiful, and innovative game he is very difficult to beat during the pitch and alpha phase.

The problem is the man has exactly zero ability to print a final feature list. We saw this during freelancer. The man is physically incapable of finishing a product because he always needs to "add one more thing" or "bring this up to modern standards". He cannot grasp the concept that in video game development you have to set limits because during development technology will always surpass your vision. If you chase that dragon all you will find is ash.

Which is why starcitizen will be a playable but unreleased mess until the money runs out.. then someone else will pick up the project and finish it..
 
You were a good boy and donate your life savings to get a hyper awesome super duper incredibly amazing spaceship that'll be made obsolete after 20 hrs of gameplay RIGHT???
 
As much as people like to bash the long development time, I think I paid $24 and I'm holding out hope that this game will be epic (eventually). I feel I've already got my $24 worth even at this state in the development cycle.
 
2,121,513 pledgers have raised $200,020,994

Not true. There aren't over 2M backers. An account created on their site is counted as a "backer" whether a purchase was made or not. Multiple accounts for individual backers are also counted within this total.
 
I loved all the wing commander games. I even have original boxed copies of wing 3 and 4 still. Only the manuals and CDs for 5 but hey. Privateer 1 and 2 are among my all time favourites. Starlancer was cool and I even kinda liked freelancer. Freespace 1 and 2 are also high on my list. Did I mention tachyon? And yeah I still have original copies of those games.

Needless to say I love these types of games and I am a fan of Robert's past work. I also didn't put a penny into star citizen. I really want this to be a good COMPLETED game maybe more than most people. I think it'll be stuck in alpha for all eternity. Still, gotta hand it to them $200m in 6 years is far more than most finished products rake in good job I guess?
 
The question is...when it is officially released can my current computer handle it? I might have to build a new computer then :D.
 
Yeah, I know, it's a religion now. People proudly give money to their local church on a weekly basis, even if they're headed by idiots, or child molesters.

Most people just join new churches for the social connections. Followers of the One True Roberts (TM) can look forward to waving around their money and stepping proudly on the poor that dare to enter their forums, but don't have 10k invested in-game.

Give the people the right "show," and they will donate perpetually, by competing for ship purchases with the other Acolytes.

The One True God will acknowledge you only once you have ascended - to the Great Concierge Level by spending at least 1k on pictures.,
 
Last edited:
It's insane how much people are willing to spend on a video game, especially one that doesn't seem interested in leaving the alpha stage any time soon.

What really gets me is that these sorts of games are a niche within a niche with rather limited gameplay. I mean, I like loading up Evochron or Pioneer Space Sim now and then, but after a while space dogfighting and trading starts to feel more like a job than a game.

I'd pay a few shekels for Pioneer with nice graphics or story-based campaign of some sort. At this point I'm not exactly sure what Star Citizen is trying to be. I don't see how it's not going to be pay-to-win or how their promises of 'player driven emergent gameplay' are supposed to work.
 
Have they added Ray tracing yet? Might get another 5 years of production outta that
Don’t joke about that... I would like to play this sometime before we move on to quantum computing. Not like that would cause another delay... Right?

On the reason why I backed it, well initially I just wanted SQ42 an a X/Elite Dangeous type of game. So they have my initial backing, but no $1000+ ships or bays.
 
What really gets me is that these sorts of games are a niche within a niche with rather limited gameplay. I mean, I like loading up Evochron or Pioneer Space Sim now and then, but after a while space dogfighting and trading starts to feel more like a job than a game.

I'd pay a few shekels for Pioneer with nice graphics or story-based campaign of some sort. At this point I'm not exactly sure what Star Citizen is trying to be. I don't see how it's not going to be pay-to-win or how their promises of 'player driven emergent gameplay' are supposed to work.

Look into Rebel Galaxy and its sequel that is due out next year for single player space sim with a story if you haven't heard of them.
 
In terms of pure business, they almost have no incentive to ever make a final release. Keeping the game in perpetual development seems to be working wonders for them.
Absolutely. People just keep shelling out money for the opportunity to maybe have a released game? If I was a company I’d keep taking money also
 
I had the odd thought today at work about this. Who wants to take a bet that Chris converts this to a subscription-based streaming model in 2020?
 
They just want to bust out the best selling game on release date, since all preordered stuff counts as day 1 sales.
 
If I worked for that company I would be scared out of my mind about the future. Once those games release there's no way he will be able to afford to keep everyone employed.
 
If I worked for that company I would be scared out of my mind about the future. Once those games release there's no way he will be able to afford to keep everyone employed.
If you worked for ANY game company you should be worried about your future especially if you're hired in during a game design cycle.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top