Support NeoGAF

[RandomHopeInc]

Really? A $14000 ship? Does that come with..anything? Like something I can hold in the real world?

Its an online economy basically, you could make good actual money with that ship

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Making a comparison to irrational hatred, which this is, is insane? I'm the one criticizing insanity.

Picking apart and spinning my words like this proving the point of that post.

Lord have mercy.

 

[CapitalismSucks DonkeyBalls]

Making a comparison to irrational hatred, which this is, is insane? I'm the one criticizing insanity.

Picking apart and spinning my words like this proving the point of that post.

The criticisms levied at this game doesn't seem to be any more severe than criticisms directed at other long-gestating projects. I think, because you seem to have a vested interest and (likely) some financial stake in this game, you seem to be more sensitive to said criticism.

However, drawing comparisons between the so-called "hatred" towards this game is nowhere near the point of bigotry and prejudice, two words that should not be used lightly in any context. It's pretty ridiculous of you to use in in this context.

 

[perryfarrell]

The rabbit hole really goes deep on this one. Jeez.

"Amateur hour" doesn't begin to cover it.

LOL @ "The Javelin Destroyer, one of the crown jewels of Star Citizen’s fleet, is 345 metres long, stands 60 metres tall, is divided into five decks and requires a crew of 23 players to even get off the ground. According to Roberts, designing one of these monstrosities can take upwards of six months, siphoning more than half a million dollars off the game’s gargantuan budget."

 

[GOOCHY]

It's incredible, really. These guys have devised a way to siphon money out of people in perpetuity while they flail around trying to play Worldwide Game Development Studio Manager.

 

[tuxfool]

The rabbit hole really goes deep on this one. Jeez.

"Amateur hour" doesn't begin to cover it.

LOL @ "The Javelin Destroyer, one of the crown jewels of Star Citizen’s fleet, is 345 metres long, stands 60 metres tall, is divided into five decks and requires a crew of 23 players to even get off the ground. According to Roberts, designing one of these monstrosities can take upwards of six months, siphoning more than half a million dollars off the game’s gargantuan budget."

I should point out that is dirt cheap. Considering Street Fighter characters cost upwards of 1M to make. 1 Skullgirls character costs 250k.

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/02/2...-each-to-create-heres-why-squigly-is-cheaper/

 

[Zalusithix]

It's incredible, really. These guys have devised a way to siphon money out of people in perpetuity while they flail around trying to play Worldwide Game Development Studio Manager.

Less than half a decade is in perpetuity now? Fuck I'm old.

 

[TheVoidDragon]

I should point out that is dirt cheap. Considering Street Fighter characters cost upwards of 1M to make. 1 Skullgirls character costs 250k.

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/02/2...-each-to-create-heres-why-squigly-is-cheaper/

Things like that really show just how misinformed about games development a large amount of people are. Quite a lot of the complaints I've seen about this game have revolved around someone really having no idea what they're talking about and how things actually work with development. There are valid criticisms with the game but most of the things about either the time frame/deadlines or the cost of things that I've seen people complain about seem to just be outright wrong.

I'm not directing this at Perry in particular, but seeing it takes 6 months and 500mil for a huge ship and then straight jumping to the conclusion that such a thing must show something bad about the game despite seemingly not having any sort of frame of reference to for other games is sort of an absurd thing to do.

 

[MisterR]

Making a comparison to irrational hatred, which this is, is insane? I'm the one criticizing insanity.

Picking apart and spinning my words like this proving the point of that post.

I've read it a few times and your post is ridiculous.

 

[joecanada]

Things like that really show just how misinformed about games development a large amount of people are. Quite a lot of the complaints I've seen about this game have revolved around someone really having no idea what they're talking about and how things actually work with development. There are valid criticisms with the game but most of the things about either the time frame/deadlines or the cost of things that I've seen people complain about seem to just be outright wrong.

