Star Citizen crowdfunding passes $100m with 1m backers

[rcarteraz]

So I think we all saw this coming but Star Citizen has actually passed $100 million dollars in crowd funding with over 1 million backers.
 
Source #1: http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/14/star-citizen-crowdfunding-passes-100m-mark-with-over-1m-backers/
 

“We genuinely want people to be happy with their decision to back Star Citizen because I and everyone else on the team passionately believe in Star Citizen,” he continued.” This is the dream game that all of us have wanted to build all our lives. And while I can’t promise you everything will always go smoothly, or features or content won’t arrive later than we want them to, I can promise that we will never stop until we have achieved this dream.”

 
Even though it may be expected it's still a huge accomplishment! I'm sure I speak for everyone who can't wait for the final game to be released.
 
Source #2: http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/14/10104670/star-citizen-100-million-crowdfunding
 

Crowdfunding has its $100 million game. Star Citizen, the ambitious space game from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, hit the goal late last night. The news comes just a few days after developer Cloud Imperium Games released the 2.0 version of the Star Citizen alpha, which it describes as "the next major step in Star Citizen's evolution."

[Vivilacqua1]

So I think we all saw this coming but Star Citizen has actually passed $100 million dollars in crowd funding with over 1 million backers.

 

Source #1: http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/14/star-citizen-crowdfunding-passes-100m-mark-with-over-1m-backers/

 

 

Even though it may be expected it's still a huge accomplishment! I'm sure I speak for everyone who can't wait for the final game to be released.

 

Source #2: http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/14/10104670/star-citizen-100-million-crowdfunding

 

Already been posted in the Star Citizen subforum

 

EDIT- http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/505166-star-citizen-hits-100000000/

[ZetZet]

Yay. That probably means we can finally play it in like 10 years!

[PlayStation 2]

Holy fuck that's more of a budget than Witcher 3 :^)

[Mohenjo]

*looks at funding page* 

 

*looks at robbaz's gameplay* 

 

*cries* 

[KemoKa]

Maybe they can beat Half Life 3 on that final release date there!

[Wauthar]

So now the bandwagon is to bash on the length of development? Great...

Anyhow, yay for 100m!

[ZetZet]

So now the bandwagon is to bash on the length of development? Great...

Anyhow, yay for 100m!

Yes. The game is never coming out at this rate.

[Misanthrope]

So now the bandwagon is to bash on the length of development? Great...

Anyhow, yay for 100m!

 

Hardly a bandwagon: you might get a couple of skeptics like us on forums and that one troll guy declaring mismanagement with unconfirmed sources, for the most part the bandwagon is actually "just keep throwing money at this, yay" from what I can see.

[dalekphalm]

Yes. The game is never coming out at this rate.

The projected release date is end of 2016, which isn't that far from initial projections.

 

Keep in mind, 99% of AAA games get delayed from the original internal release date - often by years. We simply never hear about it, because they only start releasing info usually within a year or so of release.

 

The biggest problem with Star Citizen is that it's going exactly as per status quo - normal AAA development timeline wise, but they're ultra transparent about every step of the way. People don't normally see this kind of transparency, so the normal every day, boring development stuff makes it look like no progress is happening.

[NAP51DMustang]

Hardly a bandwagon: you might get a couple of skeptics like us on forums and that one troll guy declaring mismanagement with unconfirmed sources, for the most part the bandwagon is actually "just keep throwing money at this, yay" from what I can see.

there's actually a massive bandwagon everywhere you go that continues to bitch about the "length" of development. what these ignorants don't know is that CIG had to build their ENTIRE development studio from the ground up starting in 2012 where as your favorite yearly installment of *insert generic semi-open world game possibly with towers to climb here* is that those are spread over 3 or more dev studios and backed by a publisher that pulls in 5x in a year what CIG has in 3. Fallout 4 and GTA V took 7 years to develop, no one complains, SC in it's 3rd year and you'd think CIG had murder someone's baby.

