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Star Citizen Tops $700M, Still No Release Date
- keploy 2y agolol. Until the money well runs dry there never will be any. The gig is just too good to miss out on.
- sambazi 2y ago> The gig is just too good to miss out on. the compensation required to keep the boat from rocking must be staggering
- wongarsu 2y agoI genuinely believe Chris Roberts does it to make the game he always dreamed of. That game happens to have an incredible amount of feature creep. He is not the person you want to hand an infinite amount of money to make a project without supervision or externally imposed deadlines. For everyone else it's a passion or an unusually steady job. Many studios have layoffs as they finish games, but with Star Citizen never getting finished their jobs are pretty secure.
- AlexandrB 2y agoI'm really curious what the single player narrative will be like. Some of the actors (e.g. Gary Oldman) from the original mocap sessions (from ~2014 I think) have passed away so if they want to use their performances they're pretty much locked in to the script they had back then. Or maybe AI can bail them out now? Edit: Oops, how embarrassing. Gary Oldman is not, in fact, dead. Not sure who I was thinking of.
- robin_reala 2y agoGary Oldman’s still alive though…
- optimalsolver 2y agoAnd thank God for that. Now I've got to go watch Fifth Element after that scare.
- jakubmazanec 2y agoGary Oldman is still alive.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- optimalsolver 2y agoWere you thinking of Alan Rickman?
- AlexandrB 2y agoProbably, but he's not in StarCitizen. So I have my wires crossed regardless.
- nehagup 2y agoAll the money shenanigans aside, it's interesting watching technology catching up with it. It's starting to look pretty dated for a game that hasn't released yet.
- xen2xen1 2y agoI almost want to contribute just to be part of history.
- 6510 2y agothat is what long term sponsors say, they've paid to be part of the process. Could be post purchase rationalization but money keeps coming in?
- wongarsu 2y agoI spent $30 on it a decade ago, got what felt like a couple cool tech demos and minigames for it. Not really worse value for money than getting two movie tickets, and maybe in one or two decades there will even be a completed game I can play
- RGamma 2y agoIt's a heated race with HL3. Duke Nukem Forever took 14 years, so I wouldn't call this dead quite yet.
- jcranmer 2y agoTo be fair to Valve, all the evidence I've seen so far as indicated that Valve hasn't been actively developing HL3 for several years (https://www.ign.com/articles/half-life-3-left-4-dead-3-details-cancelled-valve https://www.ign.com/articles/half-life-3-left-4-dead-3-detai... claims it was canceled by 2014), whereas Duke Nukem Forever and Star Citizen have been in active development for well over a decade.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- zaptrem 2y agoWe also got Half Life Alyx which IMO lived up to the 3 hype with the exception of concluding the original story.
- mey 2y agoAnd Valve has released Episode 1, 2, and Alyx since HL2.
- RGamma 2y agoWell, that makes me sort of sad. Now we'll never get to know who G-Man is (wink wink).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jakubmazanec 2y agoBut is Half-life 3 even being developed?
- barryrandall 2y ago
- jszymborski 2y agoSay what you will of Star Citizen, there is actual gameplay... more than other crowd-funded games like Chronicles of Elyria or Earth2 can claim. Not that I'm going to bat for Star Citizen.
- superb_dev 2y agoIs there any gameplay? I’ve tried playing it but the performance issues made it near impossible. I’ve got a decent rig so it wasn’t a hardware issue
- sithadmin 2y agoStability and bugginess varies wildly from patch to patch.
- A_D_E_P_T 2y ago12 years and $700M later, they're on Alpha 3.23. When this game started accepting donations, it was 2012. Mass Effect 3 was released in March of that year. Mass Effect 2 was released just two years previous, in 2010, and the first game in the series was released in late 2007. Less than four and a half years from start to finish. I know that development cycles have been growing quite a lot longer, but this is ridiculous... Aside, does $700M make this the most expensive (or, rather, well-funded) video game of all time?
- aeturnum 2y agoI think most estimates place the budget of GTA 6 at well north of $1000M. That said, based on public data, it's #2 on wikipedia[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_g...
- eterm 2y agoThat entry for "Monopoly Go!" is unintentionally hilarious because of the incomplete information: "Marketing: $500m; Total: $500m" Yeah, that sounds about right.
- Aunche 2y ago> By March 2024, the game generated $2 billion in revenue just 10 months after launch and three months after hitting $1 billion. This is absolutely wild.
- runnr_az 2y agoThat's... surprising. But it kinda goes to the whole "the stuff that people really care about on social media is really only part of the picture" thing.
- eximius 2y agoYes, but a _significant_ portion of those are marketing. If you look only at development costs, nothing comes close to Star Citizen.
