Explosive Article Digs Deep Into Star Citizen Fundraising & Development - MMORPG.com

SBFord · May 2019

Explosive Article Digs Deep Into Star Citizen Fundraising & Development - MMORPG.com

Forbes has published an explosive new investigatory piece about Chris Roberts, Star Citizen, and about questions that continue to fly about where the $300M raised has gone over the course of the game's development. The article delves into Roberts' past as a game developer and explores the fanbase that supports him in his work with Star Citizen. "This is not fraud -- Roberts really is working on a game -- but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale," the piece declares.

Read the full story here

Tiller · May 2019

This is good journalism.

You will know who the fans and paid supporters are based on the level of hate they direct towards this article.

-The Federal trade commission has received 129 consumer complaints related to Cloud Imperium, involving requests for refunds as high as $24,000, according to information revealed by a Freedom of Information Act request. “The game they promised us can’t even barely run. The performance is terrible and it’s still in an ‘Alpha’ state,” complained a Florida resident who claimed last year to have spent $1,000. “I want out. They lied to us.”

/popcorn

Groqstrong · May 2019

LOL. "Launched an investigation". Look im not a journalist or an investgator, but i have common sense. Ill tell you where its gone. Salaries, Infastructure, R&D. A game of Star Citizens scope is not gonna be cheap to make.

JeffSpicoli · May 2019

Scot · May 2019

"Biggest expense was annual salaries of $30 million."

Perhaps someone more au fait with the gaming industry can put that into context it does seem rather a large amount to me.

I have worked on projects where a large sum of money is dropped onto a team, I have seen the guy in charge create an empire of staff for himself, on more than one occasion. Has that happened here?

Cygi · May 2019

Wait... it's $300M already?! o_O

cymelion · May 2019

holy shit:

Inside, Madison Peterson, Roberts’ former common-law wife, with whom he had a long on-and-off relationship, was startled and feared her young daughter could be harmed or kidnapped. Peterson later identified the trespasser as Sandi Gardiner, who is now Roberts’ wife (for the second time) and a cofounder of Cloud Imperium.

“Ms. Gardiner has an unnatural and irrational fascination with my daughter and me,” Peterson wrote. “I constantly and continually look to make sure my daughter and I are not watched.”

In a court-filed declaration he signed at the time, Roberts said Gardiner had also visited Peterson’s San Diego home and once became violent and tried to strangle him. “I believed that if she had a gun she would have killed me,” Roberts said in the declaration. “I believe that Ms. Gardiner is not emotionally stable.”

rpmcmurphy · May 2019

Scot said:

"Biggest expense was annual salaries of $30 million."

Perhaps someone more au fait with the gaming industry can put that into context it does seem rather a large amount to me.

I have worked on projects where a large sum of money is dropped onto a team, I have seen the guy in charge create an empire of staff for himself, on more than one occasion. Has that happened here?

Schreier did an article about wages and reckoned the average cost per employee was around $100k, obviously that's studio cost and not salary. Gamesindustry also did an article where people from the industry such as Brian Fargo of Inxile, postulated that costs were much higher now, perhaps as much as 30% higher as they were budgeting around $100k per head 10+ years ago.

FlyByKnight · May 2019

Who cares? They raised over a quarter billion dollars and their cult is happy and literally the type to take a Hale Bop exit if Chris Roberts does a produced tech demo on the upside. The game is going to cost more than Fortnite MADE.

Like I continually say, this game is either going to be the greatest sci-fi experience in the history of mankind, or a perpetual argument between logic, and dreamed up expectation.

kitarad · May 2019

" "In a court-filed declaration he signed at the time, Roberts said Gardiner had also visited Peterson’s San Diego home and once became violent and tried to strangle him. “I believed that if she had a gun she would have killed me,” Roberts said in the declaration. “I believe that Ms. Gardiner is not emotionally stable.” "

How can he feign ignorance later?

Today, Roberts says he cannot recall signing the declaration and that what is ascribed to him in the court filings was prepared by Peterson and false.

This fella is a paka liar. That is Hindi for real or definitely.

This story appears in the May 31, 2019 issue of Forbes Magazine... hmmm

Herithius · May 2019

Great and long overdue article. If you're willing to take $300 million and counting then expect some accountability. This game is an ongoing fraud, plain and simple. I'd love to be wrong but here we are, 7+ years later and release is no where to be seen.

Slapshot1188 · May 2019

Who wrote this title? That's just how I would word it!!!