I'm not directing this at Perry in particular, but seeing it takes 6 months and 500mil for a huge ship and then straight jumping to the conclusion that such a thing must show something bad about the game despite seemingly not having any sort of frame of reference to for other games is sort of an absurd thing to do.

Yeah for me it's less about oh that one ship took 6 months and more about... what if instead of that 6 months they put 6 whole months into some existing feature to make it better or that's another 6 month delay which costs X dollars to keep the company rolling along. Of course there is no easy answer in business everything is hit or miss or grey areas, but I think about stuff like this constantly (business owner).
And adding ships seems like a bit of a self - feeding cycle as in we need money - add more ships - get more funding - do stuff - repeat. This could be problematic if it's not sustainable in the long term.
it would be good to add Sales!!! to that number eventually. otherwise you also need to spend money on hype which is not attached to the actual finished product whereas sales are attached to product.

 

[DouglasteR]

The new Duke Nukem.

But this time its too big to deliver, ever.

Meanwhile, there's

Spoiler

Elite

 

[tokkun]

Things like that really show just how misinformed about games development a large amount of people are. Quite a lot of the complaints I've seen about this game have revolved around someone really having no idea what they're talking about and how things actually work with development. There are valid criticisms with the game but most of the things about either the time frame/deadlines or the cost of things that I've seen people complain about seem to just be outright wrong.

I'm not directing this at Perry in particular, but seeing it takes 6 months and 500mil for a huge ship and then straight jumping to the conclusion that such a thing must show something bad about the game despite seemingly not having any sort of frame of reference to for other games is sort of an absurd thing to do.

It's kind of like the Great Pyramid. I'm not an expert on structural engineering of the ancient world. It is entirely possible that building the pyramid in 20 years with 40,000 laborers was a triumph of efficiency. As far as I know, that could have been orders of magnitude less expensive than anyone thought it could be done. And yet, despite that ignorance, I somehow feel extremely confident in saying that the Egyptians could have done something a lot better with those resources than making a tomb. I mean sure, great way to show off the opulence and majesty of your god-king, but kind of hard to defend to the commoner who would rather you just got around to building those roads and irrigation ditches first.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Yeah for me it's less about oh that one ship took 6 months and more about... what if instead of that 6 months they put 6 whole months into some existing feature to make it better or that's another 6 month delay which costs X dollars to keep the company rolling along.

This logic makes no sense AT ALL in the context of game development. It assumes that all development halts when they're working on one thing instead of several different things being iterated on at the same time and coming together more and more as the project hits it's stride.

 

[Thorn]

Pretty much all the people down on this project seem to have no clue about game development.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Pretty much all the people down on this project seem to have no clue about game development.

God forbid they ever find out how much it costs to animate a character taking off clothing in a believable way.

 

[Veitsev]

Pretty much all the people down on this project seem to have no clue about game development.

So how much money have you "invested" in this game?

 

[Thorn]

So how much money have you "invested" in this game?

I have no investments in this game.

 

[joecanada]

This logic makes no sense AT ALL in the context of game development. It assumes that all development halts when they're working on one thing instead of several different things being iterated on at the same time and coming together more and more as the project hits it's stride.

what you are stating as a rebuttal is a complete non-answer. its the equivalent of saying "oh it doesn't matter how long x takes because its done at the same time as y". nothing takes zero resources. Nothing. Things don't just "come together" magically, they cost time and money.

And I never stated that making big ships was a mistake, I said when it's all said and done it's interesting to analyze how a company came to the conclusion of using existing resources and if they would have or could have done anything different. I was talking in speculation.

 

[lacinius]

And I never stated that making big ships was a mistake, I said when it's all said and done it's interesting to analyze how a company came to the conclusion of using existing resources and if they would have or could have done anything different. I was talking in speculation.

