http://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-citizen-funding-passes-26-million/1100-6415940/


I remember when someone on Massassi posted their kick-starter page, and I completely forgot about the game until I saw this article. I'm simply astounded. If nothing else, I'm glad it shows that there are other ways to make a large scale game than having a large publisher like EA running the show.

Do you guys have any interest in playing star citizen once it's released?

Yeah, I would definitely like to check it out once it's actually released!

No.

Honestly this looks like it would be the ultimate game for me. I am avoiding it completely because I'm afraid I would go down the Star Citizen rabbit hole and never come back out again.

Yeah, because $26 million will make a large scale game...

what u say antony

antony is pretty much right

.

How much does it cost to create a game, according to you guys? I'm no expert on the game industry, to be sure, but it seems like most modern games can be made with that budget.

Apparently Ubisoft takes between $18.8 and $28.2 million to churn out games. This article is a little dated, but states that PS3 and 360 games usually take about $10 million to make (http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/06/the-economics-of-game-publishing).

Edit: Looks like Modern Warfare 2 took $50 to actually develop. Halo 3 took $30 million. I know a first person shooter sequel is not exactly a proper comparison, but these were at least successful AAA games.

$15.9 million, not $26 million.


[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]Kickstarter funding[/TD]
[TD]$2,134,374.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kickstarter fee (5.0%)[/TD]
[TD]-$106,718.70[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Other funding[/TD]
[TD]$24,143,022.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

---

[/TD]
[TD]

---

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gross funding[/TD]
[TD]$26,170,677.30[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Taxes (1099-K)[/TD]
[TD]-$9,059,737.06[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

---

[/TD]
[TD]

---

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Net funding[/TD]
[TD]$17,110,940.24[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]CryEngine License[/TD]
[TD]-$1,200,000.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

---

[/TD]
[TD]

---

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dev budget (payroll, overhead, etc.)[/TD]
[TD]$15,910,940.24[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

For tax purposes token crowdfunding is considered a sale. They'd be able to use their business expenses from this year to reduce their taxable income, but not by very much. The bulk of their development is happening next year, so they'll have a net operating loss which can be carried forward until they're profitable again, but in all probability the bulk of their sales have already occurred and they'll pull NOLs until they go out of business so money go poof.

but ianaa.

Ubisoft is also in a lot of cheap places, while Star Citizen is in Santa Monica. So very roughly they have the same buying power as an Ubisoft team with $7.9 million.

Also they went into the whole crowdfunding thing with no clearly articulated business plan or budget, and they're still constantly pushing the envelope with reach goals and new graphics apis and engine upgrades instead of stabilizing on a game they know they can implement with the amount of money they currently have.

In conclusion, america is a land of contrasts

And people really, really want a modern space combat flight sim, apparently.

I'm still skeptical about this, though. I haven't heard of many features that Freelancer doesn't have..

someone should edit the thread title to say "Star Citizen has $26m in liabilities against $16m in assets".

tia.

I threw 30 bucks at it, we'll see if it pans out.

well technically they don't have 26 million in liabilities. all they have to do is return a product that roughly matches the description.

I don't know enough about the intricacies of crowd-funding or game-development to comment on the odds of success for this particular project, but the game itself looks like it could be entertaining, assuming that it does succeed. I like the concept of crowd-funding, despite the issues that Jon'C & others pointed out with Kickstarter (specifically) in a past related thread & hope that there's eventually a viable option in this arena that's fair to both the consumers/investors & creators/producers.

DUDE. Star Citizen is the ULTIMATE GAME.

I would have included purchasing the license to use the engine in the "cost to develop the game" category. But I see your point.

NECRO

$70.7mil as of today.



Anyone playing it yet? I will probably jump once I finish my VCP cert, but I don't need the distraction now.

haha, welcome back, JLee.

What'd I miss?

There's going to be a lot of but-hurt people when the hype is not met. Still, it seems like they've won the crowd funding lottery, so maybe it will be worth the price of admission once it's finished.

I heard Roberts was trying to tone down expectations a bit lately, which is a good sign for them finishing it inside this space time.

unfortunately for the folks expecting a continuous universe with fully detailed explorable planets,...

It's not that expensive to get in now...once I knock out my VCP I'll probably drop $40-45 and get in early. I'll gamble 40 bucks that it comes out okay, and saves me from dropping 50-60 when it is released.

OTOH, maybe it'll suck. Who knows.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Crowdfund - /kroud·fənd/ - verb - There's going to be a lot of but-hurt people when the hype is not met

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=103513

Ain't got time, you say? Could be worse

After various disasters, why is internet crowdfunding thing still going on in this foul year of our lord 2015?

Bidirectional Dunning-Kruger effect

This game is going to be the biggest disappointment of the decade, if not longer.

the biggest vidya gaymez disappointment, or the biggest disappointment ~ period?

Granted, it's just a survey, but the number of people who claim to have spent over 1000$ for a game that is barely playable yet is insane.

https://www.instant.ly/report/54a985dde4b0cea5d72c8c2a

They must be getting their money from some people with relatively deep pockets that are riding the hype train hard. It's not that popular a genre, and there's nothing to play but a rough dog-fighting build. No way have they achieved mass popularity with just that.

I'd believe that...The average now ($71,074,986 from 738,911 people) is $96.19. Curious what the median is.

They have some pretty great ideas to fuel the hype train. It'd be great if they pulled it off, but I'm fearing that it could be the work of overly ambitious arty-farty people coming up with ideas because "it should be easy, right?"

That said, I don't have any money invested in this, so oh well.

$45 plus epsilon.

Crowd funding and all other social moneypits lean m a handful of mentally ill people who are eager to blow thousands of real dollars on Internet bits.

It's not healthy.



chris_roberts_resume.pptx

Btw I went to his site and looked at his blog and saw a post where he talking about all of his friends saying they wished they were profitable before even releasing and Roberts telling them "no dude I'm putting all the money into development"

This is at least two flavors of stupid.

One, the comment is stupid. He's not profitable. Token crowd funding is a sale. He owes those people a game. He owes taxes on it. With the exception of the idiots who blew rent money on the game he is actually in the hole by n*(60-45) where n is the number of people who bought in 45 is the price they bought in and 60 is the price they would have paid on release date.

And re: putting everything into dev, aka burning your ****ing seed grain. Those aforementioned idiots who've spent thousands on it, that is your consumer surplus. That is all of it, all of the price discrimination you are ever going to get to do. Blown. Before you've even left the gate. To make
Myself clear, when I talk about capturing consumer surplus I am talking about the only way this **** is ever going to turn an economic profit.

Being who I am you know I don't say this lightly, but, damn son, this guy needs to hire a goddamn capitalist to run his company for him.

IOW even on the long goddn chance Roberts starts scaling his game back and starts making an actual professional release push his runway ends in a ****ing brick wall the very instant he stops collecting donations panhandling and starts selling products because he's already sold it to literally everybody who will ever buy it. He is actually spending his operations budget tomorrow on capital today.

So enjoy those servers for the 4 second window between when you can log in and when the power company shuts them off