12 Years and $700 Million Later, What's Going on With Star Citizen's Development?
12 Years and $700 Million Later, What's Going on With Star Citizen's Development?
Speaking with over a dozen sources about the turbulent development of Star Citizen at Cloud Imperium Games.
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$700 million is the estimated development cost of the Falcon Heavy.
Not a game, not a space simulation, but the actual Falcon Heavy rocket. A rocket that can actually go into space.
I know they're different things but I thought I'd leave this here to put things in perspective.
but only as in the modifications to Falcon 9 to make Falcon Heavy, right?
I don't think so, SpaceX claimed (and NASA apparently verified) that the development costs for the Falcon 9 were $300 million. It's in the Wikipedia article, also here: https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2022/10/23/how-much-would-falcon-9-have-cost-if-it-was-developed-by-nasa/?amp=1
I was under the impression that the Falcon Heavy was a ground-up development. But in any case the Falcon 9 was cheaper, so go figure...
That is $700 million is revenue for Star Citizen, not development costs. More and more players are joining by trying it and sticking around, and CIG is making more money every year because it's genuinely a fun game now. If it wasn't, they wouldn't have $700 million in revenue from a growing base of paying customers after ten years. But that doesn't get clicks from ignorant salty cynics. "IT BAD SCAM" is a more profitable headline than "fun game enjoyed by many".
When videogame "journalists" are drumming up controversy, you always have to take it with a grain of salt. Lord knows we have enough of it.
I spent a grand total of $45 dollars on this game and I have had hundreds of hours of fun. Imagine buying a game for less than the cost of a new AAA game, playing it, enjoying it for dozens of hours or more for ten years, then someone who has never played it starts telling you how you have to spend thousands of dollars and actually didn't have fun and it's not a game, it's a scam because you heard this one guy spent his life savings on imaginary space ships and regretted it. That's how Star Citizen players feel; it's very confusing.
As of 2022, according to its financials, the company has spent $637 million on development, with 2020 – 2022 averaging over $106 million a year. Assuming that the company continues spending around $100+ million a year, it doesn’t take a mathematician to realize that the $790 million raised so far at the time of writing is on the verge of, or has likely, run out.
No, the article is claiming $700M in development costs—based on $637M spent by 2022–and $790M raised. They’re speculating that the company is going to run out of money soon.
So they made over 150 million in profit so far, make more and more money with more and more players every year and that's a sign they are failing? "STEADILY GROWING PROFITABLE BUSINESS IS DOOMED TO FAIL!"
The speculation of gaming journalists is the worst way to get reliable and responsible gaming news.
That’s not how you calculate profit. Their revenue might exceed their costs so far but they have to keep spending. The game isn’t done and it costs money to just keep the lights on.
Look, I don’t know their financials. I’m just correcting what you claimed and pointing out what the article is claiming which is that their spending appears to be outpacing their revenue.
I actually do appreciate the clarification then, thank you. But I'll still suggest to the readers of this convo, articles like these aren't written for the edification of its readers, it's written to bait engagement. The speculations of gaming journalists on Star Citizen is as reliable as Fox News' speculation on the Mexico/USA border.
And as someonewho has been following following the numbers, it's growing in revenue and daily active players every year. They just opened a massive new office in Manchester so they can hire more people. The people they do hire get paid well and stick around for years. If they were worried about cash flow, they have a lot of fat they would be trimming right now, but their expenses and revenue keep growing in step with eachother. They have no investors to pay, no vaults to fill. They make money and spend it growing the business. Those expenses represent 12 years of good wages and benefits for workers.
Star citizens success is a threat to capitalist, investor focused gaming. Gaming news is run by game industry capitalists and has zero oversight or accountability for bring truthful.
Pretty much all articles these days are "written to bait engagement". Even the ones that are also "written for the edification of [their] readers".