Some of the largest assets in the game were modeled because they were needed for the SQ42 single player campaign. I believe you start off your career as a new UEE Navy pilot serving aboard a carrier. Similar, the alien species the UEE is at war with also have very large assets modeled so that there is something to attack. However, not all the large ships were given that kind of priority and are still on the drawing board since they do not make an appearance in SQ42. My impression is that ships and systems were prioritised depending on if they were needed for the single-player stand-alone campaign. Of course many of those ships and systems were shared with the MMO portion of Star Citizen as well. Those ships still on the drawing board are being concepted to give life and diversity to the MMO universe, which will provide a large variety of playing options.

 

[Outrun]

I have backed this game a couple of years ago.

Whenever some individual mentions scope creep, defenders counter that feature x was mentioned months ago.

Do we have a definitive answer for whether the scope expanded?

 

[staticneuron]

I have backed this game a couple of years ago.

Whenever some individual mentions scope creep, defenders counter that feature x was mentioned months ago.

Do we have a definitive answer for whether the scope expanded?

The last stretch goal was in Dec 2014. They have been working on things already planned since then. Not all goals were game related features or things that would add alot of time to development. So no.

 

[Jackpot]

I have backed this game a couple of years ago.

Whenever some individual mentions scope creep, defenders counter that feature x was mentioned months ago.

Do we have a definitive answer for whether the scope expanded?

From the developers who worked on it:

"I asked each of my sources if they thought Star Citizen could actually be made, knowing what they do, and there was no clear consensus. But there was clear agreement on ‘overscope’."

 

[Aselith]

I have backed this game a couple of years ago.

Whenever some individual mentions scope creep, defenders counter that feature x was mentioned months ago.

Do we have a definitive answer for whether the scope expanded?

Well, the question is "expanded when?" It certainly has expanded a lot from the Kickstarter/early crowdfunding but they are saying it stopped expanding quite a while ago (2014 as mentioned) At this point, whether there is some internal expansion, I don't think we can really say but it doesn't seem like it to me. They seem to be all hands on deck to just finish the stuff that they planned after the stretch goals were completed.

Here are the stretch goals that they funded up to the 65 million dollar point: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals

 

[mclem]

God forbid they ever find out how much it costs to animate a character taking off clothing in a believable way.

I think the catch-22 here is that there's a fair argument that that's a task that simply was not necessary in the first place. Star Citizen is doing some things that have never - or at least rarely - been done, and that's worthy of note, but it's perhaps also worth considering why they haven't been regarded as all that important in the past. If the reason is simply budget, fair enough (SC is spending a lot, but that's not a problem in itself, because it has a lot to spend in the first place); it's not necessarily the case that throwing more money at the core of the game instead would make the core of the game happen faster.

However, all that said, it does feel somewhat like the 'flashy stuff' is obscuring the game itself; it may feel that there's too much focus on it. I'm a backer, myself. I'm really not clear what the FPS module (for example) is for with respect to what I backed. It wasn't part of my consideration when I backed; I hadn't even considered the graphical requirements of that sort of environment when imagining the computer I'd need to run the game as-pitched; the game I was picturing four years ago didn't *need* that. That's where a little discomfort lies.

All that said, however, one of my mantras with KS is that, to some extent, you are backing to give the project manager the freedom to manage the project how they see fit; I will express doubts on occasion, but ultimately giving a game a chance to happen also means accepting that it has a chance to fail.

At least it's not going to run out of money!

 

[Aselith]

I think the catch-22 here is that there's a fair argument that that's a task that simply was not necessary in the first place. Star Citizen is doing some things that have never - or at least rarely - been done, and that's worthy of note, but it's perhaps also worth considering why they haven't been regarded as all that important in the past. If the reason is simply budget, fair enough (SC is spending a lot, but that's not a problem in itself, because it has a lot to spend in the first place); it's not necessarily the case that throwing more money at the core of the game instead would make the core of the game happen faster.

However, all that said, it does feel somewhat like the 'flashy stuff' is obscuring the game itself; it may feel that there's too much focus on it. I'm a backer, myself. I'm really not clear what the FPS module (for example) is for with respect to what I backed. It wasn't part of my consideration when I backed; I hadn't even considered the graphical requirements of that sort of environment when imagining the computer I'd need to run the game as-pitched; the game I was picturing four years ago didn't *need* that. That's where a little discomfort lies.