Good job!

Slapshot1188 · May 2019

". "This is not fraud -- Roberts really is working on a game -- but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale,"

Par for the course for Crowdfunded MMORPGs...

As they say in the movies... With great fundraising comes greater incompetence! Or was that a math formula that said the Incompetence of a Crowdfunded MMORPG is directly proportional to the funds raised...

I get those confused sometimes.

Asm0deus · May 2019

Herithius said:

Great and long overdue article. If you're willing to take $300 million and counting then expect some accountability. This game is an ongoing fraud, plain and simple. I'd love to be wrong but here we are, 7+ years later and release is no where to be seen.

Let see the article you just praised flat out said it wasn't fraud.

This is not fraud -- Roberts really is working on a game -- but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale

Lets be real here.... lots of kickstarters and the like flat out fail and that is that, this is just getting lots of hate due to the above and the fact it raised a shit ton of cash otherwise no one would care or bat an eyelash.

This wont "fail" IMO but may end up not being all that and I am fairly sure enough will be done that nothing like what people here a suggesting/hoping will happen to Roberts or kickstarters in general.

Might make people more aware though that backing kickstarters is risky and money flushed down to the toilet so only back what you can afford to lose and just say oh well it could have been good.

Mendel · May 2019

OG_Zorvan said:

Star Citizen will be the death knell for indy crapstarter bullshit. Can't wait for when this dumpster fire finally fizzles out.

A death knell only if there is prosecution. With any consequences, this kind of financial scam will expand rather than contract. If the feds do nothing, others will get a $300 million gleam in their eye and start developing their own version of Star Citizen. Game players lose!

MadFrenchie · May 2019

Slapshot1188 said:

". "This is not fraud -- Roberts really is working on a game -- but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale,"

Par for the course for Crowdfunded MMORPGs...

As they say in the movies... With great fundraising comes greater incompetence! Or was that a math formula that said the Incompetence of a Crowdfunded MMORPG is directly proportional to the funds raised...

I get those confused sometimes.

Funny how easily the pendulum swung into "promise everything they ask for, then some more" once there were no binding strings attached to that cash.

FlyByKnight · May 2019

Torval said:

FlyByKnight said:

Who cares? They raised over a quarter billion dollars and their cult is happy and literally the type to take a Hale Bop exit if Chris Roberts does a produced tech demo on the upside. The game is going to cost more than Fortnite MADE.

Like I continually say, this game is either going to be the greatest sci-fi experience in the history of mankind, or a perpetual argument between logic, and dreamed up expectation.

He's been doing damage control lately trying to push the narrative that gamer's expectations are at fault. He said that's why Anthem and NMS had rocky starts. My opinion is that he's using them as a publicity stunt and preliminary damage control for when his game launches and gets roasted. At this point it can't ever be good enough because he has set the hype bar so high. He just doesn't want to take responsibility for setting those expectations.

Can't blame players at this point. That excuse jumped the shark once the budget jumped got to 9 figures. What mentally inept humanoid doesn't have grand expectations for a project valued at 300mil (and rising)?

There's hardware manufacturers that have changed the landscape of their respective industries with half that budget (or less).

I want to know from cult members, at what number does this whole thing become a red flag or is this a blank checkbook 0-deadline project?

I just watched a YouTube video from a promo code slinging supporter using the exact words

"...a game world that will feature scale beyond the scope of anything we've seen in the past by a magnitude of hundredfold if not thousandfold"

Who did he get his promo codes from? Why isn't he being asked to curb his enthusiasm? This has reached evangelical level of faith based marketing. It's all Chris Roberts doing whether he meant to or not. What he can't do now, is walk that sh!# back. If Sean Murray didn't get to, neither does Mr. Matthews. Hopefully for him, the immediate fan base can be be more ideological than bible thumpers. It's going to take some major fantasy to talk around this game being anything other than a miracle.

Hatefull · May 2019

Herithius said:

Great and long overdue article. If you're willing to take $300 million and counting then expect some accountability. This game is an ongoing fraud, plain and simple. I'd love to be wrong but here we are, 7+ years later and release is no where to be seen.

Obviously, it's not fraud by any definition.

It is however, someone with exactly zero business sense trying to produce an endeavor on a an epic scale that keeps getting side tracked by "good idea fairies). I said it in the beginning and I say it now: Roberts surrounded himself with family, friends, and yes people, and that is a recipe for disaster. He should have hired a money person and a production manager and let them enforce time lines and balance the budget, and most importantly, tell Chris NO!

