Star Citizen, developed by Chris "I made Wing Commander!" Roberts -
was supposed to be the next big space-simulator game. It was going to
be Elite, and Wing Commander, and X-Wing, and Freelancer and Halo all
rolled up into a massive game with graphics so realistic they'd melt
your CPU if you turned the visual settings up to max. Development
started in 2010; a kickstarter campaign for the game was started in
2012, with a promised release date in 2014. It easily earned its $2
million ask, as dedicated space-sim fans rushed to help finance the
game.

12 years later (14 years if you're counting when development started),
the game still hasn't released. It hasn't even exited alpha state.
There have been early-access releases, but they only include a tiny
amount of the promised content (a single solar system in what was
promised to be a galaxy-ranging game) and even basic mechanics haven't
been nailed down yet. A recent press release mentioned the possibility
of a 'version 1.0' but no fixed date - or even road-map - has been
offered. In fact, Cloud Imperium - Chris Robert's development company
- has infamously taken down existing developmental roadmaps.

And yet, somehow, the company has burned through $669 million dollars
to get to this point. Where is the money going?

Most of the funding apparently comes from selling promised assets to
fans, ranging from cosmetics to entire spaceships. Few of these
actually exist in-game. Some fans have spent tens of thousands of
dollars on just the PROMISE of getting to play with these digital
knickknacks some day.

Even for top-tier video game development, $669 million is a lot of
money. Too contrast, "Red Dead Redemption 2's" total budget was
estimated to be ~$400 to $500 million (that total includes both
development, production, licensing and marketing. Actual development
costs probably didn't top $200 million). It is considered one of the
most expensive video games ever made.

Yet despite having a far larger budget, "Star Citizen" has only a
fraction of the content, almost no marketing budget (I wouldn't be
surprised if many people here had never even HEARD of the game), and -
most importantly - isn't even close to being finished yet!!!

Meanwhile, games like "Elite: Dangerous", "Star Wars: Squadrons", "No
Man's Sky" and even Bethesda's "Starfield" have all started
development and been released. Many of these games offer a similar
experience to what "Star Citizen" promised over a decade ago.

Whether this whole thing is just some endless scam to keep Roberts and
his employees endlessly (and profitably) employed without actually,
you know, providing a finished product is arguable. Certainly the near
constant promises of 'last stretch' and 'almost out of beta'
news-releases that Cloud Imperium has issued over the years whenever
funds get low don't show the company in a good light. But it's equally
likely that Roberts is just another DOS-era savant that has no
business running a business, lacking the management skills to make a
modern game.

I'll be first in line to harp on the soullessness of modern video game
publishing, but at least they manage to actually ship games. I'm
honestly surprised that Cloud Imperium hasn't started making "Star
Citizen" NFTs yet. It seems in character for them.

I've no conclusion to this post; no summary of the situation or even
pointed questions. How could I have? Cloud Imperium has kept so much
in the dark that random speculation as to what is going on in the
companu is really all we outsiders can muster. Mostly, I just wanted
to point out the absurdly large (and still growing!) budget this
unfinished, over-promised (and probably under-delivering, if it
delivers at all) game has gathered.

$669 million dollars US. And for what?

On 3/18/2024 10:24 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
> Star Citizen, developed by Chris "I made Wing Commander!" Roberts -
> was supposed to be the next big space-simulator game. It was going to
> be Elite, and Wing Commander, and X-Wing, and Freelancer and Halo all
> rolled up into a massive game with graphics so realistic they'd melt
> your CPU if you turned the visual settings up to max. Development
> started in 2010; a kickstarter campaign for the game was started in
> 2012, with a promised release date in 2014. It easily earned its $2
> million ask, as dedicated space-sim fans rushed to help finance the
> game.
>
> 12 years later (14 years if you're counting when development started),
> the game still hasn't released. It hasn't even exited alpha state.
> There have been early-access releases, but they only include a tiny
> amount of the promised content (a single solar system in what was
> promised to be a galaxy-ranging game) and even basic mechanics haven't
> been nailed down yet. A recent press release mentioned the possibility
> of a 'version 1.0' but no fixed date - or even road-map - has been
> offered. In fact, Cloud Imperium - Chris Robert's development company
> - has infamously taken down existing developmental roadmaps.
>
> And yet, somehow, the company has burned through $669 million dollars
> to get to this point. Where is the money going?
>
DAFUQ!!!

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 3/19/2024 1:15 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 3/18/2024 10:24 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>> Star Citizen, developed by Chris "I made Wing Commander!" Roberts -
>> was supposed to be the next big space-simulator game. It was going to
>> be Elite, and Wing Commander, and X-Wing, and Freelancer and Halo all
>> rolled up into a massive game with graphics so realistic they'd melt
>> your CPU if you turned the visual settings up to max. Development
>> started in 2010; a kickstarter campaign for the game was started in
>> 2012, with a promised release date in 2014. It easily earned its $2
>> million ask, as dedicated space-sim fans rushed to help finance the
>> game.
>>
>> 12 years later (14 years if you're counting when development started),
>> the game still hasn't released. It hasn't even exited alpha state.
>> There have been early-access releases, but they only include a tiny
>> amount of the promised content (a single solar system in what was
>> promised to be a galaxy-ranging game) and even basic mechanics haven't
>> been nailed down yet. A recent press release mentioned the possibility
>> of a 'version 1.0' but no fixed date - or even road-map - has been
>> offered. In fact, Cloud Imperium - Chris Robert's development company
>> - has infamously taken down existing developmental roadmaps.
>>
>> And yet, somehow, the company has burned through $669 million dollars
>> to get to this point. Where is the money going?
>>
> DAFUQ!!!
>

There are countries that spend less money than they do developing a
video game.

