Star Citizen closes with $6 million
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Crowd-funded campaign for new high-end PC space sim from Chris Roberts nets millions, tripling original target.
Star Citizen's crowd-funding campaign ended today, with total funds more than tripling the original $2 million pledge goal. The Roberts Space Industries page concluded with $4,104,189 from 55,270 backers, with its Kickstarter drive closing today with $2,134,374 million from 34,397 supporters. Total support for the high-end PC space simulation came in at $6,238,563 from 89,667 backers.
"The battle is over and we--PC gamers, space sim fans, WingNuts, Lancers, and the rest--have won. You've not only met every goal we set, you've exceeded them," reads a line from a statement posted to the game's website. "Star Citizen will be released because of your dedication and your willingness to put your money where our mouths are. Our gratitude is immeasurable; we owe you our livelihoods and will not soon forget it."
Last week, the first ever gameplay footage from Star Citizen was released, though it was described as not representative of the final product.
Star Citizen has been in development at Cloud Imperium Games for 12 months. The game itself includes a "sophisticated storyline" that is set in a persistent online universe. According to creator Chris Roberts, it will fuse elements of his previous games, Wing Commander and Freelancer, and support for the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift is planned.
Much like Guild Wars 2, Star Citizen will be available through a one-time purchase, but will not require a subscription. Players can also purchase virtual items with real-world money to customize their ships. Backers of the project will receive access to an alpha version of the game next year.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
135 comments
1 Like I am just happy to see any effort in the genre. It is so depressing to see the space sim genre languish in an era of gaming hardware that could bring so much to the table. I would kill for a current gen Homeworld, Masters of Orion, or X style game that made a REAL effort.
I have not played EVE but I sure have looked hard at it. No game to date has got me to pay a monthly sub.
Still when the big houses just get to recycle engines, guns, perks, maps and slap together a non-sense 5 hour story and rest on the multi-player formula over and over again while staying on tight 1 year cycles just to reap in billion dollar profits. Of course I am looking at COD here. They are fun games and I do play them but it's gotten to be a disease.
Take X-COM for example. The turn based strategy genre rarely sees a serious entry but they got that one right and it was a breath of fresh air. In the current gaming market it takes guts just say screw it we want to make a game that is not just another shooter and we are going to go big or go home.
The big houses stay on safe predictable turf because it takes lots of time and money to crank out current games and they hedge their bets by keeping big franchises cranking the next installment out. Launching an new and original IP is seen as dangerous and it can be.
So, why Kickstarter? Yeah, why not. Throw a line out and see if there is enough interest on the front end before you mortgage the whole farm. I say I'm in. Yes that means we the gamers are taking some of the risk. Ahem, The War Z can kiss my .....oh well...it sounded nice at the time. Let's not forget that they risk their reputation with us as well. Ahem, The War Z.
In the end though they are just asking me the gamer if I like an idea enough to chip in and give a risky idea a shot of shaking things up a bit. I say hell yes. There was a time when you did just that. You bought a game based on the cover. You had no idea if it was destined to be a classic or just the thing to soon be collecting dust on the shelf. That's OK sometimes. There is a certain romance behind falling in love with the idea of the game first and then finding out if there is really anything there worth your time.
Just my two cents on the matter. More importantly though is that I will put my two cents (or $60 as the case may be) on the table. One thing I am sure of is that if you steal most of your games you are just helping to doom us all to another safe bet like:
Call of the Battlefield: Near Future Black Ops Zombie Warfare 19
6 Like @Gizmofather Haha "crawl inside eve ship" ?? which you cannot to do because in EVE you ALLWAYS stare at your ship from third person view, and patheticly clicking mouse at the point where you want to go, instead of using a joystick to control ship in a similar way a fighter in the real world
@AkelaLT @Gizmofather True, but at the same time EVE is the most complex virtual economy/world ever created; combat is not meant to be the focus of EVE.
And im sure the first game CR & team look to for guidance is EVE :)
@shruteshkumar @AkelaLT @Gizmofather Where do you think Eve got it's guidance from? The forefather and Godfather of Space-Sims, Chris Roberts.
5 Like Yay!!! this marks a great day and an important landmark for the game industry, It also really puts this new business model ov cutting out the greedy publishers and demonstrates the are not required anymore..:)))))) Short sighted poisonous publishers voted against innovation, variety & the PC community. the game community voted otherwise!
Glad I could contribute to Robert's efforts!
I'll be watching this game's development diligently.
1 Like Hope this game wakes up the PC industry. I am tired of console ports. You cant skip the credits in the begining on ports...i hate that. Poor console players have to endure that crap each time they start their game.
3 Like @chipone Wow, really! Whiny on intro logos? it usually takes 10 - 15 seconds and most of the games lets you skip. Besides, its their game, they deserve to be credited for it since they spent a lot of time and money creating it. These ideas don't come out of thin air you know. Really dude, there are better things to complain about than 'this'.
