Star Citizen developers roll back roadmap features due to high user expectations

[Jimmy2x]

Facepalm: It's been more than ten years and $430 million, but to absolutely no one's surprise, Star Citizen is still not ready for release. The space-based epic from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts was originally scheduled to arrive in 2015. That date, and the functionality that accompanies it, have since continued to slide and kept the game in a perpetual alpha state. Now the team is blaming vocal supporters who question CIG's delivery as the reason for cutting back visibility into the development process.

Games like Mass Effect and No Man's Sky open the virtual universe to millions of players day after day. Star Citizen, the ambitious space sim from Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), has taken players on a different kind of voyage. Unfortunately, that voyage is down a seemingly endless rabbit hole of delays and shifting priorities. True to form, a recent blog post from the CIG team informed supporters that the roadmap used for tracking development progress would soon provide less overall visibility.

"We want to acknowledge that not all of you saw it that way; many took our new focus and our words to heart and understood exactly what we tried to convey. But there still remains a very loud contingent of Roadmap watchers who see projections as promises. And their continued noise every time we shift deliverables has become a distraction both internally at CIG and within our community, as well as to prospective Star Citizen fans watching from the sidelines at our Open Development communications." - JakeAcappella-CIG

The roadmap provided a release view to give users a peek into upcoming changes while educating supporters on the ins and outs of game development. Some supporters reviewing the roadmap have become understandably vocal as CIG's priorities and deliverables continuously change.

Rather than clarify the roadmap, the team decided to stop providing information on any deliverable beyond the next scheduled patch. The decision was driven by the perceived "noise" from the community when feature releases were moved, which the CIG team labeled as a "distraction." The community pushback comes as no surprise given the project's number of delayed or abandoned development expectations.

The fact that Roberts Space Industries (RSI) will provide less development progress will no doubt anger more supporters. For the last several years the team has faced lawsuits regarding refunds as well as increasing scrutiny around CIG's management of the already astronomical funding goals and budget.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93280-star-citizen-developers-roll-back-roadmap-features-due.html

 

[Dimitriid]

"How dare you question us, paying contributors!? Each feature will come out when it's ready! Keep it up and I will turn this spaceship around and there's no Disneyland for ANYONE!"

Seriously hilarious to find people still defending them. If you invested in this game let this be a lesson: never support kickstarters or crowd funding efforts: you're being taken advantage of. Anything that can be done with kickstarter should be done not as a good will donation but as an investment when you get legal protection, guarantees and actual stock on the company so if the game actually comes out and succeeds you get something real and tangible for taking a risk with it in the form of stocks on the company.

 

[Achaios]

It's a scam. They are a bunch of crooks.

 

[fps4ever]

LOL so they are doubling down. Next come SC's own crypto and personal NFT's like one off ship pics. You need to be the first with these new ventures!!!!

 

[Jimmy2x]

I contributed to RSI years and years ago...my interest lasted all of two weeks. Tried giving it another go about five years ago. That didn't last long either.

I decided to reinstall after writing this. Curious to see just how much has actually changed since then.

 

[VitalyT]

supporters who caused distractions by questioning delivery dates

Those pesky supporters and investors...

 

[Squid Surprise]

I feel this is a great time for Chris Roberts to abandon Star Citizen and start work on Wing Commander 7… but no refunds, as all “investors” (see: “suckers”) will automatically be enrolled in the “WC7 Supporters Program”… expected completion 2035….

 

[hahahanoobs]

Imagine telling someone you're supporting a crowd funded video game that was supposed to release a decade ago, but you're still so excited about that you're willing to wait even more while still giving them money with no release date.

It's things like this that keep the basement dwelling gamer stereotypes alive. I have to admit, I'm embarrassed to tell people I'm a PC gamer sometimes, because of stories like this.

 

[blackdreamhunk]

Imagine telling someone you're supporting a crowd funded video game that was supposed to release a decade ago, but you're still so excited about that you're willing to wait even more while still giving them money with no release date.

It's things like this that keep the basement dwelling gamer stereotypes alive. I have to admit, I'm embarrassed to tell people I'm a PC gamer sometimes, because of how so much of the childish negative stiff outweighs the positives in the news. People who aren't gamers are going to remember the bad stories they heard more than the good, and I'd rather not be put on the same camp as those people.

Also:
Swatting
Doxxing
Cheaters and hackers
Bullying

The above shouldn't be as popular as they are in a community that is supposed to be playing games to have fun.

It is the legal system that has failed us and the game devs that fail us. It is the gaming media that fail us. While Microsoft and Sony battle it out on consoles PC gamers are abused and forgotten.

