Star Citizen Flies Past $43,000,000 in Unstoppable Crowd Funding Campaign

It was just a matter of time, and today Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen passed another milestone, overtaking $43,000,000 in its unstoppable crowd funding campaign.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

If this game isn't the second coming, we'll never hear the end of it, and it might even "break" kick starter for games, as far as the media is concerned.

[joab777]

Very true. And they arent simply attempting to make a great $50 million game or the best kickstarter game...they are attemting to make one of the best games of its kind...ever!!! In perspective, $50 mil isnt a ton. They will need advertising money.

Or, they could just keep it and fold...lol!

[MaxwellBuddha]

Why would they need to advertise the game??? It's already paid for!

[randomass171]

@MaxwellBuddha That's what I was thinking, lol. I think this game will do just fine and probably make a little something extra once its publicly released.

[AsimLeonheart]

This is getting out of hand. You can make a AAA game with a $20 million budget. What do they need $43 million for? Why arent they closing the kickstarter campaign if the target has been reached? Furthermore, is this game ever going to get released? I hope all the contributors get their money's worth but it looks like this will not turn out well when and if the game gets released.

[Magicite]

Ive never really liked much sci-fi/space ship themed games, but this thing gets me really hyped, graphics also look stellar.

[gigoran]

Why not stop when they had more than enough to make the game? This has gone past helping someone make a game. These people have become investors in something that has become big and will make a lot of money. But they won't see any of the profits. This is unfair. How much of this extra cash is going into the game and going straight into the pockets of the makers? It's just unfair that in any other type of investment role (for example a movie) those that helped get it made with their money get a share of the profits, but these poor people from kickstarter get a copy of the game or a couple of trinkets. This is why I will never use or support kickstarter. it's just a way for people to get rich without using their own money.

[ThatArtGuy]

Kickstarter has a deadline. They're taking pledges on their website. Funding has gone on forever.

[General Shrooms]

There's a reason it's called a "pledge" ya know. And god forbid a company make any profit from their work.

[annus]

Oh boy, OR facebook acquisition all over again.

YOU DO NOT OWN ANY RIGHTS BY SUPPORTING.

This isn't unfair, it's called business. You ARE NOT investing, you are paying money for a product that has yet to be made. Do you own stocks in a supermarket by buying products? You know they make profit that is then used to make even more money right? How about when you buy gas? Using electricity? What about giving money to the homeless? Do you then get a profit of any money he makes once he isn't homeless?

Feel free to contact them to ask about investing in the company, but if you pay money for a product (aka pay $300 and once we get funded we will give you an Oculus Rift prototype) you are not investing.

[user5669510]

More console only gamers hating because its not coming to consoles. When you pledge you are actually buying suff for the game. This is what happen when you have PC gamers interest at heart. Instead o treating us like console gamer by nickle and diming us with subpar games.

I'm pretty sure if devs put PC exclusives games on kickstarter mostly all of them would get funded in no time

[gigoran]

In the old days (which wasn't long ago) when someone had an idea for a product they would use their own money, make it, sell it, and hope for it to be financially successful. Doing it that way they got to keep all the profits for themselves. But if it failed they would lose all the money the invested into their own product. So to make it safer, they started getting money from other people and doing the same process, only this time if it was successful they would have to share the profit with those other people that invested, and if it failed... well... the investors lost while the makers would just walk away.

But now? Now they do the second way, just they no longer have to shares their profits with the people that without they would never have been able to make their product. So when they win, they win it all. And if they lose, they have not lost any of their own money.

This has nothing to do with PC vs Consoles, so keep your fanboy remarks in your pants. This is people being used as investors but being treated like donators.

And another thing, sometimes the estimated costs are not exactly that. Sometimes between the parts and manufacturing costs, there is this extra bit of money. Sometimes when they have been asked about this their reply is "oh in the industry, people doing this job earn about this much each year. So I should earn this much." Don't say this doesn't happen. It does and has been said more than once. So now not only are people donating money to make something, they are donating a yearly salary to the people making it.

So yeah... a lot of people don't agree with this. Don't agree with me? Fine. But I am entitled to my opinion.

[dcj0524]

It's very clearly stated on Kickstarter that you are NOT an investor. Anyone expecting more than what they bought is a fool. I don't expect a profit when I give $5 to a guy who needs it in a grocery store. I'm not investing in his future. Same with crowd funding.

[annus]

" Sometimes between the parts and manufacturing costs, there is this extra bit of money. "

Oh yes, and what an expert you are. Most kickstarters I've looked at haven't even been asking for the salary of each person working there. It's basically just liveable while they create their dream product.

Star Citizen was asking for 500k, with the plan of launching the beta 22 months later. If they had a team of 5 full time workers (I don't know but I suspect they had more), that's only 50k a year per person.

Oculus Rift asked for 250k and took what, a year? Again, assuming they had 5 full time workers (which I again suspect they had more), puts them at 50k a year per person.

Software Devs and Engineers make FAR more than this. This isn't about greed or anything, it's about being able to survive (family to feed, houses to pay off, and products to buy).

Quick edit: The people like Palmer Luckey and John Carmack have the skill to easily be 150k+ in the real world. You may say they aren't risking anything, but if they took a year and failed, that's already a 100k loss each.

[General Shrooms]

You need a lesson in capitalism.

[screecwe]

Uhh...Chris Roberts sank a million dollars of his own money to get the game off the ground. You think the kickstarter demo came out of nowhere?

[aliengmr]

There really isn't two sides to the issue here. You are wrong. Simple as that. Your "opinion" is based on false information.

