Star Citizen Is it a scam?

[Grey Area]

For those that don’t know, Star Citizen is a PC Sci-fi game first proposed in 2012 by developer Chris Roberts, well known for creating the Wing Commander series and his somewhat controversial input into the space combat sim Freelancer.  In 2012 Chris appealed to the gaming community with a presentation about an ambitious new concept for a game claiming amazing visuals and unprecedented gamer freedom.

After the initial pitch Chris Roberts started a crowd funding campaign in which backers would receive various digital products depending on their level of backing, these included ships to fly in the game as well as varying levels of in game insurance for said ships.  I think the initial funding goal for the game was set at, I think (could be off) 1.5million dollars and initially raised over 4 million and entered the Guinness book of records as the highest grossing Kickstarter campaign ever.

To date Star Citizen has raked in over 190 million dollars of backers money through game sales and the sales of ships, of which their are many to choose from.  Some backers have paid many thousands of dollars, and to emphasise this, Cloud Imperium, Chris Roberts dev studio recently released a pack of in game content that retails for 27,000 dollars, and in order to be eligible for this purchase you have to have already spent 1000 dollars.

So where does the controversy come in?  Well for starters, the game is still in development.  Their are some playable features such as a hangar you can walk around to,see your ships and a kind of ‘on rails’ racing game but the actual game itself has been in developement for the last 6 years with no end yet in sight, despite a promise of a finished product in 2014.

This has led some, and a understandably a growing number to become concerned that Star Citizen is a scam.  The community has become legendary on the internet as being zealously defensive over the project, which you likely would be if you had sank 1000’s into the project, but slowly but surely the fan base is becoming twitchy, with some requesting refunds and others still taking Cloud Imperium to court.

Cloud imperium insists that it is legit and happily developed new spacecraft for people to buy, little more than digital art at this point.

There is far too much to cover here, do a quick YouTube search for the game and all the controversy’s that surround this game are laid bare.

So what are your thoughts, would you buy a spaceship for a game not yet released?  Is the game just a massive very public audacious scam?

[Rlyeh]

Haven't been up to date on SC, have they implemented mining yet? 

Elite Dangerous, it's ok, can get boring fast. Doesn't have that much depth.

[Vorg]

I purchased two ships years ago. The hangar and ship are second to none detail-wise in any video game I have seen . With the 190 million he has received, the game has been delayed to ensure it is the best experience possible, and after backing Elite Dangerous, I felt slightly let down there, so it is worth the wait as I see it.

[Grey Area]

3 hours ago, seanjo said:

Didn't realise it hadn't been released properly yet. Elite Dangerous is a good space game that has been developed and is continuously evolved and updated.

I like Elite, I like that it has been continuously updated and the updates tie in to a story line with live events.

[Grey Area]

3 hours ago, Rlyeh said:

Haven't been up to date on SC, have they implemented mining yet? 

Yes they have with mixed feeling.  Those that continue to believe in Cloud imperium and Chris Roberts say it is great and a big step forward, where the more skeptical pointed out it’s obvious issue.

You can only mine in a specific ship, which of course must be purchased with real money.  I believe Cloud Imperium’s official response to those who raised this with them was that anyone who didn’t want to pay for the price lags of mining could find someone who had bought a mining vessel and borrow it.

The other thing is that mining is currently useless as an in game economy still has yet to be implemented.

3 hours ago, Rlyeh said:

Elite Dangerous, it's ok, can get boring fast. Doesn't have that much depth.

I agree with that but I haven’t played it for ages so it may be much better now.

2 hours ago, South Alabam said:

I purchased two ships years ago. The hangar and ship are second to none detail-wise in any video game I have seen . With the 190 million he has received, the game has been delayed to ensure it is the best experience possible, and after backing Elite Dangerous, I felt slightly let down there, so it is worth the wait as I see it.

I resisted, I have several friends who bought ships, one spent several hundred pounds on a ship.  With hindsight I am glad I didn’t take the plunge.

Personally I don’t think it’s a scam, but I do question the games model, Buying ships is like car manufacturers selling you a car and only giving you car park to drive around telling you they will open the car park at some time in the future.  and if SC doesn’t turn out to be one amazing game you are going to see a scandal that puts no mans sky to shame.