[Misanthrope]

there's actually a massive bandwagon everywhere you go that continues to bitch about the "length" of development. what these ignorants don't know is that CIG had to build their ENTIRE development studio from the ground up starting in 2012 where as your favorite yearly installment of *insert generic semi-open world game possibly with towers to climb here* is that those are spread over 3 or more dev studios and backed by a publisher that pulls in 5x in a year what CIG has in 3. Fallout 4 and GTA V took 7 years to develop, no one complains, SC in it's 3rd year and you'd think CIG had murder someone's baby.

 

I get that reasoning, truly. However, in my opinion this is exactly why people shouldn't try AAA size development on crowd funding money: Smaller projects manage to have reasonable turn around times because they're well, small. It really doesn't takes much to create a 2D nostalgia bait RPG for example. But what CIG is doing is the equivalent of trying to built a massive office building by pandhandling on the streets. Just because you can doesn't means you should.

 

I think that projects like this should have a hard limit: once we reach the funding goal we'll appreciate the interest and support but wont accept additional funding to keep the project size and scope under control.

 

We'll see but this might be the first and last AAA crowd funded game.

[The Benjamins]

Yes. The game is never coming out at this rate.

 

It has only been a few years, most games with this kind of budget has longs dev times.

[Doobeedoo]

I like how they're making it a space sim with fighting, stations, explorations and all while also having fps part and planet on ground gameplay. That's awesome and I hope they make it great and vast cause I really want to play something like this, sci-fi in space and new
It also looks really great!

[christianled59]

I get that reasoning, truly. However, in my opinion this is exactly why people shouldn't try AAA size development on crowd funding money: Smaller projects manage to have reasonable turn around times because they're well, small. It really doesn't takes much to create a 2D nostalgia bait RPG for example. But what CIG is doing is the equivalent of trying to built a massive office building by pandhandling on the streets. Just because you can doesn't means you should.

I think that projects like this should have a hard limit: once we reach the funding goal we'll appreciate the interest and support but wont accept additional funding to keep the project size and scope under control.

We'll see but this might be the first and last AAA crowd funded game.

I don't quite see how more money makes it out of control? I've been following it forever and things seem to be in pretty good control.

[Misanthrope]

I don't quite see how more money makes it out of control? I've been following it forever and things seem to be in pretty good control.

 

Ok by out of control I don't mean it just won't get made, I mean specifically how long the project will take. You can be very organized but if it takes you 10 years then you just organized yourself out of relevance regardless. Churning out AAA titles is trickier than you expect: It's not only about extremely talented coders that can work fast but also extremely talented project managers organizing such a large scope: excellent devs can reasonably work in small teams and such but a big project would either take them ages or it would require A LOT more people in the project and a high degree of organization while still keeping the development agile.

 

 

I don't have any doubts that they'll be able to deliver the product eventually but I just don't see this earlier than 2017 or even 2018.

[christianled59]

Ok by out of control I don't mean it just won't get made, I mean specifically how long the project will take. You can be very organized but if it takes you 10 years then you just organized yourself out of relevance regardless. Churning out AAA titles is trickier than you expect: It's not only about extremely talented coders that can work fast but also extremely talented project managers organizing such a large scope: excellent devs can reasonably work in small teams and such but a big project would either take them ages or it would require A LOT more people in the project and a high degree of organization while still keeping the development agile.

 

 

I don't have any doubts that they'll be able to deliver the product eventually but I just don't see this earlier than 2017 or even 2018.

Have you seen Alpha 2.0? Or played it? It'll be out 2017 more than likely.

[ivan134]

The projected release date is end of 2016, which isn't that far from initial projections.

 

Keep in mind, 99% of AAA games get delayed from the original internal release date - often by years. We simply never hear about it, because they only start releasing info usually within a year or so of release.