@chipone How does skipping the production clips have anything to do with consoles? Is there some technical limitation that prevents the programmers from putting in an event that looks for someone pressing the start button?
@mlcarter815 In All console ports for PC, like in Dishonored for example you can't skip the intro clips/ credits. Keyboards don't have a start button. Not sure if you can skip it in consoles if you press the start button. And i meant this as a joke, its just irritating to watch this each time you start the game.
1 Like Since completing playing all the wingcommanders, Starlancer and Freelancer many many years ago there has been a large void in my life....this finally looks to be filled, damn I have high hopes for this game!!...OK remind me to get a divorce in 2 years, its easier that way! ;-)
@Scorpion-78 Huh and you might end up running into her again within the game and realize, OMG this was her idea!
@Scorpion-78 it's very awkward to joke about divorcing your wife. I, for one, don't find it funny. Just saying..
It was one of the few kickstarters I've donated too simply because I believe the finished product would be worth it.
This and planet annihilation
@SoraPR Will definitley hit EVE, but most of its player base is made of people who have spent >1 year with EVE, do not think that they will quit altogether (I know i wont); also the training model of eve means that you dont need to spent time to increase character skills (Only Money :P)
1 Like @SoraPR These are two completely different games. one is a RPG in space, the other is a Space Flight Simulator. Its like saying Microsoft Flight Simulator is going to kill Skyrim.
2 Like @SoraPR Well, as an Eve player for 2 years I'm inclined to think this will have sufficent payload to damage Eve player numbers.
7 Like that's awesome, every single of the funding milestone unlocks achieved.
100 star systems? bonuses to the packages already sold (like ship insurance, that's interesting). The "first Squad 42 mission disk"... free to all backers. They've outlayed the groundwork for the first singleplay expansion? A REAL expansion like the ole days where you got an entire standalone title's worth of content!?!
I look forward to using the tablet app (I'm assuming that translates to the higher end phones like the Galaxy S3 and HTC One) to doing some ingame tinkering while at work... picking up missions and whatever bounty contracts may arise.
I'm genuinely happy to see this turn out so successful. I have every intention of winding down my gaming now. There's been too much disposable fluff out there and it's just getting worse. The days of hardcore gamers playing almost EVERYTHING that hit the market is long gone. It's time to focus on the only games that show real respect to the concept of GAMEplay and challenging mechanics... and LONG-term community support. Man, this thing will even support private servers and modding.
I'd put money on the celebrity voice thing - at least 1 from the Wing Commander series - that it is going to be Mark Hamill.
@eriktkire Actually, I think Chris said in live stream yesterday that he would like Mark rather to do new Star Wars. But he certainly mentioned Morgan Freeman as one of the potential voice actors he contacted.
@Torquille @eriktkire Actually what he said in response to the question "Which actor have you worked with in the past, that has not done video game acting, do you think you would like to work with on this game?", where Chris replied Morgan Freeman from his work with Chris on Lucky Number Slevin. Basically he only said he thinks he would like to work with Morgan Freeman on a game, because he thinks Morgan is an amazing actor, in response to a hypothetical question. He said nothing to having already contacted Morgan Freeman what-so-ever. While I support your enthusiasm for the game, please make sure you are spreading accurate information.
@bignick217 Mark Hamill meant retiring just from his Joker role after Arkham City, that is something I can confirm for you for a change :-) He said that he spend enough time with Joker for now and it is time to move to other things. So, there is a chance he would take a part in a Star Citizen, although if the rumors about him and new Star Wars are accurate, he will probably not have time. As for others from Wing Commander, I can not really say - i was a pure console player at a time old Wing Commanders came out, and I played only briefly WCIV on my friends's 3DO, so Mark Hamill was the only actor which had a chance to stand out for me, as I knew him from Star Wars. I really started playing a lot of Freelancer when it came out though, and bought Starlancer as well, as I bought my first computer in 1999 when I was accepted to college and maintained one ever since. I am therefore quite excited at the prospect of another game from Chris Roberts, as even when I did not really had the chance to play Wing Commander and Privateer when they came out, I knew the names and it was because of them I started playing Freelancer the first time I saw the game on market.
@Torquille I do remember that part of the conversation, but I don't remember exactly what was said. What do remember when they were talking about Mark Hamill and the star wars sequels was in a very joking way. None of it seemed serious. Not that they were making fun of Mark Hamill though, the conversation was just very jocular.
As for who I'd like to see return for this game... My top picks would be Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell and Tom Wilson... Maybe even John Rhyse-Davies.
I don't know if Mark Hamill will make an appearance though. I thought he was supposed to be retired after Batman: Arkham City. Although he may have only meant retirement from playing the joker. Again, he's a wildcard.
If we have at least 1 returning favorite, I would bet it will most likely be either Malcolm McDowell or Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson hasn't done anything in a long time, so he may just have the time to devote to this project.
Malcolm McDowell on the other hand has always been very open to video game appearances with the Wing Commander series, Fallout 3 and several others I can't remember at this exact moment. He may jump at the chance to work with chris again, I don't know.
