Star Citizen Breaks $10 Million in Crowdfunding

[Andy Chalk]

Star Citizen Breaks $10 Million in Crowdfunding

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The new space sim being developed by the creator of Wing Commander and Privateer has attracted more than 183,000 pledges.

The PC-based space sim is a pretty niche genre, but it's a niche that appears quite happy to throw money at what it wants. And while Roberts hasn't been terribly active in the game design business over the last decade or so, he is the man who gave us Wing Commander and thus has a certain degree of everlasting cred among those of us who like to yank-and-bank in the cold void of space.

Star Citizen was a big hit on Star Citizen website [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen], which has now brought the total funding amount to just a hair over $10 million. Roberts described the support of fans as "nothing short of phenomenal" and said that fundraising efforts will continue.

"In another week we'll be unveiling new pictures and a special promotional sale for yet another ship in Star Citizen complete with sales brochure and commercial video. And at the end of the month we'll be launching our new Star Citizen website that will have a more robust e-commerce system that allows fans to upgrade and modify their pledges, purchase add-ons and manage account info," Roberts said. "And it's going to better represent the world of Star Citizen, so it's going to look amazing."

Hitting the $10 million mark means Roberts Space Industries, the studio making the game, will add an Optitrack Motion Capture system to its arsenal. I have no idea why RSI needs a motion capture system to make a space flight simulator, but the studio promised that all will be revealed in the coming weeks. And hey, it's Chris Roberts - if he says he needs a motion capture studio to make a new space game, that's good enough for me.



Permalink

 

[VanQ]

I hope it's for motion capturing playable characters outside of your ship. I would love nothing more than to load up my ship with a bunch of space pirates and have them board another ship. Or to get off and explore a space station or even the surface of wild, untamed planets.

 

[synobal]

Mo cap for a spaceship game... Not sure if serious.. or if just trolling...

 

[Scars Unseen]

I hope it's for motion capturing playable characters outside of your ship. I would love nothing more than to load up my ship with a bunch of space pirates and have them board another ship. Or to get off and explore a space station or even the surface of wild, untamed planets.

Yup, boarding actions are confirmed. In fact, that's the only way to get a capital ship, which can't be purchased. Thanks to everyone's generous funding, you can now go into combat with the assurance that you will experience the most natural looking teabagging possible when you get defeated.

 

[Frost27]

I hope it's for motion capturing playable characters outside of your ship. I would love nothing more than to load up my ship with a bunch of space pirates and have them board another ship. Or to get off and explore a space station or even the surface of wild, untamed planets.

This is essentially what has been described as the plan. They have an extended version of Chris Roberts narrating the opening trailer, flying around outside of the space carrier and looking in the windows of the carrier's bridge before flying inside and landing, navigating the ship corridors to the bridge, and looking out from the same window all in 100% scale with no load times.

I am trying not to think too much about this game. If they can deliver on half of what they promise, this will consume my life.

 

[Pink Gregory]

What strikes me as strange is that $10 million actually is actually a comparatively low/medium budget compared to AAA vidyagaems. I guess now we will be privy to seeing what happens when your budget is actually raised during development, not reduced

 

[synobal]

I'll be honest Star Citizen seems way to ambitious. I've not put any money towards it because I think the designers aren't being honest with their fan base. I hope my fears aren't confirmed but even on 10mil budget I don't see how they can deliver on everything they promised to the extent that they promised it.

 

[ishist]

I'll be honest Star Citizen seems way to ambitious. I've not put any money towards it because I think the designers aren't being honest with their fan base. I hope my fears aren't confirmed but even on 10mil budget I don't see how they can deliver on everything they promised to the extent that they promised it.

Star Citizen has the most open development I've ever seen. If the Devs weren't being honest we'd know, because we've been looking over their shoulders the entire time. I can chat with 3 or 4 devs every single day, excluding weekends. They release an update every single day, excluding weekends. The majority of the team are veterans with decades of experience. We've seen ships go from a handful of concepts, through dozens of iterations, and into a final ship. Hell, I watched them installing the ethernet cables in their office.

They got this.

 

[Demandred20]

I seem to recall that Chris said a while ago that only 20% of the budget of a traditional AAA game goes to actual devopment while in crowdfunding its damn near 95%. Also apparently he has about 10 more million locked down from investors.

Captcha; Fools gold aye? Yeah maybe.

 

[R3dF41c0n]

He just needs two million more and he'll have the same budget as Wing Commander IV (inflation not calculated). I don't think I've ever been this excited about a game. I believe in CR.

 

[major_chaos]

I really, really want this game to be amazing, but at this point I can't get beyond cautiously optimistic. There is just such an insane amount of ambition on display here that I'm worried it either wont deliver on a lot of the promises, or we should expect a release date some time in late 2016.

 

[Jamous]

Holy shit. I guess we just keep on giving. Can't wait for it to finally hit us. Shit's going to be so good. My friends and I already have plans... >

 

[Saulkar]

I think I now have an honest reason to purchase this besides Arma 3 and Mechwarrior: Online.

 

[CezarIgnat]

I'll be honest Star Citizen seems way to ambitious. I've not put any money towards it because I think the designers aren't being honest with their fan base. I hope my fears aren't confirmed but even on 10mil budget I don't see how they can deliver on everything they promised to the extent that they promised it.

Star Citizen has the most open development I've ever seen. If the Devs weren't being honest we'd know, because we've been looking over their shoulders the entire time. I can chat with 3 or 4 devs every single day, excluding weekends. They release an update every single day, excluding weekends. The majority of the team are veterans with decades of experience. We've seen ships go from a handful of concepts, through dozens of iterations, and into a final ship. Hell, I watched them installing the ethernet cables in their office.

They got this.

its weird. i know they have the experience, i know if anyone can pull it off its these guys but personally i agree with synobal. its still ringing warning bells for me. frankly i hope im complete and utterly wrong and its all hes promising, but ill wait till release or very near release before i put down some money

I agree with the two of you. I must say this game is exactly what I wanted when I was a kid and I finished Freelancer. It looks amazing and everything seems perfect...and that makes me a bit edgy...I just hope they can deliver. If they do, it will be legendary and they most certainly will have my money added to the pile.