$300,000,000 / 8 years = 37,500,000 per year / A pulled out of my ass $50,000 per person = 750 people working on the game. Math that means probably nothing.
It is more than $300mln. 300 is only from crowdfunding. Initial CIG site campaign and later on Kickstarter (whic hwas only secondary to CIG site) was bid for showing some investement companies that there is interest in making top tier PC game. He had lined up 25mln and had to take 2mln from crowdfunding to make SQ42 and 6mln for both SQ42 and SC.
Later on they also got additional investement of about 60mln by some other investing companies/company. And those are only we know of.
So the real number is closer to 400 if not more.
Yeah idk if thy are but Gaas model would sustain this pretty well and keep expanding the universe after release with milestones.
SC is a mmo so it will be probably subscription based. SQ42 is stand alone game that will be sold separately for 60$ but with tie in to SC as in you finish story receive your pay from military and some assets and off you go to SC universe.
Since 3.9 almost all ships are available to buy in game for in game money. Some are huge grind but nothing crazy as those bigger ships are meant to be played in groups. In 3.9 they also added player money transfer so group of people can pitch in for ship.
Also you can steal any ship you want. There are plenty of video where dudes would raid some whale ship and steal it.
I totally expect them selling ships for real money to stay.