Why would you complete a game when you can make a constant stream of income and increase that income stream with announcements and drip feeds.
Look at this madness robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals
Star Citizen Expose Paints a Fairly Bleak Picture: 'There's No Actual Focus on Getting the Game Done'
Submitted 1 year ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to games@lemmy.world
Comments
immutable@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Fades@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Jesus fucking Christ! What a goddamn scam.
If you donate 60 million dollars worth of stretch goals we’ll make the game! But only if we meet the stretch goals… otherwise go fuck yourself, give us more money!
That whole page you linked is fucking gross.
filcuk@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
64th million has finally allowed for the technology of having pets added to the game
RangerJosie@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s called Store Citizen for a reason.
Randomgal@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Scam Citizen
WhyFlip@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Star Citizen sounds right up my alley in terms of game content and play, but I will never touch it due to the business model they’ve chosen.
Psythik@lemmy.world 1 year ago
All I want is a space pirate game that doesn’t require me to quit my job and dedicate my life to it in order to acquire a good enough ship to actually be competitive.
That, or a street racing MMO with realistic physics and a true-to-life level of customization and tuning, that has a map the size of small country. Like The Crew except no arcade physics and more than 5 players in a server. And also not shit.
Somebody, please make one of these two games already. I need this so badly in my lifetime before I die.
barryamelton@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
For racing, you have Fly Dangerous. It is also a successful FOSS game!
bbuez@lemmy.world 1 year ago
My dream is to make or at least be a part of the former
It is very hard
Randomgal@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
You want that online? If you’re okay with single player, the first one does exist: Check out the X series of games, the latest one is X:4 Foundations.
Idk about racing lmao
yamanii@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’ve genuinely been sat in meetings that got derailed for 30 minutes so that the placement of objects that players are likely never to interact with could be discussed in detail. There’s just no actual focus on getting the game done.
We have a saying here that translates to something like this: “perfect is the enemy of done”. Getting lost in details like this will always delay things a ton.
Fades@lemmy.world 1 year ago
My boss LOVES to throw that out all the time as a defense for when I inform him that he and mgmt are rushing something out the door that isn’t ready
cmhe@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Also called bikeshedding.
Etterra@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I never fell for this, and I’m laughing at you if you did.
reksas@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
i want to fall for it yet i keep waiting for further development, thankfully they occasionally do free flight events so I can actually test the game without having to pay
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 1 year ago
I used to be like you, laughing and enjoying life.
The new director of technology we just hired a few months ago flexed about how he’s now hit 6-digit donations to Star Citizen. It’s still early and he hasn’t shown any results, but if he’s following the Star Citizen path of growth, my department is fucked.
SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 1 year ago
One of my ex coworkers has spent somewhere in the ballpark of 12k. He sells, flips and trades rare ships to sell back to people after the exclusivity of the ship has expired. He’s made like 4k. I don’t understand gaming anymore.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Lol if that game is ever finished, I bet there’s going to be some people who paid way too much for a ship that turns out to completely suck but seemed ok on paper. Kinda like a PT cruiser, except it looked ok on paper.
ours@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s not gaming anymore than people buying toys, leaving them in their boxes as an “investment” are into playing with toys.
Meanwhile the rest of us are buying games, playing them, enjoying them, moving on to other games and so on.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
to be fair this kind of expenditure and aftermarket exists in CCGs.
throbbing_banjo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They got my $40 in 2012. I absolutely loved the Wing Commander series; Wing Commander II was an embarrassingly important part of my adolescense, I love space sims, and still had fond enough memories of the name Chris Roberts that I didn’t think he’d blatantly lie and steal from me.
How people are still giving these clowns money I have no idea.
Summzashi@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Same here. It was a much different time. Lots of games that originated in kickstarter became succesful. This just seemed like another one.
Hindsight is 20/20
setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 1 year ago
People are buying the dream. There is personal investment now- this isn’t a game, this is their game. Whenever the studio finally folds, I guarantee there will be whales lamenting that if they’d only spent a little more they have kept the game afloat.
FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Is anyone really surprised?
