Star Citizen, that video game that raised over half a billion without ever being completed
During 2023 Cloud Imperium Games managed to raise another 117.5 million dollars which brings the total to a figure that should now be well above the fateful half a billion. However, there is a peculiarity: his Star Citizen is a video game that is very far from being complete
Producing a video game now means taking into account an exorbitant expense, which for major productions is around 200-300 million dollars and in some cases reaches half a billion. If there's an established publisher behind it, great. If it isn't there, the people of the Internet usually prove to be quite generous, joining en masse the fundraisers organized by the developers themselves. As has been happening for over two decades now with Star Citizen.
A SPACE ODYSSEY
When it was announced, way back in 2012, Star Citizen really promised to be a space game, capable of catapulting the player into an immense, multifaceted science fiction universe full of worlds to explore. In short, it promised to be an unparalleled, playful and technological video game. And the computers of the time would almost certainly have been too small for him. And in fact Star Citizen never came out on those. On those, as on these and perhaps not even on the next ones.
WHO IS BEHIND THE FUNDRAISING
Because the project, considerable and ambitious, continues to be a work in progress. Players can test the quality of the work by taking part in the pre-release versions, but the title is far from closed. And like all construction sites, Star Citizen 's is also a black hole of funds. Game designer (but also director: you might know him if you've seen Wing Commander) Chris Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games continues to ask for funds and, what's surprising, is that internet users continue to donate them to him.
STAR CITIZEN'S STAR CROWDFUNDING
When the title was announced, as said in 2012, it had already been in development for two years and crowdfunding on Kickstarter had allowed Roberts to immediately raise over two million dollars which in theory should have allowed him to deliver the game done and finished two years later, in 2014.
THE AMOUNTS RAISED IN 2023
Twelve years later, however, there is not even a shadow of the definitive game. On the other hand, during 2023 Cloud Imperium Games managed to raise another 117.5 million dollars which brings the total to a figure that should now be well above the fateful half a billion, a goal which will most likely be reached already in 2022 By shelling out just over 50 euros you can try the game and the sum is not insignificant at all, considering that the complete titles cost more or less the same amount and that during the experience you need to make other microtransactions.
PAYING PLAYERS
A mechanism that apparently works, given that on the one hand it allows the construction site to be kept open and on the other the players ( 5 million ) to check the progress of the work through nothing more than a constantly evolving demo.
THE STORY OF THE DAY BERFORE HAS NOT DAMPED THE ENTHUSIASM
The other surprising aspect (the first is naturally the amount raised) concerns the fact that the collection continues at full speed despite very famous fraudulent cases such as the one called The Day Before .
— The Day Before (@playdaybefore) December 22, 2023
It is a newly published video game developed by the Russian studio Fntastic which, when tested in practice, turned out to be very different from its promises. There was a lot of talk about it, because before its publication it promised heaven and earth, managing to catalyze the attention of many gamers who rushed to pre-order it. Result: the digital platform on which it was sold, Steam, found itself having to refund thousands of angry users, the online store hastily removed the title from its catalogue, the software house went bankrupt and the servers will close on January 22nd .
Nobody here intends to compare the two games and the work of the two software houses, let's be clear, but it is interesting to note how similar incidents have not dampened the enthusiasm towards titles that struggle to reach their definitive form.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/star-citizen-quel-videogioco-che-ha-raccolto-oltre-mezzo-miliardo-senza-mai-essere-stato-completato/ on Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:33:58 +0000.