- bhouston 2y agoStar Citizen is a financial success as is, everyone making it is getting paid. Would they really make more money by releasing it? There is a phenomenon in the start-up world where wildly pre-revenue fast growing startups are overvalued until they decide they want to make money and then they are judged on their profitability, which often kills their valuation.
- nprateem 2y agoThis. Selling hopes and dreams is far more profitable.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoAt this point it's nostalgia as a service where you pay for feels and to be a ~beta~ alpha tester of a game-like sim. Ships are 'sold' to individuals before they've ever integrated those models into the game. Doubtful there is any way it can be made a balanced and fun MP experience without some major walking back.
- the_snooze 2y agoIt's the same dynamic as crypto games. It's the hype that people are buying into, not the actual lame/incomplete/broken gameplay underneath it. The video game is just a MacGuffin in a findom ARG.
- silentsanctuary 2y agoPeople say this a lot, but why wouldn't they? It's not like live service games struggle from a weak business model. On top of that, each year CIG make money, it happens because more and more stuff becomes playable in the game. If they stopped developing new features or content, they'd stop making money. And since they release new patches frequently (or at least, several times a year), when (if they ever) "finish" the game feels less important - it's already a fun enough experience with enough content that many players enthusiastic about the space (whether you came from EvE, ED, NMS or somewhere else) can spend enough hours in it regularly for it to be more than worthwhile.
- r2_pilot 2y agoIf there there was too much of a good thing, this project seems to be a poster child for why you shouldn't get over-funded. Maybe one day it'll be a thing, until then o7
- AlexandrB 2y agoAll the incentives are aligned against actually releasing something. As long as it's in "alpha" all the backers can dream of what might be. As soon as you release it, you have to face the cold reality of what the game is. Disclosure: I bought a ~$75 supporter pack back in 2012.
- keploy 2y agoPutting all the cash drama aside, it's kinda wild seeing tech finally catch up to it. Even though it hasn't dropped release yet, it's already starting to look like old news.
- EcommerceFlow 2y agoIronically with inflation these past few years and enormous AAA flops (halo infinite reportedly cost 500mil), this doesn't even seem like all that much, especially since there's loads of content currently released as we type.
- WheatMillington 2y agoDoesn't seem like that much? It must be one of the most expensive games ever developed. Can you name any games that cost more than this one, except for the unreleased GTA 6?
- PurpleRamen 2y agoAccording to Wikipedia[1], only Genshin Impact is known to be more expensive. But the list is of course lacking. Long-running service like most MMOs are missing from the list. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_g...
- paulryanrogers 2y agoInflation adjusted costs are more challenging when you measure dev time in decades.
- ninininino 2y agowould be very interesting if they followed the Unreal -> Unreal Engine playbook and eventually productized some amazing game engine (not making a comment on whether their stuff is likely to be good or not)
- AlexandrB 2y agoCan they do that? I thought their engine was built around CryEngine. At one point I think there was a Lumberyard[1] (also CryEngine) transition. Would they be able to sell a modified version of someone else's engine? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Lumberyard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Lumberyard
- zaptrem 2y agoI think when CryTek died they gobbled up most/a lot of their engine engineering team and some crazy licensing. The Amazon Lumberyard "transition" seemed more like corporate partnership marketing to me considering how they've basically rewritten most CryEngine modules multiple times over by now.
- AlexandrB 2y agoIIRC at one point CryTek tried suing StarCitizen for some kind of violation of their license (something about releasing 2 games - StarCitizen and Squadron 54 - instead of one I think). There were some rumours that the Lumberyard thing was an attempt to get a more favourable license for basically the same engine. There's so much history with this project it's hard to remember it all.
- mrguyorama 2y agoAll of the nonsense around the game engine is because they decided to build a galaxy scale MMO on top of a game engine who's entire pitch is "The single player shooter you make will look cutting edge. What, multiplayer? Who the hell wants that?"
- GenerWork 2y agoI'd love to know their finances in greater depth. They can't have burned through $700 million, can they? If they haven't, how are they storing this money? Is it just in a savings account? Bonds? Stocks?
- paulryanrogers 2y agoCEO yachts don't pay for themselves!
- GenerWork 2y agoDoes Chris Roberts actually have a yacht/an expensive boat?
- AlexandrB 2y agoNot sure, but there's a popular meme image of him on an expensive boat: https://old.reddit.com/r/starcitizen_refunds/comments/ehw96j/star_citizen_mods_deleted_my_thread_which_was/ https://old.reddit.com/r/starcitizen_refunds/comments/ehw96j...
- wongarsu 2y agoBy the latest count they have ~1300 employees. That's a lot of salaries. They recently released financials up to 2022. Back then they had 860 employees, spent $130 million in a year and earned about the same from pledges, subscriptions, etc. It looks like they have some cash on hand but mostly always just spent what they received rather than building large reserves. Which implies they have indeed now burned though just shy of $700 million in 12 years. https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cloud-imperium-financials-for-2022 https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cloud-imperium...
