Chris Roberts 'Floored' Over Star Citizen Reception
The initial response to Star Citizen crashed the custom crowd funding page and the core community site.
Chris Roberts, the mastermind behind the Wing Commander series, finally revealed his newest entry into the PC gaming arena on Wednesday after a ten-year absence. Called Star Citizen, it's an ambitious MMO, a project Roberts said he wanted to do with the Wing Commander franchise but lacked the actual technology back in the 1990s.
Like Mojang, Chris Roberts has figured out that the future of PC gaming as a thriving platform relies on the independent developer. Crowd funding also seems to be the future, pulling in financial resources from fans and potential customers rather than relying on publishers who will want their huge cut of the revenue.
That said, Star Citizen is taking the crowd funding route, but instead of relying on third-party sites like Kickstarter, Chris Roberts is taking pledges directly from the Star Citizen website. Only there's one problem: the surge in interest over his latest space sim on Wednesday crashed the custom crowd funding page as well as the core community site. Until then, he said they were on track to break crowd funding records – no surprise there, honestly.
"Now, thirty hours later, we're only just getting the core site back online," Roberts reports. "The proper crowd funding page is still unfortunately down, but we have a backup site that, while not having the full range of features we intended, can take people’s pledges. With this site we have to update the data manually as there is no way to easily collect the crowd funding statistics on a live basis, which is why you haven’t seen a counter on the backup site. We are working very hard to get the main crowd funding plug in to play nice with the rest of the site, so we can deliver the seamless experience we envisioned when opting to have the crowd funding integrated into the main community site."
No one has lost their "golden ticket", he said. Everyone who makes a pledge on the backup site is connected to their community account.
"We didn't just set out to raise money to build a game; we set out to build a community," he adds. "The intention was never to shut off the forums, disable the Golden Tickets or stop the flow of information after the launch; anything but. We hope you'll bear with us as we get the community back online. The features you've enjoyed for the past month will continue -- the Comm-Link, RSI Museum and Time Capsule -- along with much more information about Star Citizen and chances to interact with its development team. As we move forward in this endeavor, you are our strongest asset; a vanguard of dedicated fans who will help us build and promote this game."
"We still have a ways to go but I have no doubt with your support we will get there. This is our chance to tell the world: PC gaming and space sims are BACK!" he said.
For more information about Star Citizen, head here.
Uh, what? I suggest you read the article.
Or did the console just dilute the lines so much by building closed ecosystems with PC parts?
Or did the console just dilute the lines so much by building closed ecosystems with PC parts?
Website mentions x-mas 2014
Uh, what? I suggest you read the article.
Their really not shitting when they say this game is ambitious.
I don't know about you, but the last real made-for-PC game I can remember playing is Crysis. Everything else since then has been console-level stuff.
Hm, in his pitch video (which I realize is to get people to invest) he claims that they're planning for custom games and full mod support in addition to the persistent universe.
Stating the obvious but that means it has the potential to looks just as good as Crysis 3 is meant to.
Really looking forward to Star Citizen . The promise is great , and I believe that man can deliver
its less about paying dev costs for a game youd eventually want to play, but more about paying dev costs for a game you want to play right now. smart people wont just throw their money at a company just because their idea may be interesting or have potential, the idea has to be something they want at the moment. It also has to do with the amount of faith you have in a dev to deliver the promised project on time.
Also the donation reward system promises the finished product if you donate enough. so you arent JUST paying for dev costs. Im actually not a really big fan of the rewards system in crowd fund sites. Devs usually reward a full game at a really low donation. it also means that for every donator that donates x amount you have 1 less customer to profit from in the end. of course it might be like thanks to that person for helping publish the game, but it also gives them the illusion that they are just paying for perks instead of helping make the game.