There are serious questions about the games current state, where the money has gone and very legitimate concerns that the continuous practice of designing and selling new ships is now Cloud Imeriums way to support continuous development.

[Timothy]

@Grey Area, I don’t think it’s a scam at all.

A lot has gone into the game and a lot of people willingly support it because they want to see the development to continue. 

From what I’ve seen of the game over the years, there’s nothing to suggest it’s meant to be a scam.

What about all of the other pre-release/early access/early alpha games out there? It’s just mainly a mechanism for non-AAA game developers to raise funds, and it works.

They’re hit and miss, some flop, some make it. But being able to fund the development is important.

I’ve put money into multiple games, some never saw shelves, but I don’t feel scammed. 

Sea of Thieves is probably the game I feel most let down and scammed by, and I didn’t have to put any $$ into that. 

[+Hammerclaw]

It's the TIGHAR of crowd-funded video games and will work it's schtick as long as there are people patient enough and well-heeled enough to finance the quest for it's holy grail.

[Sir Smoke aLot]

With so much money involved anything is possible but the game (at least preview videos on Youtube) looks fantastic.

[RoofGardener]

One hundred and eighty million pounds ? That seems an AWFUL lot of money to develop a computer game ? 

[Sir Smoke aLot]

On 9/21/2018 at 3:21 PM, RoofGardener said:

One hundred and eighty million pounds ? That seems an AWFUL lot of money to develop a computer game ? 

While it really looks very good i doubt that it's content could justify that amount of money.

[Duke Wellington]

On ‎10‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 7:00 PM, Grey Area said:

So what are your thoughts, would you buy a spaceship for a game not yet released?  Is the game just a massive very public audacious scam?

The worst example I can recall was Godus. People wanted a spiritual successor to Populas or Black and White 2. They paid a lot of money to support what got released as a free mobile game where you basically tap the screen to farm gold coins. Peter Molyneux destroyed his reputation with that game.

For that reason I would never consider paying a large amount of money for an early access game. They have all been low cost - Rimworld, Factorio, They are Billions, Subnautica, and Astroneer. I got conned with Astroneer, that game is and in my opinion still will be dam poor.

The next decision for me will be Fallout76 and I will probably get that on early access too. Going off all the other Fallout games which I have enjoyed. But if its more than £60 not a chance.

[Grey Area]

1 hour ago, RabidMongoose said:

The worst example I can recall was Godus. People wanted a spiritual successor to Populas or Black and White 2. They paid a lot of money to support what got released as a free mobile game where you basically tap the screen to farm gold coins. Peter Molyneux destroyed his reputation with that game.

For that reason I would never consider paying a large amount of money for an early access game. They have all been low cost - Rimworld, Factorio, They are Billions, Subnautica, and Astroneer. I got conned with Astroneer, that game is and in my opinion still will be dam poor.

The next decision for me will be Fallout76 and I will probably get that on early access too. Going off all the other Fallout games which I have enjoyed. But if its more than £60 not a chance.

Rim world was the best money I ever spent on a game I’ve had more fun with that game than any other, I have contacted the dev in several occasions to suggest and praise and each occasion I have had a personal response, not only is he incredibly talented but is a genuinely nice guy.

Try getting a response from Chris Roberts.

[Duke Wellington]

1 minute ago, Grey Area said:

Rim world was the best money I ever spent on a game I’ve had more fun with that game than any other, I have contacted the dev in several occasions to suggest and praise and each occasion I have had a personal response, not only is he incredibly talented but is a genuinely nice guy.

Try getting a response from Chris Roberts.

Wait to you try Factorio. I would go as far as to say that its the most addictive game I have ever played.

[Grey Area]

42 minutes ago, RabidMongoose said:

Wait to you try Factorio. I would go as far as to say that its the most addictive game I have ever played.

I put it on my wish list but for some reason something keeps,stopping me from committing.

[Duke Wellington]

1 hour ago, Grey Area said:

I put it on my wish list but for some reason something keeps,stopping me from committing.

Try the demo first, game is also in a complete state so they could keep it how it is.

Star Citizen... I`d wait some more.