Star Citizen Makes Half a Billion Dollars (September 21, 2022)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Star Citizen has surpassed the $500 million crowdfunding threshold! It's probably not a milestone even Chris Roberts could have imagined back when the project kicked off in October 2012, but the Roberts Space Industries engine continues to print money. It's not even slowing down - the most recent $100 million has come in just the last ten months. At that pace, they're on track to hit a cool billion dollars in just about four more years. It's hard to fathom how they could even spend that much money on development, but I'm sure they'll find a way. All of this is just in time for the 10th anniversary of the game's unveiling. They will be celebrating a Digital CitizenCon to celebrate on October 8!





Thanks to Dennis Mull for the tip!

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Original update published on September 21, 2022
 
"I'm sure they'll find a way." You're right about that. I'm sure a lot of us here were backers back in 2012. Golden ticket holders one and all. $100 million in ten months. Ridiculous. I've sold off most of my 'pledges' to other suckers already. I'm keeping one or two in the off chance that they ever release, but let's face it, none of us are getting any younger and I know for certain at least one wing commander fan has passed away in the ten years since she backed the game. What a crap shoot.

I'm still waiting for the headline of Roberts passing after a confrontation with some uber fan that backed to the tune of 30k or some such nonsense. At this point I hope it crashes and burns so I can watch the meltdown and aftermath.
 
It's certainly just a joke now, it doesn't take a genius to know you cannot make a game that is and does everything, he's shown that by 10 years of development, literally hundreds of millions of dollars and basically nothing to show for it except a shonky pre-alpha. They have to keep rewriting the entire game every few years as the engine they use becomes outdated, it's a never ending circle. It's a scandal plain and simple and his reputation is mud to me now.
 
My only question is what do these investors expect? Half a billion dollars put in - how much money are they expecting to get back? Double their investment (not an unreasonable amount)? If we assume it does decently well and has 10,000,000 players, that's about $100 per player each they need to make. $50 to break even, but investors don't want that.

The general worry becomes what will investors demand to get that money back - how to raise the average revenue per player or the player base and the simple demand of investors to make money might end up overriding the game itself. Those investors get worried and they may start demanding microtransactions and pay to win mechanics to be implemented because it's no longer a game, it's a business. Or it turns into a MMO game where you have players paying $10 a month and get it all back via subscription and addon fees.
 
All I wanted was a space sim, preferrebly co-op multiplayer campaign. they even axed the co-op campaign!
I have not even played the game on the new system I build 8 months ago...

For now all hopes are with the XWVM crew. Squadrons was and is great fun, but without campaigns and mission it's just a battle royale.
 
My only question is what do these investors expect? Half a billion dollars put in - how much money are they expecting to get back? Double their investment (not an unreasonable amount)? If we assume it does decently well and has 10,000,000 players, that's about $100 per player each they need to make. $50 to break even, but investors don't want that.

The general worry becomes what will investors demand to get that money back - how to raise the average revenue per player or the player base and the simple demand of investors to make money might end up overriding the game itself. Those investors get worried and they may start demanding microtransactions and pay to win mechanics to be implemented because it's no longer a game, it's a business. Or it turns into a MMO game where you have players paying $10 a month and get it all back via subscription and addon fees.
This isn't money from investors, it's all direct sales.
 
My only question is what do these investors expect? Half a billion dollars put in - how much money are they expecting to get back? Double their investment (not an unreasonable amount)? If we assume it does decently well and has 10,000,000 players, that's about $100 per player each they need to make. $50 to break even, but investors don't want that.

The general worry becomes what will investors demand to get that money back - how to raise the average revenue per player or the player base and the simple demand of investors to make money might end up overriding the game itself. Those investors get worried and they may start demanding microtransactions and pay to win mechanics to be implemented because it's no longer a game, it's a business. Or it turns into a MMO game where you have players paying $10 a month and get it all back via subscription and addon fees.
Yeah, none of this is from "investors." It's people who essentially preordered the game or paid $100 for ships. This money IS the "return."
 
Hey LOAF,

When is squadron 42 coming. I'm guessing still a couple of years?

I'm a backer since 2012.

I rarely check in and have never played any version of the game to date.

I still think squadron will be an absolute stunner. If and when it releases.

He wants it to be truly top notch, polished, high fidelity, bug free and won't settle for anything less. With that kind of money he can take his time and do that and avoid a cyberpunk situation.

Am I on the right train of thought?



No one doubts the difficulty and time required to produce a single player experience of this fidelity.
 
Hello! That's my understanding. I'm not working on Star Citizen anymore, but when I was I never saw anything that made me think Chris was anything but genuine in wanting to make Squadron 42 his dream game. We'll see how it ends up!
 
Hello! That's my understanding. I'm not working on Star Citizen anymore, but when I was I never saw anything that made me think Chris was anything but genuine in wanting to make Squadron 42 his dream game. We'll see how it ends up!
Are you still with CIG, LOAF?
 
Hello! That's my understanding. I'm not working on Star Citizen anymore, but when I was I never saw anything that made me think Chris was anything but genuine in wanting to make Squadron 42 his dream game. We'll see how it ends up!
I am sorry to see that you are no longer working at CIG and working on JP. I am happy you are dedicated to this WC site. :)
 
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