I do think they will at least release Squadron 42, but the main game is never coming out
Banzai51@midwest.social 1 year ago
I’m pretty sure Chris Roberts views Squadron 42 as the main game.
rozodru@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I honestly don’t even think they’ll get that far. I mean they’ve announced it now, yet again, for a 2026 release date…two years from now. they’ve been doing this for the past decade. “It’ll release in 2016” then it’s “Squadron 42 coming 2018” and so on and so forth. Mark my words we’ll get to 2026 and at their little convention they have to further milk their userbase of money they’ll announce Squadron 42 for 2028 but please, user, they need more backers and as a reward for backing you’ll get a fancy ship you’ll never get to keep.
pyre@lemmy.world 1 year ago
and here I was thinking they always planned to finish the game in about 16 to 30 years.
sorry I meant durrrr
Cagi@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Squadron 42 is feature complete and is in optimization and polish phase. 30-40 hour campaign. It looks amazing. youtu.be/1H-0x4xk2Xk?si=Q3SmA_skltVVUkiy
Fades@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Hey look, it’s one of those gullible marks.
“Feature complete” but they can’t release it for another two years? Hmmm…… 🤔
As a dev myself this shit is hilarious
Banzai51@midwest.social 1 year ago
They claimed it was feature complete in 2023. And now they claim it is two years away from release. You really think polish and optimization takes three years? Of course, they’ve claimed it is just two years away every year since 2016.
They are lying to you.
Cagi@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Lol, one of us certainly has been lied to. Your Las post is blatantly false, your first is basedon how your guess about how AAA game design works. I’ll trust the many, many game devs who actually play the game and roll their eyes at comments like yours.
I’ve actually played the game, bought it and have no regrets. Hundreds of hours, new friends, new experiences. You passively absorbed the groupthink. I don’t care if it ever finishes, I’ve gotten more than enough fun per dollar out this game already. Cry about it if you want, just do it quietly.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 1 year ago
They released the game to the public this weekend? That is amazing.
Cagi@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
“Everything that challenges my feelings is a lie!”
You sound like MAGAs discussing immigration under a Fox News post. Circle jerk of hate based on misinformation, but trying to talk reason to people who love to hate the thing they hate and don’t want to stop is not going to work. Keep on believing gaming journalists from disreputable tabloids who invent controversy for clicks. The engagement on Star Citizen hate posts is massive compared to others. Hating Star Citizen is directly more profitable for these sites. There is no oversight on truthfulness in gaming news.
No, it’s not an FPS. It’s 99% a space sim like Wing Commander with a few FPS parts. It is a full AAA game, maximum fidelity, 30-40 hour campaign. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. You could a tally watch the video you have so many opinions about, but oh that’s right, it’s a conspiracy if it’s good.
Not released? I have hundreds of hours in Star Citizen and have enjoyed them all. That’s not very much compared to many, many others. They are growing in players and revenue for 10 years. That doesn’t happen to bad games. They release massive updates every quarter. They just bought a new campus in Manchester so they can hire more devs, on top of the existing thousand. It’s a genuinely fun game, right now, enjoyed by many. You don’t have to be one of them, but your tinfoil hat nonsense is just vitriolic skepticism from reading these tabloids, not critical thinking.
We’re out there, flying around, having a great time wanting y’all to join our space shenanigans. Just try it the next free-fly with an open mind. Even if you tried it before, try it now, it is improving every quarter, it’s a different beast now than a few years ago.
EchoCT@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
“didn’t show anyone playing it live.” Uh. Clive was literally playing on stage during the showcase. Complete with yearly CTD and all.
I’m all for shitting on CIGs trash practices, but you don’t need to lie to get there.
MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why would there be? Seems to work really well this way. Just keep milking the idiots of their money.
InFerNo@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
The actual news is that the money is starting to run dry
Banzai51@midwest.social 1 year ago
And this CitCon didn’t do anything to stem that tide if true.
kaffiene@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Like, obviously?
nutsack@lemmy.world 1 year ago
i like to speak in question marks? good?
kaffiene@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Your comprehension issues are a you problem
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 year ago
yeah they been grifting do long thats all thry care about anymore
And009@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I was hoping there to be a conspiracy story behind it but the crux is they don’t understand the concept of MVP or made anything before.
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah no shit
Allero@lemmy.today 1 year ago
That was my concern long ago when I entered the game.
The problem is, CIG have financially incentivised themselves, knowingly or not, to never finish the game.
Being alpha game means you can wipe everything again and again. And they do! One thing they do not touch, however, are ships purchased with real world money. And players do buy those ships in order to not start the game from scratch over and over again, and pay a lot for it, in hundreds and often thousands of dollars!
Upon release, on the other hand, no wipes are planned, and this means one thing: revenue will absolutely plummet as players just buy ships for in-game currency instead of actual cash. Releasing the game now is a suicide move, as CIG won’t be able to blatantly extort players for their money anymore.