But this is all just speculation.
@bignick217 I did not meant to be misaccurate, and if a I was, I apologize; I was myself rather tired at the moment and may have easily misheard something, as I am in a very different timezone and english is not my native language. I did not even heard the original question, I turned on the live stream in the middle of the conversation. However, I still written that we will have yet to see what will be part of the game in the end, and that nothing is certain for now, so it was nothing serious I think :-) Thanks for the correction either way. Do you know at least if the info I had about the Mark Hamill was right?
@Torquille well, there's no fear of it turning into a string of hokey Command & Conquer cutscenes that's for sure.
@eriktkire Agreed. I am much curious about which voice actors will be at the game in the end, he named several others (but my memory fails me sadly, so I do not know which ones) but he did not know yet which of them will agree. I guess we will find out after he will have time to get some sleep after that 24 hours long live marathon he had in the end of pledge period :-) I watched about half of it, and he seemed quite tired to the end, athough happy of course.I wonder how many people notice that Eddie Makuch reported at once that crow-funding record had been broken when Obsidian did it, but forget to mention it now, even when Chris did more than two million more than Project Eternity... It is quite clear where his loyalties lie.
10 Like I already invested $570 bucks into this game, and I will probably pledge more in the 2years to come before the game is actually out.
6 Like Maybe this will be a sign that the gaming industry is ready to take risks and innovate...
So many games these days and yet I dont feel like playing any of them, remember the good ol days when one Freelancer or one Age of Empires meant hours and hours of fun!
Go Star Citizen, you are our only hope! ;)
@shruteshkumar exactly to the point, me too looking at the games and most of them are so childishly easy and not chalenging, with little things to do or routes to take, and short. They make games for mainstream trying to please all people from 5 year old to 30 year old, which is bull.hit.
@shruteshkumar Not really, there are many upcoming PC exclusives that look very promising, and let's not forget about Elite: Dangerous.
@aj_marquez @shruteshkumar Exactly.. its with the advent of Indie devs and crowdfunding that we are getting innovative, interesting titles...
Bigs pubs/devs seem content to stick to tried and trusted formulae... its like everyone is Michael Bay building a transformers in there lol..
Like Guild Wars 2? Well, yeah, it's like Guild Wars 2 if GW2 also included a copy of the server code so you could make your own, private server for yourself and your friends. With mods.
Wasteland 2, Project Eternity, and this good time to be a PC gamer. Or it will be in a year or two at least.
So when these Kickstarter and crowd funding games come out how much do they cost. Does the price vary, do only the people who gave money get discounts if there are any. Or is the fact that the game being made enough. IDK this whole concept of giving money for a product to be made then having to spend more money later doesn't make much sense to me. What if the game blows, or folds, do people get refunds. This also seems like a dangerous idea, it's only a matter of time beore big devs start holding games ransom untill enough money is raised. For example watch Square go hey we want to do a FF VII remake but need ten million to get started, then when the money is raised and I bet much more then the goal would be met watch sharks like EA and Activision take serious notice and totally ruin the whole idea of the funding. But I don't know a whole lot about these projects so maybe there really good, but I do know games are a business and a lot of business people can exploit and ruin great ideas. Food for thought.
@Frost259 That's why you pledge/invest amount of money you can afford, you sound like those devs are holding gun to your head asking for money lol. Imagine this like a lotery ticket purchase - when you go to buy lottery ticket you dont spend whole your savings for it, no you just buy that amount of tickets for what you can afford to loose, with difference that in Star Citizen project you still have a right for a refund if you see that that idea is going the route u didnt expected, so do not sound so dramatic, this is not an end of the world, lol. Also in beginning of your post you sound that you totaly didnt any research about what are you commenting, so I would suggest you to stop this practise lol.
@Frost259 There's also the fact that most people are sick of the big publishers, and wouldn't back them. I made a solem vow a while back never to buy another EA game, haven't in more than 2 years and don't feel the loss at all.The thing with crowdfunding is that it's entirely voluntary. If Square wanted to make a new FF and their fanbase was willing to support them, go for it. Are they likely to get 10M, prolly not. I guess they'll just have to learn to budget (like most of these companies did when they started up).
@Frost259 When the games are released the price will be set by the devs.
However when you pledge on kickstarter (or other sites that do crowdfunding) there's a tier for the game, which is usually around 15-30 bucks. Basically you're pledging and in return you will get the game at that price.
Most kickstarters give the game at the 15$ pledge and above (So if yo upledge at say, 100+, you will get the game as well).
That's one of the advantages of helping fund a game, you will most likely get it cheaper then waiting until it's finisihed when it will probably be more expensive then the lower pledges you can get it for.
@Frost259 It depends on whos making it. Everyone who pledged 30 or more gets a free copy of the game. If the game doesnt get made you have the option for a full refund or let them keep the money for future projects. those were the terms of this specific fund. Every individual project has its own stipulations, and agreements. So you have to read those, because not every project is going to give you the same return for your investment.
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