On 3/19/2024 4:32 AM, kyonshi wrote:
> On 3/19/2024 1:15 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 3/18/2024 10:24 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>>
>>> Star Citizen, developed by Chris "I made Wing Commander!" Roberts -
>>> was supposed to be the next big space-simulator game. It was going to
>>> be Elite, and Wing Commander, and X-Wing, and Freelancer and Halo all
>>> rolled up into a massive game with graphics so realistic they'd melt
>>> your CPU if you turned the visual settings up to max. Development
>>> started in 2010; a kickstarter campaign for the game was started in
>>> 2012, with a promised release date in 2014. It easily earned its $2
>>> million ask, as dedicated space-sim fans rushed to help finance the
>>> game.
>>>
>>> 12 years later (14 years if you're counting when development started),
>>> the game still hasn't released. It hasn't even exited alpha state.
>>> There have been early-access releases, but they only include a tiny
>>> amount of the promised content (a single solar system in what was
>>> promised to be a galaxy-ranging game) and even basic mechanics haven't
>>> been nailed down yet. A recent press release mentioned the possibility
>>> of a 'version 1.0' but no fixed date - or even road-map - has been
>>> offered. In fact, Cloud Imperium - Chris Robert's development company
>>> - has infamously taken down existing developmental roadmaps.
>>>
>>> And yet, somehow, the company has burned through $669 million dollars
>>> to get to this point. Where is the money going?
>>>
>> DAFUQ!!!
>>
>
> There are countries that spend less money than they do developing a
> video game.
oh it will be done once chris roberts sells the company to some big
publisher like Sony or SEGA and they finally force him to release it as is

On 3/18/2024 10:24 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

> Whether this whole thing is just some endless scam to keep Roberts and
> his employees endlessly (and profitably) employed without actually,
> you know, providing a finished product is arguable.

Preselling cosmetics tells me it is a scam. Like many others it
probably didn't start that way. They might have at one time worked on
the game but at 14 years it was long ago time to sue the hell out of
them to return whatever funds they had left and possibly put them in
jail for fraud.

Assuming they don't ever release it, it's already more than an order of
magnitude beyond the biggest crowdfunding failures & scams of all time.
The largest I could find was in the $15 million range. Do you remember
Theranos? It wasn't crowdfunded, but it's the biggest and most infamous
funded startup, and that wasn't much more.

They must be trying to outdo Duke Nukem Forever and take their title for
"Longest Development Time" Which coincidentally was also 14 years and
was a huge flop.

It's something I'd be interested in if it ever came out, but I'm not
touching it with a 10 foot pole until long enough to tell if it's the
disaster I expect (and with preselling cosmetics I'm 99.99% sure it will be)

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On Tue, 19 Mar 2024 08:33:51 -0400, Joshua Allen wrote:

> oh it will be done once chris roberts sells the company to some big
> publisher like Sony or SEGA and they finally force him to release it as
> is

And then it will bomb because it'll be unplayable without further
patching.

On Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:15:27 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

>On 3/18/2024 10:24 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>> And yet, somehow, the company has burned through $669 million dollars
>> to get to this point. Where is the money going?

>DAFUQ!!!

I know, right?

On a similar note:

Developers have revealed that, for "Monopoly Go" (a mobile version of
the popular board game) they spent ~$500 million USD just on marketing
alone.*

In fairness to the "Monopoly Go" spend, that marketing budget was
spent on making individualized campaigns for each and every region
where the game was launched. To quote the dev, "Our marketing team was
a fierce advocate for taking a hyperlocal approach...that reflected
the language and culture of every country where the game is
available."). So it's not as if it were wasted money. And it looks
like it paid off; as "Monopoly Go" has proven to be incredibly
profitable, earning more than $2 billion USD in its first year. Still,
looking at the game itself, you can tell that the marketing budget
dwarfed the development budget.

But that's not what happened with "Star Citizen". Most of the money
Cloud Imperium Games collected has (nominally) gone towards the game's
development. And yet, despite having a budget that is more than "The
Last of Us Pt 2" and "Horizon Forbidden West's" /combined/, the
company still has nothing to show for it.

(Also, "Star Citizen" has been in development for 14 years, tying it
with "Duke Nukem Forever". Cloud Imperium started working on it around
the same time that the /first/ "The Last of Us" game began
development. In that time, Naughty Dog Games released two remasters
/and/ a sequel to the "The Last of Us", as well three other games.)

* read about it here:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/monopoly-go-devs-spent-more-on-marketing-than-it-cost-to-develop-the-last-of-us-2/1100-6521930/