Astronauticaldb@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Not to mention that they also incentivise players to spend real-world money by having their website have a secret club for whales (I think you need to spend either $1K or $5K in order to have the button appear) to spend even more money then they did to even gain access.
Allero@lemmy.today 1 year ago
Yes, of you spend over $1k on the game you gain access to beta-testing etc.
And the most scary part? Plenty of people do spend this much money - I know many Carrack owners, for example, and this ship costed, when I remember it, $1200. Yes, $1200 for an in-game ship, and there’s plenty of buyers.
Heck, I know a person in Ukraine - not a high-income country by any standards, GDP per capita sitting at ~$5000 - who spent about $6000 on the game by hiding huge portion of his income from his family for years.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Misguided development at CIG? Why I never!
brey1013@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Shocked I tell you!!! Who could have seen this coming!?!
draneceusrex@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Dull surprise.
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 1 year ago
What’s the latest build weight in at?
It’s so many gigs, it’s not even worth trying every so often. Every time you load it, gigs to download.
Glad I only ever spent the initial $60
The first big disappointment was the end of the funding rewards. Is any of those original rewards even noticable? Oh yay a fish! And a 42 towel to look at!
peopleproblems@lemmy.world 1 year ago
And then, compare it to No Man’s Sky, who gave us lofty expectations, failed to deliver on launch, but actually kept with it despite no new revenue flowing into the game from existing buyers. And now we have something incredible. We have a universe that is unfathomably large. We have multiplayer, we have all sorts of events and quests. Freighters! You can piece together your own ships now.
I hope we can eventually build space stations or pilot Capital Ships. No Man’s Sky came out in 2016. In 8 years it has done far more than SC has done with far less of a budget.
Do I wish we could have everything that Roberts promised? Sure. But I also have a bridge to sell that you can at least walk over.
ms_lane@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Also to be fair (and critical), while Sean lied to both Sony and us about the state of the game-
They also probably did have most of everything they promised at once point, then the Christmas Flood happened. That’s when the lies started and but those lies were likely more for Sony rather than us, as it’s entirely possible Sony would have outright cancelled the game if they’d known how much was actually lost in the flood.
Instead they released what they could in the time they had left then just kept plugging away at it post release.
ICastFist@programming.dev 1 year ago
NMS certainly evolved a lot, but I wouldn’t call it incredible. Also, despite the game universe being absurdly large, you can see everything there is to see visiting less than 20 star systems
All the daily quicksilver quests are a fucking chore, too.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Well no shit. He figured out that as long as you never “release” a finished game, you’re not going to be blamed for “bugs” while still collecting money on in-game purchases.
There’s a reason he made sure that the in-game store was perfected and ready to go long before the game was anywhere near completed. It’s been the plan ever since he and his team realized that the ultimate scope was likely out of their reach.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 year ago
If massive universe sums like that were technically feasible all of the other studios would have done it. They were overly ambitious and didn’t understand the limits
Maalus@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I mean Elite Dangerous is right there, finished, playable and fun.
Scolding7300@lemmy.world 1 year ago
In terms of immersion I think they’ve done a great job. Played during a free weekend. But they need to aim for a gameplay loop, polish, and release. Not this feature creep mentality
Seditious_Delicious@lemmy.world 1 year ago
OK. Never played SC so honest question here; What is wrong if the game is technically not complete? I mean the way I thought is that this means that it keeps evolving and expanding so new content and features become available as the game development progresses. What am I missing? Is this a similar situation to the Eve Online BitterVets?
Cagi@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Don’t listen anyone here, positive or negative. Try the next free fly and see for yourself. Too many feelings for an honest answer.
krimson@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Instead of focussing on getting the core of the game finished and THEN expanding it they do it the other way around.
For example the mining loop now is broken again, people bought mining ships and vehicles with $$ and they are completely unusable. Not to mention all the bugs and instability. I hope they succeed but right now things are not pointing to something enjoyable within the foreseeable future at all.
Allero@lemmy.today 1 year ago
Long story short, they severely fail to deliver on their promises and also mismanaged their development incentives so that they are not financially interested to ever release, or even make the game fully playable.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
Game keeps wiping players inventories including the in-game money used to buy ships. You can’t progress in the game, they just wipe you.
BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
The game is exactly the same as it was the first time I played it except now the lift always shows up.
dormedas@lemmy.dormedas.com 1 year ago
It was kickstarted a decade ago with release dates which they’ve never kept thanks to a constant modification of what a release looks like - namely splitting the MMO-like Star Citizen out from the single-player blockbuster Squadron 42 - as well as scope bloat. A lot of people originally kickstarted the game (mostly for what we now call Squadron 42 + some multiplayer thing) but now a decade on, the MMO-like Star Citizen is seemingly the priority project and most of the people who are currently funding the game are primarily interested in that.
After hundreds of millions of dollars of funding, it seems clear that Squadron 42 in particular is in development hell as it still can’t seem to make it to market. Star Citizen, while playable, teeters back and forth from basically unplayable to playable and all “progress” is subject to wipes.
Dhs92@programming.dev 1 year ago
Just some context: from 2017 until last year they had the majority of the development staff working on SQ42, which they declared feature complete last year and now we have a planned release of 2026. Most of the development staff has been moved back to Star Citizen which is finally seeing a lot of tech come online that was promised years ago. Definitely has a ton of scope creep, and it’ll probably never have an official release, but it’s definitely a cool tech demo that you can play.
dustyData@lemmy.world 1 year ago
SC is a scam. They sell ships for real money that only half work. The game is riddled with bugs, quests don’t complete. Users state is regularly wiped so there’s no point on progressing in it and instead of finishing the game they ask players for much more money to work on tiny niche technical problems that sound super important on presentations but don’t move the needle even a little bit towards a finished game. At best, it is video game history most expensive physics toy. In reality, when you scrutinize their finances executives have pocketed most of the money raised and devs have been paid poor wages and overworked to a constantly moving target. They have never finished a single roadmap item, but they have announced to fanfare at least 5 different development roadmaps that are the very definition of scope creep. Lots of announcements but never a release. Any competent studio would’ve delivered at least three completed games in the same timeframe for that amount of money. They’re an online asset store that sometimes let’s you fiddle with the digital models, not a video game.
sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
They consistently make promises for things that will exist in the future, which then takes them years beyond their expected timeframe to achieve, or just never do them because some other past promise or promise they will make later makes an original promise either totally unworkable or wildly different.
So, so many missed deadlines, which uh, actually were just aspirational.
And… this is a game that sells you ships, gear, for hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of real world dollars.
Some crazy promise will be made and oh, turns out that means we have to rework something like half the game’s systems to support that, but also they’re adding new content constantly that is always in some limbo state between following the old system’s paradigms and attempting to follow the new system’s paradigm.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s still around?
I remember when Star Citizen first popped up, and it makes me feel old.
alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Because Crysis looked good, Chris Roberts mandated that Star Citizen would use Cryengine 3.
To make astronomically large spaces fit in cryengine, they made everything infinitesimally small.
So now the inaccuracy inherent in floating point calculations, instead of nudging things a few millimeters, teleports people hundreds of feet out of their ships into space if they bump into a physics object, ladder, elevator, etc.
This is what happens when an ideas guy with no technical knowledge is making technical decisions.
nailbar@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
This is what happens when an ideas guy with no technical knowledge is making technical decisions.
If you’re talking about Chris, he’s a coder too, and wrote some of the entiry container system for the game.
I’m not sure where you’re getting your info about them scaling everything down and that being the cause for wonky physics, though.
limitedduck@awful.systems 1 year ago
Today was day one of Citizencon and CIG revealed a lot of stuff that shows they’re still working to give players the game they want. Most of it was actually tech to answer the scalability problem for everyone wondering how they’re going to get to 100 star systems when they still only have 1
shadowedcross@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Yeah, Star Citizen is the world’s most expensive tech demo, that is the picture book definition of scope creep. It’ll just keep getting more and more complicated, but never get to any kind of a “complete game” state.
deegeese@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
If they finished it they’d have to find a new revenue stream.
jewbacca117@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Damn. I had really hoped my grandchildren would get to play Star Citizen in their lives.
Rottcodd@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Do people just not know who and what Chris Roberts is?
This is what he’s done throughout his career - the only thing that’s notable about Star Citizen really is the scale of it and thus the opportunities he has to find ever more things to obsessively tinker with.
It’s entirely possible that if Microsoft hadn’t bought out Digital Anvil and given him the boot, this wouldn’t even be Star Citizen - it would be Freelancer, coming into its 25th year of delays.
Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 1 year ago
SCAM
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 1 year ago
In another timeline No Mans sky was called Star Citizen and StarField was cancelled.