Well, two things

-It's for taking over ships, you'll be boarding taking out the crew

-They did pitch the game originally as "in first person" so while being able to fight on the ground wouldn't necessarily have to be a part of that, it's certainly in keeping with their goals of making a game where you can do what you want in the first person

Certainly if you look at what they're trying to do with the game and how piracy would work without being able to board a ship and fight, it's not surprising that an FPS component is part of it if you have the cash to be able to do it.

Also, keep in mind that they moved the FPS work to a separate studio "your" money isn't necessarily being funneled to that. Certainly it's being added to the design so I can see why you'd be unhappy if "your" game is being delayed to accommodate but you're also going to get extra stuff in your game with everyone else's money that they kicked in.

You ordered chicken wings and your bros kicked in a tenner so that you could get a pitcher and a bloomin onion, too.

 

[TheVoidDragon]

However, all that said, it does feel somewhat like the 'flashy stuff' is obscuring the game itself; it may feel that there's too much focus on it. I'm a backer, myself. I'm really not clear what the FPS module (for example) is for with respect to what I backed. It wasn't part of my consideration when I backed; I hadn't even considered the graphical requirements of that sort of environment when imagining the computer I'd need to run the game as-pitched; the game I was picturing four years ago didn't *need* that. That's where a little discomfort lies.

If you can't see what the FPS part is for then that might mean you've not really understood what they were going for from the start. They've always wanted it to be a living universe where you're an actual character, and not just a ship flying around. In most space games, the focus it that you're really a ship and you might occasionally be able to get out, but anything you do outside is secondary to the ship gameplay. With Star Citizen, it's more the other way around; you're a character, and getting in a ship is something you can do. They've both equally as important as each other. Part of the goal of the game to be immersive means you won't do things like teleport into ships or anything that feels overly "videogame-like". Everything you do will be done in a 'realistic' immersive way via your character. WIthout the FPS gameplay, that wouldn't be possible, and a massive amount of the game itself wouldn't be there. It's not like they're just deciding to stick an FPS ontop of their space-sim game, in a way it's sort of the other way around.

As far as i know, the FPS wasn't something that was added later and was planned all along. There was no stretch goal to have that added to the game. Looking at the kickstarter i can't see a direct mention of it, there is a stretch goal to add boarding to the game...but that is specifically boarding related game mechanics, and not the additional of first person gameplay itself.

 

[Camp Freddie]

I think that suggests you might have a pretty misguided view of what the game actually is going to be and what it is trying to accomplish. It is not just a "game about flying spaceships", the ships themselves are not the entire focus of it and the things like the first person gameplay are just as important. They've said quite a few times that they want it to be a very immersive game that doesn't feel like a videogame (as in no silly magical out-of-context menus everywhere, no teleporting into ships etc) and doing the characters properly is a big part of that.

It's not a game where flying spaceships is all that really matters, that is a very important part of it obviously, but it's trying to create a living universe where you can do whatever role you want; you're a character, not just a ship. From the start they've said it'll push the boundary's and do things differently to other games. If you can't see why having good facial animations and overall player immersion is important, i don't think you've really fully understood the goal of it.

You are probably right about my expectations being wrong. But I don't think any amount of immersive FPS stuff will get around the fundamental fact that (especially in the SC PU) people will be wanting to do the spaceship stuff and all the bits in between will feel like tedious busywork.
Players in MMO spaces quickly optimise their 'hub' behaviour to minimise downtime. The cool stuff is cool once or twice, then people just run everywhere and mash the 'skip' button to quickly reach the actual 'mission accept/claim/buy/sell' menu.
I mean, that last X game (rebirth?) had realistic starbase interiors, where you had to go and physically talk to merchants and mission NPCs. And it was awful. And not just because the art and animations weren't good enough. Everyone immediately modded it to have a menu that was selectable from the docking port rather than actually having to walk around like a 'real' spaceship captain.

