Star Citizen Has Now Accrued over $200 million in Crowdfunding

[PineyCreek]

Mods:  Posting this here in case it could be a Tech News topic.

 

Cloud Imperium games recently sent a Letter from the Chairman (Chris Roberts) email to its backers confirming the news that they had reached the $200 million (USD) crowdfunding threshold and broken through.  In the email they both announced upcoming features and reiterated their commitment to their die-hard fans.

 

https://www.dualshockers.com/star-citizen-budget/

 

Official site: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals

 

This goal was broken preceding the announced free play week.  This week in fact (week of the 18th).

 

Some snippets from the email:

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"The amount is the highest total for any project in the history of crowdfunding and is beyond anything I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

 

While the number is impressive, that is not what sets Star Citizen and Squadron 42 apart. 
 

The true celebration is one of how a community came together to enable a shared dream to come to life.  How gamers from all over the world came together to finance one of the biggest and most ambitious projects ever embarked on. There is no publisher. No big conglomerate. This is all grassroots, funded by gamers for gamers."
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"We give you multiple updates every week and have been since the inception of the project.  This year we rolled out a live roadmap for Star Citizen’s development that is linked to our internal task and scheduling system and shows the planned features and content for the next four upcoming releases of Star Citizen Alpha. This December, we will also add the roadmap for Squadron 42’s completion."

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"This milestone is coming at a very exciting time for the project having just released Star Citizen Alpha 3.3 with Object Container Streaming (OCS) and Client Bind Culling, which makes a huge difference in client performance and memory usage. Face over IP (FOIP) is in the community’s hands and is proving to be a game changer. No other game has the ability to drive your avatar’s face and look via a webcam, as well as to place your voice diegetically inside the game. The possibilities for social interactions inside the world of Star Citizen now mirror what you can do in the real world. Lastly, with ship purchasing live in 3.3, we have a full game loop with basic progression, where you have a reason to haul cargo, take missions or mine.

 

This week marks the start of our 2948 Anniversary Event, which celebrates the end of the original crowdfunding campaign back in November 2012. This year we are particularly excited by our Free Fly event where we are opening the opportunity to try out the 80 flyable ships and vehicles in game.
 

Star Citizen Alpha 3.3.5, which brings a lot more content, including the planet of Hurston, it’s moons and the major landing zone Lorville, is currently in PTU and should be Live in the next few days."

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:: End email snippets

 

Of course, the constant scope creep and reworks due to engine changes and new features being implemented have pushed everything past expected completion dates, but the constant stream of updates and announcements at least keeps me hopeful, personally.  It's looking pretty good so far with what we can play with in the various alpha builds.

 

It will be interesting to see how much longer development will take until Cloud Imperium Games considers Star Citizen to embody their stated goals of a persistent living universe, and how long it takes for an official full release announcement.

 

Also...how much larger could that crowdfunding number continue to grow?

[Beskamir]

As a backer of Star Citizen I've kind of lost hope in it ever coming out... it's been in development for years and years and just been snowballing into a larger and larger project. They seriously need someone who can realize what's realistic to add and what isn't so the game gets out the door before we all die of old age. Sure keep adding stuff but do so after what's been promised has been finished and right now what's been promised is still in development.

[givingtnt]

3 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

As a backer of Star Citizen I've kind of lost hope in it ever coming out... it's been in development for years and years and just been snowballing into a larger and larger project. They seriously need someone who can realize what's realistic to add and what isn't so the game gets out the door before we all die of old age. Sure keep adding stuff but do so after what's been promised has been finished and right now what's been promised is still in development.

If you look at the developement, they have started to actually get things done and things are going pretty well now. they are fairly good on their (ok, fine,but like, I get it) new schedule atm.

[Beskamir]

5 minutes ago, givingtnt said:

If you look at the developement, they have started to actually get things done and things are going pretty well now. they are fairly good on their (ok, fine,but like, I get it) new schedule atm.

Sure things are getting done but compared to the amount of stuff that has to be done I don't think they're getting things done quickly enough to release anything good/significant within the next 2 years unless they cut features. Face over IP would be a good example of one of those feature creep features that they included for no apparent reason and have just increased the amount of time it'll take to finish the game.

[PineyCreek]

3 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

Sure things are getting done but compared to the amount of stuff that has to be done I don't think they're getting things done quickly enough to release anything good/significant within the next 2 years unless they cut features. Face over IP would be a good example of one of those feature creep features that they included for no apparent reason and have just increased the amount of time it'll take to finish the game.