It is why Chris Roberts was able to get so much funding from PC gamers.
We Pc gamers showed the gaming industry we mean business.

But really it is the gaming industry that does want NOT to do real business with us.

how is retail gaming doing these days? now that a lot of us PC gamers were forced to move to digital places like steam.


how are companies like game stop or Eb games doing?
we pc gamers put the money where our mouths is

governments failed us and leaders failed us.

we pc gamers are like the borg!

 

[Skjorn]

I am 7k backer who was told many times by people I would get a refund.

Who tf spends $7,000 on an unfinished video game? Get real priorities.

 

[wiyosaya]

Who tf spends $7,000 on an unfinished video game? Get real priorities.

Amen. I've been trying to tell that to this user ever since it appears on TS. But, it goes nowhere. The user just continues to blame SC/Roberts/All the backers/ad infinitum. The user won't listen to you, either. I am sure that the controversy about SC/SQ42 was well known before this user dumped $7K into the game, but the user refuses to take responsibility for its actions.
WTF?

 

[Mister_K]

I spent roughly $100, got my monies worth in entertainment and also disappointment. That said, I knew what I was getting into. It's not a scam, it's simply out of scope project which has feature creep and terrible management (ie Chris).

To make what they claim they want to make requires insane amount of investment. There is a reason why no game studio takes risks these days.

There is a gap in this market for a game like Star Citizen. They should have looked at game loops, mechanics for quests and player interactions and then start adding bells and whistles. The graphics are nice but they should have looked into something more stylized, easier to run and more scalable graphics.

It didn't help wasting 2-3 years of development time when they changed the engine or whatever happened around 2012-2014.

 

[Dimitriid]

Amen. I've been trying to tell that to this user ever since it appears on TS. But, it goes nowhere. The user just continues to blame SC/Roberts/All the backers/ad infinitum. The user won't listen to you, either. I am sure that the controversy about SC/SQ42 was well known before this user dumped $7K into the game, but the user refuses to take responsibility for its actions.
WTF?

You know, it is possible that both this things are true and this isn't a dichotomy: People who invested in the game were naiive and lacking in judgement while Roberts, gaming press and the entire hype machine also inflated everyone's hopes on a project that was self-evidently too ambitious and was never going to deliver: It's not like what Roberts did was new the gaming press knew about con artists like Molyneux or Richard Garriot for many, many years before Star Citizen started it's crowd funding.

Should people be more careful with their money? Sure.

Should gaming press also refrain from basically giving a system designed to scam people out of money, kickstarter (And indiegogo and such) a lot of free publicity whenever they need clicks for their site and don't care about the consequences of greatly boosting these scams? Also yes.

 

[ypsylon]

SC is like NFT from 10 years ago and it still is worth exactly 0.

 

[FizzTheBandit]

I been a support since about 2015 and played the alpha and enjoy the potential I see. People gotta keep in mind a lot of the tech need to make the game CIG is making themselves, where other games already have the resources. Sure it's taking a long time but it doesn't mean you have to slander CIG and what there trying to do

 

[Skjorn]

Amen. I've been trying to tell that to this user ever since it appears on TS. But, it goes nowhere. The user just continues to blame SC/Roberts/All the backers/ad infinitum. The user won't listen to you, either. I am sure that the controversy about SC/SQ42 was well known before this user dumped $7K into the game, but the user refuses to take responsibility for its actions.
WTF?

Noticed they edited a few bits out? Lmao

 

[moon982]

Imagine telling someone you're supporting a crowd funded video game that was supposed to release a decade ago, but you're still so excited about that you're willing to wait even more while still giving them money with no release date.

It's things like this that keep the basement dwelling gamer stereotypes alive. I have to admit, I'm embarrassed to tell people I'm a PC gamer sometimes, because of stories like this.

Well mostly likely it was scam. But than later on started adding little here and there to get people to still support the project.

Sounds like the company is doing little has possible and just enough to keep people from leaving.

Well moving that slow could be other 5 years or 10 years from now.

 

[moon982]

I contributed to RSI years and years ago...my interest lasted all of two weeks. Tried giving it another go about five years ago. That didn't last long either.

I decided to reinstall after writing this. Curious to see just how much has actually changed since then.

It strange no other company does not buy the game from them and bring out in year or two.

That if the game is that good and so different that most games out there that Microsoft or Blizzard or some one else buy the game from them and bring it out in year or two.

As it probably was a scam than later on just did enough to keep the money coming in. So probably still have other 10 years to go moving at that rate.

