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News Star Citizen hits $14m

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Meanmotion, 8 Jul 2013.

  1. Meanmotion

    Meanmotion bleh Moderator

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  2. bowman

    bowman Minimodder

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    This game is trying to be everything to everyone. I don't think this will end as well as some do.

    Needless to say, I haven't sent them any money..
     
  3. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    They certainly seem to be aiming very high indeed. Good luck to them, but I'll wait and see myself.

    As an aside, how far will $14m go? It sounds like a lot of money, but as I've got no idea how much a game like this costs to develop it's difficult to get a feel for how big or otherwise this is in game development terms.
     
  4. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Well, Grand Theft Auto IV was developed on a budget of $100 million, while Halo 3 was a snip at $55 million. So, not very far.

    However, the teams working on the above games were bigger, the companies behind them were bigger, and a lot of the cash was splashed on Hollywood voice talent and licensed music. Take those away, and you can probably drop the budgets considerably - but still, if you're aiming for a AAA title in today's market, $14 million is a very tight budget. For an indie game, by contrast, it'd be like winning the lottery - and would probably kill the game as the developer suddenly decides to add ALL THE FEATURES as a result of having so much finding, and fails to finish even one of 'em properly.
     
  5. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    Thanks for the reply, Gareth. I think I'm struggling a bit to see where this game lies on the spectrum between Indie and AAA game. It looks like they're aiming at the AAA end, in which case $14m doesn't look like a huge budget. I'm hoping that it does well, as it's right up my street, but I am concerned that their ambition will exceed their means :)
     
  6. kosch

    kosch Trango in the Mango

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    They don't just have the $14m from crowd funding they also got some private investment which I think was between $10-$20m.
     
  7. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    bawjaws, I think judging by the video on their website, it looks as though they're going for an AAA look. All we can hope is that they have the gameplay and back-end setup to backup those pretty graphics.

    The one thing that does worry me at the moment is that this is supposed to be an online game, but there's no mention as yet of subscription models or costs.
     
  8. kosch

    kosch Trango in the Mango

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    I seem to remember something about one of the stretch goals being met so they had enough money to pay for the online version to be free for a year, although it will be like free lancer where you can have your own private servers running etc.
     
  9. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    Cheers for the link, will check it out after work. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled to see how this pans out - I'll reiterate that I'd love to see this be a massive success, but I still have my doubts as to whether it'll deliver all it promises.
     
  10. SMIFFYDUDE

    SMIFFYDUDE Supermodders on my D

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    Is there anything less helpful than a PDF manual for a game?
     
  11. Phalanx

    Phalanx Needs more dragons and stuff.

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    They have stated from the start it's not a subscription-based game.

    Source: http://starcitizen.wikia.com/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions
     
  12. impar

    impar Minimodder

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    Greetings!

     
  13. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Ok so lets clear a few things up.

    The game is going to cost $22m to make in Chris Roberts vision. This is because they haven't got a marketing budget, an HR department, massive teams of staff, a media agency to buy ad airtime, and all the other huge overheads that go with making a game with EA/Activision/Ubisoft.

    The original target was $2m - with the other $20m coming from private investors that had already been lined up.

    However, since the campaign has been so amazingly successful, they've decided that they might be able to pay for the entire development via crowdfunding. This is great because its now a game made by gamers, paid for by gamers and played by gamers, and nowhere is their a publisher or suit trying to make a quick buck or influencing the game to make it 'more accessible to the console crowd etc etc'.

    Given the MASSIVE amount of stuff that is released every single week over at the Roberts Space Industries site, so far its looking absolutely top notch. Chris Roberts has a great pedigree in these types of games, and the community is already huge.

    Based on the above, I would predict, that this may well be heralded by some as one of the greatest PC games of all time in about 18 months.
     
  14. mattyh1995

    mattyh1995 Minimodder

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    I really really want to donate to this, but there's something yelling at me in the back of my mind saying don't do it..













    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTXGL0xPyLA
     
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