Oh, I definitely see your other side of the argument.  There's plenty of people that share your sentiments.  I went into my pledge on SC with a limit in mind, and the idea that like anything else from crowdfunding there was a very real chance that I would get nothing from it.  That aside, I've been playing Chris Roberts' games for about 30 years now, so most of my passion for the project comes from two things: 1, I love his games, and 2, I think he learned his lesson with the Wing Commander movie and the arguments with Microsoft.

 

That aside, I'm hedging my bets.  As I said, I set a limit.  I put about $300 in initially, and I'm not putting any more in until I see things fully coming together.  I've met people that have one of every item available for sale on the SC site...think $65k invested.

 

So...I have hope.  I have doubts, but I have hope.  Such is life.  Nothing is guaranteed.  Goosfraba.

[Beskamir]

6 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Oh, I definitely see your other side of the argument.  There's plenty of people that share your sentiments.  I went into my pledge on SC with a limit in mind, and the idea that like anything else from crowdfunding there was a very real chance that I would get nothing from it.  That aside, I've been playing Chris Roberts' games for about 30 years now, so most of my passion for the project comes from two things: 1, I love his games, and 2, I think he learned his lesson with the Wing Commander movie and the arguments with Microsoft.

 

That aside, I'm hedging my bets.  As I said, I set a limit.  I put about $300 in initially, and I'm not putting any more in until I see things fully coming together.  I've met people that have one of every item available for sale on the SC site...think $65k invested.

 

So...I have hope.  I have doubts, but I have hope.  Such is life.  Nothing is guaranteed.  Goosfraba.

Completely agree. I only spent the base amount to get access to the game back in the day (I think it was the 45 buck package?). I can't imagine having spent the equivalent of a car or one year's salary on a game... that's just a level of insane I'm unable to comprehend. I guess if someone makes enough so that 65k is equivalent to pocket change it sort of makes sense but still, that's absolutely crazy!

[Eaglerino]

29 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

As a backer of Star Citizen I've kind of lost hope in it ever coming out... it's been in development for years and years and just been snowballing into a larger and larger project. They seriously need someone who can realize what's realistic to add and what isn't so the game gets out the door before we all die of old age. Sure keep adding stuff but do so after what's been promised has been finished and right now what's been promised is still in development.

When did they ever claim it would be done in a short amount of time?

 

What bothers me is how they always have some brand new technology being advertised that they're suddenly adding, and yet text still overlaps when flying around... Still, for what you can do in it right now, (wake up, call your ship, walk to it like you're in an airport, fly to a planet, pick up cargo, put it in your ship, fly off the planet and take it somewhere else entirely seamlessly) I don't think there's another game in existence that can compare. I just wish it ran better.

 

Still I wouldn't tell somebody to buy it

[PineyCreek]

15 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

Completely agree. I only spent the base amount to get access to the game back in the day (I think it was the 45 buck package?). I can't imagine having spent the equivalent of a car or one year's salary on a game... that's just a level of insane I'm unable to comprehend. I guess if someone makes enough so that 65k is equivalent to pocket change it sort of makes sense but still, that's absolutely crazy!

The guy I met was an avid fan...and in the oil business.  It wasn't complete pocket change but it didn't hurt him apparently.

[leadeater]

Ah yes the epitome of never ending, always in constant early access, game development that has somehow become widely acceptable. Much distaste I have for that sort of thing, I have no problems with extremely long development times but stop stringing everyone along with BS and taking money for questionable reasons. How the hell can you not have a complete game by 200 million, you can do a typical AAA game with 70 million.

[jasonc_01]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Ah yes the epitome of never ending, always in constant early access, game development that has somehow become widely acceptable. Much distaste I have for that sort of thing, I have no problems with extremely long development times but stop stringing everyone along with BS and taking money for questionable reasons. How the hell can you not have a complete game by 200 million, you can do a typical AAA game with 70 million.

I don't know whats more ridiculous, that they haven't completed the game with $200 million. Or that people continually give money in droves on kickstarter. Hell any pre order garbage like this be it the RTX cards, battlefield V and so on. I think we should start a kickstarter 

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, jasonc_01 said:

I think we should start a kickstarter 

A Go Fund Me to back a campaign to end the destructive early access industry practice.

[PineyCreek]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

A Go Fund Me to back a campaign to end the destructive early access industry practice.

Let's do another to ban any DLC aside from honest-to-goodness expansions.

[jasonc_01]

2 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Let's do another to ban any DLC aside from honest-to-goodness expansions.

Or just one to keep ourselves very well employed for years to come on the promise of a fully fleshed out game riding early access all the way home

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Let's do another to ban any DLC aside from honest-to-goodness expansions.

While we're at it: Day one patches as big as the actual game, Season Passes to non-existent future DLC on release day, Deluxe editions getting more expensive with less day one content or bonuses. Those can all end as well.