In way you paying some one and watching some one make a game from start to end.

Well the company does enough to just get the money coming in.

 

[moon982]

It is the legal system that has failed us and the game devs that fail us. It is the gaming media that fail us. While Microsoft and Sony battle it out on consoles PC gamers are abused and forgotten.

It is why Chris Roberts was able to get so much funding from PC gamers.
We Pc gamers showed the gaming industry we mean business.

But really it is the gaming industry that does want NOT to do real business with us.

how is retail gaming doing these days? now that a lot of us PC gamers were forced to move to digital places like steam.


how are companies like game stop or Eb games doing?
we pc gamers put the money where our mouths is

governments failed us and leaders failed us.

we pc gamers are like the borg!

And that is what I tell people, the gaming industry like the music industry is dying because of digital streaming.

Even TV shows are nothing like it was before. Back in the old days TV shows had 20 to 26 episodes every year and now you lucky to get 10 episodes every year. Yes even big rich company and large fan base like star trek now you lucky to get 10 episodes.

Than when companies get big like making games like GTA they take years and years to bring new one. Just look at Grand Theft Auto V that game out in 2013 and no new game came out from 2013 to now.

And only now they are making new Grand Theft Auto V that probably will be other year or two as they are just making it.


Look at half life the same thing. When companies get rich and game has large yes very large fan base they get paranoid to make a new game that may not do well and the fan base will not like it and the name goes down being bad game.

That say they bring out a new half life game long ago that the fans wanted and it was bad game now the game half life makes news being very bad game. Or that say they bring out new Grand Theft Auto in 2015 in like say Miami or New York and it is terrible game than they risk the the name GTA being associated with the new game that was really bad.

They are afraid to spend the money on game that may not do well and not pay off. And that is why the game industry is dying along with digital streaming and likes of Steam that pay very little.

 

[JoeBlobers]

"How dare you question us, paying contributors!? Each feature will come out when it's ready! Keep it up and I will turn this spaceship around and there's no Disneyland for ANYONE!"

Seriously hilarious to find people still defending them. If you invested in this game let this be a lesson: never support kickstarters or crowd funding efforts: you're being taken advantage of. Anything that can be done with kickstarter should be done not as a good will donation but as an investment when you get legal protection, guarantees and actual stock on the company so if the game actually comes out and succeeds you get something real and tangible for taking a risk with it in the form of stocks on the company.

I did supported 4 crowdfunded model. 3 have been fully delivered and the forth one, SC is in development by 6 studios and +700 devs simply because way bigger than others.

Who care about company stock... We pay 45$ and get all flyable ships with in games credit. Do you get stock from EA or Ubi when buying their copy/paste games?

 

[JoeBlobers]

SC is like NFT from 10 years ago and it still is worth exactly 0.

Because you can take off, land, fight in space and ground, mine, chase bounty and trade with an NFT?
Already hundreds hours of entertainment in SC Alpha and this is just the start. Zero NFT's involved lol

 

[whateversa]

I welcome the change. I think anyone who is a software developer will agree that they over communicated - and wasted time doing so. Things will constantly change - especially in a highly complex project with many devs working on it concurrently. Rather focus on what is done - because that is all that matters.

A few patches ago they tried to iron out bugs to prove that they have already built a game that out does any other game... and it did... I mined over 7 000 000 UEC with my mining ship, did some cargo trading. After that patch, more bugs came in as they were dependent on other internal components that were not ready yet... So to me they have already proven they can do it.. Its just taking time for the bigger vision. Yes it is frustrating, but moaning tantrum kiddies create the toxic environment that made some of their good devs leave.

 

[whateversa]

It's a scam. They are a bunch of crooks.

Your comment is pretty much fake news. They are delivering, they are releasing a buggy game that proves they are building the game. The scope was huge and it will take many more years to achieve the vision. Nine woman cannot have a baby in month - thus there are limits to how fast you can go when you just add more developers.

 

[whateversa]

Well mostly likely it was scam. But than later on started adding little here and there to get people to still support the project.

Sounds like the company is doing little has possible and just enough to keep people from leaving.

Well moving that slow could be other 5 years or 10 years from now.

How are you qualified to assess this game as a scam? Based on what? Oh my, is this the first time a software project is way over due and over budget? Goodness gracious. How many projects have ever existed that are this ambitious? And how many of them were surrounded by tantrum kiddies creating a toxic environment for their teams?

 

[whateversa]

SC is like NFT from 10 years ago and it still is worth exactly 0.

How exactly is an NFT comparable to a game in development? These are completely different things?