All the amazingly animated briefings will quickly devolve into a dozen players bunnyhoping around in front of the hangar door waiting for it to finally open; jumping on Davos Spaceworth's head; or standing behind him while performing the pelvic thrust from a /dance emote.

I'm very suspicious of anyone that says they're trying to make it more real and less like a game. Because it is a game, and games do gamey shortcuts because it makes a better game, not just because they lack the ability to animate believable real-life actions.

Good to hear there's a ship combat update coming soon though. I'll definitely take the opportunity to try it.

 

[Outrun]

The last stretch goal was in Dec 2014. They have been working on things already planned since then. Not all goals were game related features or things that would add alot of time to development. So no.

From the developers who worked on it:

"I asked each of my sources if they thought Star Citizen could actually be made, knowing what they do, and there was no clear consensus. But there was clear agreement on ‘overscope’."

Well, the question is "expanded when?" It certainly has expanded a lot from the Kickstarter/early crowdfunding but they are saying it stopped expanding quite a while ago (2014 as mentioned) At this point, whether there is some internal expansion, I don't think we can really say but it doesn't seem like it to me. They seem to be all hands on deck to just finish the stuff that they planned after the stretch goals were completed.

Here are the stretch goals that they funded up to the 65 million dollar point: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals

Thanks for the info.

I hope that they deliver soon(ish)

 

[Raticus79]

The cool stuff is cool once or twice, then people just run everywhere and mash the 'skip' button to quickly reach the actual 'mission accept/claim/buy/sell' menu.

Yeah, I expect there will be a trend of doing more through the mobiglass interface over time. They might speed up elevators and airlock animations (like they did with cockpit entry/exit animations) but I doubt they'll go away entirely.

 

[Spuck-uk]

Pretty much all the people down on this project seem to have no clue about game development.

I can't see this project ending well at all.

I worked in game dev for seven years, you?

FWIW I think they'll get the single player game out, albeit later than expected, and less impressive.

It's the MMO/persistent side that ludicrously overpromises.

 

[Spuck-uk]

You are probably right about my expectations being wrong. But I don't think any amount of immersive FPS stuff will get around the fundamental fact that (especially in the SC PU) people will be wanting to do the spaceship stuff and all the bits in between will feel like tedious busywork.
Players in MMO spaces quickly optimise their 'hub' behaviour to minimise downtime. The cool stuff is cool once or twice, then people just run everywhere and mash the 'skip' button to quickly reach the actual 'mission accept/claim/buy/sell' menu.
I mean, that last X game (rebirth?) had realistic starbase interiors, where you had to go and physically talk to merchants and mission NPCs. And it was awful. And not just because the art and animations weren't good enough. Everyone immediately modded it to have a menu that was selectable from the docking port rather than actually having to walk around like a 'real' spaceship captain.

All the amazingly animated briefings will quickly devolve into a dozen players bunnyhoping around in front of the hangar door waiting for it to finally open; jumping on Davos Spaceworth's head; or standing behind him while performing the pelvic thrust from a /dance emote.

I'm very suspicious of anyone that says they're trying to make it more real and less like a game. Because it is a game, and games do gamey shortcuts because it makes a better game, not just because they lack the ability to animate believable real-life actions.

Good to hear there's a ship combat update coming soon though. I'll definitely take the opportunity to try it.

Thanks for this, good points.

 

[Dictator93]

I can't see this project ending well at all.

I worked in game dev for seven years, you?
.

The game devs I follow on Twitter seem to have varied opinions on this piece concerning SC. Some think the picture it paints is unsurprising, not problematic, and think CR and co did a good job justifying all that is and was... and others seem to view SC in light of the article as a problematic, arrogant venture.

IDK, since the article shows 2 sides to the same coin, you can easily come away with different opinions based upon who you relate to more.