[bcredeur97]

Quote

This week marks the start of our 2948 Anniversary Event

glad to see the release date has been finally announced

[PineyCreek]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

While we're at it: Day one patches as big as the actual game, Season Passes to non-existent future DLC on release day, Deluxe editions getting more expensive with less day one content or bonuses. Those can all end as well.

Mmm...yes, I quite admit that I'd prefer them to push a release date in order to have a fully baked game.

 

That aside, I DO understand why SC has a continuous drip of content...they're still following a successful crowdfunding campaign strategy...that is, offer stuff, constantly release updates, and fulfill promises, even if they take forever and the promise scope keeps changing.

 

You know the sad truth that's going to apply to most long-running projects will apply here though.  It will probably be a fantastic game for what it is, but it's all but guaranteed to never live up to the hype.  The longer a project takes to come out, the more hype there will be among the die-hards.

[PineyCreek]

2 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

glad to see the release date has been finally announced

2948: Fundraising has reached 3 quintillion qublits (exchange rate $1 = 0.00343 qublits)

[Rune]

Original backer here! I put in about 200 but I'm waiting for a full launch of the game before I really dip into it. I also picked up an optane drive and got the sabre

[Arika]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

Deluxe editions getting more expensive

to add to this, games with 5 different versions (standard, deluxe, digital deluxe, ultimate, GOTY) and 3 store specific editions (EB games, Walmart, Gamestop)

[TOMPPIX]

i like how star citizen build their stuff from scratch, and don't use any shitty black boxes like gameworks.

[Nicnac]

They have invested primarily in an extremely broad production company that has many highly specialized offices all over the world. They are basically a AAA production company for video games and vFX by now and that was always Chris' primary intend I believe. Now it depends what they make of it. They will have to keep the development cycle going for a few years for all of this to make sense and will probably update the game constantly even when it's out.

It's a company whose sole purpose is to work on this game and since all that has been set up just now basically it sure is gonna take a long time until all of this makes sense.

Very impressive to see such a company come into existance just from crowd funding. But I wanna emphasize again: The game is not the priority but the means to sustain and build this giant multinational production company and therefore people should be aware that when they are buying into it they are first and foremost supporting/ paying a company and not for a game. The game is second priority

[Nicnac]

I also want to compare this to my favourite game Warframe. Warframe is F2P but gives the player good incentives to spend a little amount of money (I only spent 40$ in 5 years of playing it). They -on the other hand - put the game first. They have a very small production team that often works overtime but really loves the game. They don't hire more people because they want to keep their own costs down so each individual developer can be paid more and their primary focus is not to grow as a company but grow the game.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, Nicnac said:

Very impressive to see such a company come into existance just from crowd funding. But I wanna emphasize again: The game is not the priority but the means to sustain and build this giant multinational production company and therefore people should be aware that when they are buying into it they are first and foremost supporting/ paying a company and not for a game. The game is second priority

The funding campaign was for a game though, a specific one. I'm sure people were pledging money for that not for someone to start a company. If the game was good enough and sold well bringing in good revenue then you can turn that in to a wider company with development goals beyond a single game or a much larger expanded scope.

 

A bit ass about face if that was the point in my view.

 

They have 200 million dollars and what do they have to show for it, not a heck of a lot. Half Life 2 40mil, Crysis 3 66mil, The Witcher 3 46mil, GTA V 146mil.

 

There's nothing specifically wrong with what they started, unless it was to fund a company not a game, but seriously they have 200 million dollars. Lets not under state just how large that is for game development, not including advertising.

[Teddy07]

2 hours ago, ElfFriend said:

As a backer of Star Citizen I've kind of lost hope in it ever coming out...

1

It will for sure come out. They can always release a half finished crap game.

[Nicnac]

5 minutes ago, leadeater said:

The funding campaign was for a game though, a specific one. I'm sure people were pledging money for that not for someone to start a company. If the game was good enough and sold well bringing in good revenue then you can turn that in to a wider company with development goals beyond a single game or a much larger expanded scope.

 

A bit ass about face if that was the point in my view.

 

They have 200 million dollars and what do they have to show for it, not a heck of a lot. Half Life 2 40mil, Crysis 3 66mil, The Witcher 3 46mil, GTA V 146mil.

 

There's nothing specifically wrong with what they started, unless it was to fund a company not a game, but seriously they have 200 million dollars. Lets not under state just how large that is for game development, not including advertising.

I totally agree! I believe that people should have been made aware that they were primarily pledging for a company that will eventually produce a game, not the other way around. At least that's the only way to justify the enormous production value...

 

 

(I'm waiting for the game to come out tho... not gonna pledge anything)