- ethbr1 2y agoBefore they realized Chris Roberts shouldn't be allowed anywhere near project management authority, there was a lot of rework. Which means a lot of torched developer-hours.
- slashtom 2y ago3.23 is smooth, performance is great, a lot of gameplay loops are in. 4.0 is around the corner. It's disappointing that they split the development between Squadron 42 (single player) and Star Citizen, but now that SQ42 is feature complete, the pace at which Star Citizen is being developed has been very nice. A lot of the features from SQ42 is being released/polished for the MMO and has already seen many features ported/implemented. 4.0 is going to be by end of year which will have server meshing, at which point, all of the difficult tech behind the scenes will be finished. I think CIG is going to license the engine once this is completed.
- hnuser123456 2y agoMining lasers still don't line up with crosshairs, and rock charge level doesn't even update while charging up a rock to break, so you can't even do the main grind gameplay loop. Your ship will randomly refuse to take off. The first door to let you out of the hab room you spawn in doesn't even work sometimes. NPCs still stand on top of chairs. The "game" is just as broken as it was years ago, if not more broken. It's nothing short of space-themed masochism to try to "play" the "game".
- ethbr1 2y ago> The "game" is just as broken as it was years ago, if not more broken. A proper Star Citizen conversation would be: - "Is this bug fixed yet?" - "We added a new prototype feature!"
- akr4s1a 2y agoEven if Star Citizen released tomorrow, exactly as Chris Roberts envisioned, everything was flawless, how many players could they realistically attract? It feels like most people who will ever want to play Star Citizen has played it. I'm worried what's left for Star Citizen is to keep monetizing their existing playerbase, not that their current playerbase is going to run dry of funds anytime soon.
- margalabargala 2y agoI'm one that could be attracted. When it first was announced, I thought "that sounds super neat, but I'm a broke college student so I'll wait and see". 12 years of headlines like this later, I've given them no money. But I would still absolutely pay for a game like the originally-described Star Citizen.
- MiscCompFacts 2y agoAt the beginning of every year, CIG releases their annual financial report from 2 years prior. This is the most recent one for 2022 released earlier this year in January. https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cloud-imperium-financials-for-2022 https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cloud-imperium...
- bun_terminator 2y agoPeople are having fun, so what? I'll never understand the hateboner against it. For Tesla it's at least explainable: They hate Elon. But Star Citizen people just hate for the sake of it. Strange
- cyrillite 2y agoSomehow I have literally never heard of this game. Does anybody here happen to have a video saved that offers one of those excellent “here’s why newcomers might fall in love with this game” videos that YouTubers sometimes put together?
- mtndew4brkfst 2y agoMost audiences will still consider it to be somewhere between vaporware and a glorified tech demo, but its adherents are fervent.
- Art9681 2y agoTake a look at this video. This is what sold me on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31v7sSGfTm8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31v7sSGfTm8
- IncreasePosts 2y agoGTA6 is rumored to cost $2B. How can they possibly make a good game for $700M?
- paulryanrogers 2y agoYes but has GTA6 been in development for 12 years, only to reach alpha?
- otikik 2y agoSunken Cost Citizen
- rascul 2y agoStar Citizen is why I won't ever give money again for a game unless it's released and I am receiving it right then. I've felt scammed for almost a decade now. But to be fair, I think it was only $20 or something. Can't really remember.
- taftster 2y agoYou might have made the mistake of actually expecting something for that $20. In my mind, giving money for a game (or any sort of kick-started concept) is literally a donation. And if you happen to get anything out of it at the end, even better. Granted, the developer also told you that your $20 would come to mean something. So that's on the borderline of being fraudulent (though, innocent because it was their intention to fulfill). The $20 has totally tainted your view of the product. So that's the bad part in all this, that you would not give another $20 to another fledgling video game kickstart.
- bentt 2y agoCritics of this game have moved the goal posts so many times they are out of the stadium. Face it - Star Citizen exists. People play it, enjoy it, and pay for it. The devs are trying to make something crazy and huge. It is entirely on brand with Chris Roberts’s history. He made Wing Commander which only ran on computers that nobody could afford at the time. Yes, they pulled a lot of fake it till you make it, but what they’ve done is undeniably grand and impressive, no matter how buggy it still is.
- waste_monk 2y agoThey've spent $700M and more than a decade to produce a bug-ridden glorified model viewer with the thinnest veneer of gameplay attached. It is grand and impressive, but very much not in a good way.
- bitsandboots 2y agoWhen elite dangerous was new I asked a friend if they wanted to join me in playing it. They said no, they were waiting for star citizen (why either-or?) Anyway, that was 2 US presidents ago. Still waiting huh?