 

[Chipopo]

Part 3 in the Kotaku series has been released: "Who Are the Star Citizen Superbackers?"

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/28/who-are-the-star-citizen-superbackers-2

I’m lucky enough not to have a Kickstarter game fail on me, sinking into oblivion with my precious notes gone forever, but I can’t - and don’t particularly want to - imagine how I’d feel if I’d stumped up hundreds or thousands of pounds on something only to see development stretch on for months or years or - worst case - never finish at all.

Maybe that’s what’s unique about Star Citizen: that for at least some of its backers (the happy ones) it’s not a product they’re paying for, but the experience of being a backer. Like that age-old piece of advice to gamblers heading out to Vegas for the weekend, the people who come back happy aren’t generally the people who go to win, but the people who can see their losses at the tables as the price of a good time.

 

[Raticus79]

I wonder if parts 4 and 5 will be reposts too

 

[Spirited]

I were expecting them to do new stuff, oh well.

 

[Aselith]

I can't see this project ending well at all.

I worked in game dev for seven years, you?

FWIW I think they'll get the single player game out, albeit later than expected, and less impressive.

It's the MMO/persistent side that ludicrously overpromises.

Why is the MMO part any different than something like Elite?

 

[Chipopo]

Finally, we return to Benson for some new content in part 4: What Happened to Star Marine, Star Citizens Missing Module

The reasons why it’s not playable today come down to the same things that have hit all aspects of Star Citizen’s development: overcoming technical debt, internal management problems, and a reliance on contractors.

“Illfonic sent the email,” a source tells me. “It was a mutual thing but Illfonic sent the email.”

CIG had already hinted that it wanted to take the first-person module in-house. But “at the same time, [Illfonic] had had enough’,” says a source. “They sent the email, they wanted out.” After two years of working with CIG on Star Marine with no end in sight, and having to repeatedly redo its work, Illfonic’s team morale was shot. “It was numbing,” a source said.

Another source at CIG told me that “Illfonic was producing what they should have been delivering [...] the fault landed on our internal requirements. It's going to be very difficult for any outside vendor to match what we're asking [if] it's a constantly moving target. Couple that with a lot of money being spent on manpower per month and it didn't seem financially feasible to keep them on.”

 

[Eolz]

Edit : nvm.

 

[finley83]

Reminds me of the BioShock Infinite story about Ken Levine insisting Finktown be completely redone as it didn't match his vision. Ended up costing millions and months of dev time.

If this game launches before 2020 and turns out good it'll be a miracle.

 

[AnthonypUK]

Glad i managed to get my $60 back, all i wanted was a new wing commander esq game, and it spawned this.

 

[Geist-]

Another good article from Kotaku, once again putting the hardships of a mega project into perspective. I mean, so early in development of course requirements and internal builds were going to be changing constantly, going with a contractor for one of the most important parts of the game was a bad idea to start with, but I guess when everyone was expecting a game soon outsourcing was the only solution to try to get everything done on time.

It sounds like Chris picking up all those ex-Crytek employees probably saved the project, and if these videos are any indication, we got a much better version of FPS than we were going to get:

Vision Stabilization

Behind the Scenes

Sure, it's later than promised, but I'd rather have a good game later than a bad game right now.

Reminds me of the BioShock Infinite story about Ken Levine insisting Finktown be completely redone as it didn't match his vision. Ended up costing millions and months of dev time.

If this game launches before 2020 and turns out good it'll be a miracle.

These articles are about the state of the game in the past, not the current state of the game, just FYI.

 

[Jackpot]

However, as Illfonic continued to polish the Star Marine module, CIG started to ask for changes. “Once different people started to see it, they'd have an idea, and then once Chris liked the idea it just had to happen,” my source recalls. “Every couple of weeks they wanted to add something or they wanted to change something and that would erase several months’ work. We tried to hit every delivery and they kept changing it.”

We still have people in this thread saying that zero feature creep occured.