 

The biggest problem with Star Citizen is that it's going exactly as per status quo - normal AAA development timeline wise, but they're ultra transparent about every step of the way. People don't normally see this kind of transparency, so the normal every day, boring development stuff makes it look like no progress is happening.

I'm not a huge proponent of crowd funding, but I'm not seeing even a millionth of what they naysayers are accusing Chris and his studio of doing.

[Masada02]

Hurray for $100mil!

 

Considering how (mostly) solid the recent Alpha 2.0 is I have great faith that they will do a good job with the final product. Now if they could just keep me from falling out of my ship while I walk around that would be great.

[CatCloud]

 

Ok by out of control I don't mean it just won't get made, I mean specifically how long the project will take. You can be very organized but if it takes you 10 years then you just organized yourself out of relevance regardless. Churning out AAA titles is trickier than you expect: It's not only about extremely talented coders that can work fast but also extremely talented project managers organizing such a large scope: excellent devs can reasonably work in small teams and such but a big project would either take them ages or it would require A LOT more people in the project and a high degree of organization while still keeping the development agile.

 

 

I don't have any doubts that they'll be able to deliver the product eventually but I just don't see this earlier than 2017 or even 2018.

True, but honestly..i dont se a problem with that? if the game takes a total of 5-6 years to make then ...ok? most AAA are just rehashed with the same assets and a mild bump anyways, thats why they pop out every 2 years.

If we look at a NEW IP and look how long that one took to be made, the claim is usually 3-4 years, and thats already with a working studio and people at there disposal.

 

 

Have you seen Alpha 2.0? Or played it? It'll be out 2017 more than likely.

Let´s not get optimistic lol

Eventually is good enough of an answer till official info comes imo

[Agosto]

...so the average donation is 100$? wut

[christianled59]

True, but honestly..i dont se a problem with that? if the game takes a total of 5-6 years to make then ...ok? most AAA are just rehashed with the same assets and a mild bump anyways, thats why they pop out every 2 years.

Let´s not get optimistic lol

Eventually is good enough of an answer imo

Late 2017 early 2018. Alpha 2.0 really puts everything they've done together. It has actual gameplay, you can travel across a solar system and do missions and everything. It has the fps elements and landing and repair and just everything all in one. It seems like everything from now on is just polishing and expanding the content.

I don't see the complaints for the length of development. It's easily one of the most ambitious games out there. 5-6 years to make a game doesn't seem bad at all. Hell, I've been making a game for the past 2 years and it doesn't have shit on pretty much any AAA game out there.

[That Norwegian Guy]

...so the average donation is 100$? wut

 

Well yes, thanks to us whales and our $1000+ purchases (so far) lol

 

The pledge level for the majority of backers has been and still is $40, which gets you both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen for $20 each, (plus a ship and starting credits) rather than the $60 they will be when they're done.

[Masada02]

...so the average donation is 100$? wut

Yes, and that's mostly made up of people that have bought the $35 game package. Then there are the smaller portion of people who have bought separate ships that bring up the average. I would think if you looked at the median spent it would be closer to the normal $60 game price.

[Guest Kloaked]

Late 2017 early 2018. Alpha 2.0 really puts everything they've done together. It has actual gameplay, you can travel across a solar system and do missions and everything. It has the fps elements and landing and repair and just everything all in one. It seems like everything from now on is just polishing and expanding the content.

I don't see the complaints for the length of development. It's easily one of the most ambitious games out there. 5-6 years to make a game doesn't seem bad at all. Hell, I've been making a game for the past 2 years and it doesn't have shit on pretty much any AAA game out there.

 

Don't worry. The same people who say it's taking too long to make Star Citizen probably also whine and bitch about the poor PC versions of games we get from Ubisoft and so on.

 

Remember when GTA:5 got delayed? People complained, even though it turned out to be a good port despite some hiccups as was expected.

 

Deus:Ex? Haven't seen many people complain at all yet on the forum except one person (their name escapes me). Dunno why that is.