It is important to release a finished game, it is equally important to know what that finished game will look like when you start. Chris can't say he knows that as it changes constantly due to his inability to hold to a time line and his fiscal irresponsibility.

I do believe he will release a game, I 100% believe that, I also 100% believe it will be an unfocused mess, full of great half realized ideas.

Gutlard · May 2019

Torval said:

FlyByKnight said:

Who cares? They raised over a quarter billion dollars and their cult is happy and literally the type to take a Hale Bop exit if Chris Roberts does a produced tech demo on the upside. The game is going to cost more than Fortnite MADE.

Like I continually say, this game is either going to be the greatest sci-fi experience in the history of mankind, or a perpetual argument between logic, and dreamed up expectation.

He's been doing damage control lately trying to push the narrative that gamer's expectations are at fault. He said that's why Anthem and NMS had rocky starts. My opinion is that he's using them as a publicity stunt and preliminary damage control for when his game launches and gets roasted. At this point it can't ever be good enough because he has set the hype bar so high. He just doesn't want to take responsibility for setting those expectations.

He can only hope he can turn this turd canoe around like NMS did. HG went from death threats to heroes.

Gut Out!

NorseGod · May 2019

>but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale," the piece declares.

Was it though? wink wink

They make it sound so shocking. I mean, every studio CR has ran or worked at, no longer exists.

JeroKane · May 2019

You mean "Click bait" garbage site Forbes? LOL! I wish I could block that crap site from my Flipboard! /Facepalm

So 129 consumer complaints out of how many backers? Maybe they should check out Activision and EA for example and the their listing on consumer complaints lol.

EA and Bioware spend over 300 million in development on SW:TOR back in the day and look what they delivered for that money.

I am not saying Chris Roberts is perfect, since there is definitely some level of mismanagement going on there and quite a bit of money has been unnecessary wasted (switching from CryEngine to Amazon game platform for one).
But that is due to feature creep and the immense scope of the game... or rather two games. Squadron42, where Top level actors were hired in for Voice and Cameo work, which doesn't come cheap. You can bet half the budget went into that alone!
Then we have Star Citizen which has a huge scope now on itself together with the persistent universe.

FlyByKnight · May 2019

NorseGod said:

>but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale," the piece declares.

Was it though? wink wink

They make it sound so shocking. I mean, every studio CR has ran or worked at, no longer exists.

To his credit, that's not really a Yacht a yacht. He may have been talking about a Bobby Axelrod level yacht.

Groqstrong · May 2019

NorseGod said:

>but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale," the piece declares.

Was it though? wink wink

They make it sound so shocking. I mean, every studio CR has ran or worked at, no longer exists.

Lol not sure what point your proving with that picture?

You do realize that is a Mexican flag on the back of the boat right.

I once booked a 7 day trip to Cancun Hotel and airfare for less than $1500.

Cabo san lucas for 5 days $800.

NorseGod · May 2019

Slapshot1188 said:

". "This is not fraud -- Roberts really is working on a game -- but it is incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale,"

Par for the course for Crowdfunded MMORPGs...

As they say in the movies... With great fundraising comes greater incompetence! Or was that a math formula that said the Incompetence of a Crowdfunded MMORPG is directly proportional to the funds raised...

I get those confused sometimes.

"Oopsy! I hit the "0" key a few extra times and totally not on purpose for criminal reasons. TeeHee, silly me."

BobVa · May 2019

Whoever crowdfunded and still support this fraud, deserves to lose their money.

Sure, *many* will say "Hey! My money & I do whatever I want with them" , but still .. that doesn't change the fact that you've been ...frauded. If you say "Whatever, it is/was an investement" , then .. you are that kind of a whale who guys like Roberts LOVES to have nearby!

Congrats, you've been "cuckolded".

Slapshot1188 · May 2019

JeroKane said:

I am not saying Chris Roberts is perfect, since there is definitely some level of mismanagement going on there and quite a bit of money has been unnecessary wasted.
But that is due to feature creep and the immense scope of the game... or rather two games. Squadron42, where Top level actors were hired in for Voice and Cameo work, which doesn't come cheap. You can bet half the budget went into that alone!
Then we have Star Citizen which has a huge scope now on itself together with the persistent universe.

Are you trying to say that you think they spent 150 million on Voice and Cameo work?

LOL

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