 

[Raticus79]

In hindsight, they might have been still been able to get good results from outsourcing if they had waited longer for the rest of the 64-bit universe implementation and motion capture to be sorted out first. Expensive mistake, but they seem to have recovered.

For the vision stabilization video, it's worth acknowledging that Ivo Herzog said it's in a small level built for that purpose (to help framerate) and there was a mouse filter applied to help smooth the movement a bit further. The mouse filter is something that helps with the video presentation for spectators, but not something you'd do when playing (and not something you'd miss anyway when you're the one controlling the action).

 

[MadYarpen]

I finally managed to read that, a very interesting article. Fascinating story, really. I hope they'll pull it off.

 

[Widge]

All five pieces now in the OP.

 

[Raticus79]

Part 5: http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/30/what-to-make-of-star-citizen

My turn to highlight a section:

In the midst of all this, the people working on Star Citizen have also had to deal with an extraordinary amount of drama, perpetuated by a seemingly never-ending feud that started 24 years ago and shows no signs of wrapping up. It’s been an unpleasant but unignorable facet of the Star Citizen story so far, and one of the things that makes it tough to report: so much of it is tainted by this unpleasantness. This, surely, has contributed to some unwise decisions by people at Cloud Imperium Games in how it has dealt with its community and the press: enforced bans and refunds, derogatory language and legal threats against media outlets are not a good look. I can’t think of a single other game project that has had to wrestle with all the challenges of development while also dealing with someone whose main purpose in life appears to be to discredit it.

It is difficult, after all these months of research and having heard from so many people involved with the project, to seriously entertain the notion that Star Citizen is some kind of intentional scam. Hundreds of people all over the world are working hard on it, and have been for years. Although there have been plenty of scandalous allegations, not one of them has checked out in our research – though of course nobody outside of its management team has full visibility on Cloud Imperium’s finances. If Star Citizen goes down – and it yet might – it will likely be because its sheer scope is out of step with the reality of actually making it, or because the money runs out, or because it’s taken too long and its funders have finally withdrawn their support. If there is anything more nefarious than that going on, we have found no convincing evidence of it.

I'd say the conclusion is fair. I'd go with "some of the things" instead of "all of the things" though. It also doesn't mention Squadron 42, but that wasn't really what the series was about.

There are a lot of people still rooting for Chris Roberts and Star Citizen, and plenty of others who’ve written it off as the ultimate in wasteful hubris. I don’t want to end such an exhaustively reported series of articles with something woolly like “we’ll just have to see what happens”: I want to give a more specific assessment of what we’ve learned from all these months. So, here goes: based on all the evidence, I believe there is a decent chance that Star Citizen will make it to some form of release. But I don’t think it will happen within the next couple of years, and by the time it does happen, there’s a chance that other games like Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Star Citizen’s great rival Elite Dangerous may well have already given us great versions of the things that Star Citizen is trying to achieve.

 

[valkyre]

I actually want people to keep buying those thousand dollars "worth" of models and skins lol...

I have been calling this game a scam for years now...lets see how long it takes to register for some people...

Get 'em millions flowing!

I am actually curious to witness the absolute fallout that will ensue if the game ever manages to be released in some form... judging by the madness surrounding No Mans Sky false advertising going on atm, I am guessing for Star Citizen people will go full nuclear lol...

 

[RMI]

Would be great if someone just made a new wing commander or tie fighter or colony wars or something. This game is going to be a mess if they ever finish it.

 

[Raticus79]

Would be great if someone just made a new wing commander or tie fighter or colony wars or something. This game is going to be a mess if they ever finish it.

That's what the single player campaign (Squadron 42) is tackling first. Should have news on that at Citizencon on Oct 9.

 

[Easy_D]

Reminds me of the BioShock Infinite story about Ken Levine insisting Finktown be completely redone as it didn't match his vision. Ended up costing millions and months of dev time.

If this game launches before 2020 and turns out good it'll be a miracle.

Finktown was one of the worst areas in the game too.