Crowd funding for games is an alternative to waiting for publishers to pull their head out of their collective asses and take a risk.

Space combat sims were great games yet the genre was too risky and was killed. We were left with very small teams (sometimes only a single person) creating ambitious titles on a woefully small budget. It was very hit or miss. And at times some epic ideas sat forever in limbo, google "Infinity: The Quest for Earth".

Star Citizen is proof that the money was out there all along. In return for that DONATION, we get a game we want, not a game that some outside entity thinks we want.

I hope RSI makes a ton of cash, they deserve it.

[ThatArtGuy]

When is this thing supposed to even come out?

[ElementX]

Another $1M, another Dualshockers article

[porkChop]

Was sick of them $10M ago.

[randomass171]

You guys don't find this exciting? I think it's really cool that an indie game is gaining so much backing success. Puts many AAA games to shame how this unknown dev has gotten all of this money for a completely new IP just for making it look good enough for people to talk about it.

I dunno. I think it's really cool that we can keep talking about how successful it's gotten.

[porkChop]

I have no problem with the game being successful, and I'm glad it is. It's just annoying to see a new article literally every time it passes another million in funding. I get it. The game is successful. At least space out articles with milestones like every 5m to 10m or something, there's a new one pretty much every week at this point.

I don't know, I just don't see that as good journalism. Many other sites would just update their previous articles and bring it to the front page instead of just making a whole new article.

[ChemicalWorld]

@randomass17

Chris Roberts is a huge name in the space flight sim genre. As a fan of the Wing Commander/Privateer series as well as Freelancer I had np parting with £130 towards funding this game. Can't wait to get tucked into a nice meaty single player campaign before the endless fun of the persistant online universe. Good times ahead. :)

[AceBlazer13]

1st question is this game any good or just pretty? Serious question, no trolling.

Are the backers gonna have to pay for it afterwards?

Mighty No.9 which looked much more fun imo didn't need half this and it's coming to almost every platform.

[ALICE666]

No one really knows if the game will be good yet as it isn't fully released til 2015 or so.

However, we will be getting a dog fighting module which is essentially a glorified demo within a few weeks and a few other modules within the coming months leading up to the full release. Backers pretty much get a copy of the game and get to play said modules as things develop.

Everyone one has trust in Chris Roberts though since he has delivered on these kind of games in the past.

[randomass171]

Not bad, honestly. Beta/demo access and a copy of the game is a pretty sweet deal for those who have backed it. Never heard of Chris Roberts though. For those who don't know, what else has he worked on in the past.

[ALICE666]

@randommass171

Chris Roberts created the Wing Commander series and the most recent Freelancer (10yrs+ old now). Maybe a few others he created but those where the ones I played... but those were the best times I've ever had in my PC gaming lifetime and started my love on the space combat sim genre. :O

[aliengmr]

Worth mentioning that Freelancer is still being played with some of the craziest mods ever done for a game.

@ALICE666

100% with you there. TIE fighter was my first love. Then came Wing Commander and Freespace 1 and 2 and others. All great moments for me as well.

[screecwe]

Are you seriously comparing an arcade side-scroller to a game that is attempting to simulate a scifi future?

Really?

[ALICE666]

Lol I had to look up Mighty No. 9... the only thing in common they have is that they were both crowd funded games...

To compare both games is laughable and will be like comparing an ant to elephant. (SC being the elephant of course haha)

[ironfist92]

I dont see how more money is going to make the game any better? I mean I personally am not interested in it, yet I just dont see why this deserves as much money as it does when alot of other games have more interesting and unique ideas yet they fail to get funding.

[tee_bag242]

More money means more developement time. Simple as that.
Once this game hit 40 mil they pledged to make Proceedurally Generated worlds. Thats crazy ambitious. My mind will be blown if they can pull that off but if the last demo was anything to go by it looks like they've got things well under control.

[randomass171]

More funding means they can develop more for the game, use more assets and make the game generally bigger. Mo' funding = mo' game, in theory at least.

[InFAMOUS1]

All I hear is "I think", "I assume", "I guess", "hopefully"

All this equals 2-5 years MORE of development.

Good thing they don't have EA as a publisher. It would be out now and you would have to pay 49.99 a year for updates...

[Trunkz]

Hope publishers (eg. EA) take notice that people are willing to back a game that LISTENS to its community and does not rush to push it out just to get ahead of another game.

btw if anyone needs a group to play SC with, feel free to check us out http://www.sasklan.com We do have an Idris ready to go :)

[tee_bag242]

Hopefully some other devs grow bigger than EA to the point where EA need to start taking risks again to win back gamers.

[randomass171]

There are devs who are as big as EA or even bigger who don't participate in the same crappy practices. That doesn't matter to EA. In order to make them stop doing scummy things, gamers need to not buy the scummy products. Vote with your wallet if you want change.

[MasterCornholio]

And it keeps going and going and going.

Must be powered by nuclear batteries.

[johny5]

This will be the greatest Space Sim ever created or the biggest Scam ever devised!

[younglj01]

Lol I don't know why I laughed but I did bubble for funny...

+1

[Einhert]

The xbots and Sony ponies must be crying into their pillows at night hearing and seeing all this glorious star citizen news.

Apparently PC isn't a viable market or PC gamers pirate and don't give developers any money LOL

[MasterCornholio]

Its not like owning a console prevents you from owning a PC.

Silly of you to say that.

[Einhert]

Don't take a jab at fanboys to heart or literally.

Silly of you to do so.