About

Star Citizen is an upcoming video game by Cloud Imperium Games. The game is an MMO (massive multiplayer online game) and holds the record for the largest single amount ever raised via crowdsourcing. However, because of its massive size and ambition, the game has been besieged by numerous setbacks.

History

On October 18th, 2012, Cloud Imperium Games and game designer Chris Roberts, the designer of the game Wing Commander announced on Kickstarter the production Star Citizen for a 2014 release.^[1] By November 19th, the game had already raised more than $5 million, surpassing their $2.1 million goal.^[2] As of January 2017, the game has amassed more than $141 million from backers.^[4]

Originally slated for a 2014 release, the game's production has been fraught with setbacks. The game's release was later then moved to 2016, but after missing that deadline, the game's developers have stated that the game is set for a 2017 release.

On December 19th, 2014, Cloud Imperium a trailer for Star Citizen (shown below). The trailer has since received more than 1.9 million views.

On August 16th, 2016, the Star Citizen YouTube account published a live walkthrough of the new demo (shown below, left) from Gamescom 2016. The video received more than 1.5 million views. The next day, the account uploaded just the gameplay of the presentation (shown below, right), which also received more than 1.5 millions views.

Reception

On December 27th, 2016, Wired^[6] included Star Citizen in their 2016 Vaporware Awards reserved for games that have missed their release date. In their entry, Wired writes:

It’s reasonable to imagine that Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts’ grand vision of an all-encompassing multiplayer virtual universe may never be truly completed. With over $130 million in crowdfunding cash, and more rolling in by the day, Roberts and his team have more resources than virtually any other game creator to fulfill their grand vision of interstellar travel, spaceship combat, first-person shooting, and probably five more game genres. The developer has been continually releasing alpha versions allowing fans (some of whom have paid thousands of dollars to “own” virtual ships) to knock around with what it’s done so far, but when will the full game actually be released? Heck if we know.

The game has since been compared to No Man's Sky, another MMO built on an ever-expanding engine. However, because that game failed to live up to the expectations of gamers, some have said that players look to Star Citizen to make good on No Man's Sky's promises.^[8]

The Escapist Magazine Controversy

On September 25th, 2015, The Escapist magazine published a feature about Derek Smart, an independent game developer and critic of CIG. Smart had spent the last few months detailing problems within CIG on his blog, after interviewing anonymous CIG employees. Smart "questions the allocation of funds, delays in the game's release, changes to the format and features, silent changes to the Terms of Service agreement, and the ability for the company to produce the game at all."^[15]

Smart also published a leaked letter, allegedly penned by a former employee, which said:

"This team is filled with people who have experience publishing other titles. Lots. We all know how it is 'supposed" to be done'…But everyone is faced with the same repeated dilemma, a choice- make [Chris Roberts] happy or do what works for the game? Short term survival vs long term wins. And unfortunately it's the survival option that wins out, mainly because turning away from a directive of CR is a recipe for unemployment."

According to Forbes,^[14] the allegations include. They write:

The Escapist published an article sourcing 9 different current and former employees of Cloud Imperium Games. It contained multiple allegations including racial discrimination, misappropriated funds (Star Citizen is, to the best of our knowledge, completely crowdfunded to the tune of $90 million), a "toxic workplace," and claims that the developer has bled through nearly 90% of its resources, with feature creep killing the game. Chris Roberts wrote a passionate response thoroughly denying and addressing each claim.

Fighting back against Smart, fans started a Change.org petition to force Smart to desist in ongoing actions against CIG, which received more than 2,000 signatures.^[16] Roberts also personally responded to the allegations in letter that has since been removed from CIG's website. He denied the allegations.^[18]

CIG threatened Escapist with a lawsuit over the feature, publishing a strongly worded letter in which they said they would prepare legal action if The Escapist did not apologize personally to "the developer's HR manager as well as Sandi Gardiner (who is accused of saying "We aren't hiring a black girl"), initiate an independent investigation into the production of the original article, and issue a public apology and retraction."^[13]

On March 29th, 2017, Heatstreet reported that CIG has been getting negative articles, including The Escapist's feature and Roberts' response, scrubbed from the internet.^[17]

Fandom

On October 10th, 2012, the /r/starcitizen subreddit launched. Within four years, the subreddit had more than 100,000 subscribers.^[3] On Twitter, the account @RobertsSpaceInd has more than 70,400 followers.^[9] The Star Citizen Facebook page launched on October 30th, 2013. It currently has more 150,000 likes and 147,000 followers.^[10]

According to Roberts,^[7] the game has a community of over 1.6 million players. During a mid-2016 interview^[19] Turbulent, the designers of Star Citizen’s website, said that 500,000 players had financially contributed towards the game.

Impact

In 2014, Guinness World Records named Star Citizen's funding as the single largest amount ever raised via crowdsourcing with $39.6 million.^[5] Through crowdfunding, the developers allowed users to play the finished parts of the game, which they unlock by contributing. Some packages range from $400 to fly a spaceship in the incomplete game and $15,000^[12] for every offered package, which included:

The Completionist package lets you have all ships announced up to 2014, plus a couple 2015 Concepts (See package contents). All limited ships and limited flair come with an extra copy of themselves (certain exceptions). The package also comes loaded with Hangar decorations and 20,000 UEC Starting Money for game launch.
Please note that this package does not include the Javelin Destroyer, however it unlocks the ability to purchase one through the store. Please note that if you request the Completionist reclaimed for store credit the Javelin (if purchased) would be reclaimed as well

Roberts explained the secret to the game's successful crowfunding to Wired.^[11] He said:

"“The big thing is the thing that we didn't do. Most crowdfunding campaigns engage some people, convince them to become backers, and then the campaign stops. We didn't stop.”

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External References