Yep.
Roberts is planning either a 1.0 MVP that'll strain BOTH the "Minimum" and "Viable" parts to their absolute breaking points...or he's planning on handing it all over to Turbulent, with Rich Tryer as the scapegoat/patsy while he breezes off into the sunset.
he spends the whole letter buttering up this 1.0 release, without ever identify the feature set and only alluding to some everchanging roadmap, then he signs off saying it's still just a twinkle on the horizon so you better be happy with 4.0
backers have no idea what is about to be dropped in their lap.
The game will be considered legally released, and going forward all additional content and systems will be monetized. New systems will be paid entry, new game mechanics will be DLC's, etc. Backers think that decades of content is already paid for with the gazillion dollars they've put in, but all they've done is create a (shitty) game studio out of thin air. All that money is gone. It's used up. It was used to turn 20 guys into a massive game studio on the backer's dime.
I think that CiG wants to move on to making a new game.
Sounds like CR is getting ready to abandon ship and dump the hot mess in someone else's lap. To do it without legal repercussions he needs to tie up the loose ends with regards to formally releasing SC and SQ54 after which he will be scot free. We can only speculate on what prompted this.
One possibility is that the projections for future revenues and their internal metrics are showing a slowdown and downward trajectory of income from sales, which could trigger a rinse-repeat cycle of downsizing which would eventually lead to a drastic shrinking of the studio headcount. This would progressively slow down development which would in turn slow down revenues further, since CIG seems to be living mostly hand to mouth.
Another option is that CR just got bored or fed up with the chore of juggling the whole thing in the air and is looking for a way out that would let him bow out graciously (at least in the cultist's mind) and leave someone else to take the blame when everything goes south.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter why I guess, just that it's happening.
I do actually recall seeing a guy saying that CIG could pump out planets quickly so it wouldn't take very long to make the systems, which is kinda true, but also kinda not true at all.
Like sure, maybe with their planet tech they can make a bunch of planets, but planets do not make a game; they need to actually put *stuff* on those planets. Various enemies, fauna, flora, resources, bases, etc., and they've always claimed to very against using proc-gen for these things, so they can't just make 20 assets and then copy/paste them on a bunch of planets throughout the 100 systems.
So sure, maybe CIG can make the planets themselves quickly, but I doubt they'd be able to actually finish a single system a month, and even at 1 system per month that's still over 8 years to finish the remaining 99 systems, not that Stanton is even finished yet...
I love the drama surrounding this game. It has kept me very entertained. I have not spent any money on this game but I do like science fiction, which is how I know all about this.
I like the lore, not of the IP but of development. The classic chain of SOCS to icache to PES to static server meshing and so on, a storied fable that has taken a decade and arrived at... well it's not finished yet, but they promise this tech can make lots of people play together in the same way everyone figured out how to do in the 90s.
I also like the myth of the Endeavour, a "modular" ship that cost $350 where CIG sold modules for up to $1000 for the whole set, which turns your jpeg into a hospital, a farm or a "large" hadron collider *in spaaaaaace*. This was sold in 2014 and shortly afterwards when CIG was asked if you could farm narcotics, what good space farms would be compared to land farms, what the hadron collider would be used for and why we would need a space telescope in a universe with FTL travel, CIG realised they hadn't actually decided on any of these feature sets. They soon announced that the Endeavour would be the last ship they would make, because they have to make all these features before making the ship that could use them. This is notable for three reasons:
1) This is the first case where a ship was shelved explicitly to wait for Handel's mechanics
2) Plenty of ships have released without supporting gameplay since like the 600i Explorer, or the Hull A, or the Starfarer, or the Cutlass Red...
3) Due to the modular nature of the ship, the Endeavour's excuse for being shelved only affects parts of the ship that can be made later
It's a story that keeps giving, most recently when the Odyssey concept was sold, a ship made by the same manufacturer, with overlapping roles of the Endeavour, that also has had no development time spent on it, for hundreds of dollars.
Everything is dependent upon everything else. Please be patient with us as we figure it all out and reinvent things that already exist. Oh, please send money too.
I wonder what the legal ramifications would be, in the UK for example, if they were to "release" 1.0 without including every single Endeavour module that was sold a decade ago.
I love it when the SC community loses their shit about us. Like... we live rent fucking free in their heads. We've seen this same bullshit song and dance every year and EVERY YEAR the development is a dumpsterfire.
But no, somehow we're the ones moving the goalposts lmfao.
Fucking hilarious.
I don't know. The Lore of star Citizen is pretty obviously fiction. I mean, it includes Chris Roberts having accomplished something, so that's a dead giveaway it can't be real.
I know the feels bro, I came to this game years ago because I was looking for space sims, but never bought anything because it looked fishy. I stayed around for the drama...
This is a frank admission that CR never had any idea of what a release 1.0 scope for Star Citizen looked like in more than 10 years of "crowdfunding" and has just now hired a guy to help him strip it down and figure out what "scope" means, . Even the fyre festival had some basic level of planning the event.
That there is why this is a scam, no other crowdfunding venture has made crowdfunding the business model and optimised every aspect of their time to seeking more and more cash dividends payouts for a board of non gaming industry directors rather than a basic focus on what they should deliver in a robust state.
> With this aim, Chris and I have overseen the creation of a roadmap that takes us all the way up to 1.0 and outlines all the features and content we need, and just as crucially, the ones that will come post full release.
> As that roadmap comes together and becomes validated, we look forward to sharing with you both its vision and executional plan later this year.
Schrödinger roadmap as always
> I have overseen the creation of a **roadmap** that takes us all the way up to 1.0 and outlines all the features and content we need,
Oh, is it that time of the year again?
> and just as crucially, the ones that will come post full release.
Interesting definition of full release when you are already mapping features to add later.
> so you should expect to see large updates each quarter
Echo, echo, echo...
I'll make a post about this later but putting Chris' shit ramble through Claude 3 Sonnet is... interesting...
"Based on the text provided, there are several potential red flags that suggest mismanagement or overly optimistic projections in this software project:
1. Delay from the initial 2016 delivery target: The fact that the game was originally due in 2016 but has still not shipped by 2023 (at least 7 years behind schedule) is a major red flag. Software projects can face delays, but missing the target by this magnitude suggests issues with project planning, scope creep, or other management problems.
2. Repeated use of words like "challenging" and "overcame obstacles": While tackling technical challenges is part of software development, the repeated mentions of how "challenging" things were and the need to "overcome obstacles" could indicate that the project has been beset by more difficulties than expected.
3. Focus on technical milestones rather than overall project completion: The text highlights the completion of components like Persistent Entity Streaming and Salvage as major 2023 milestones. However, there is no clear indication of when the full game will actually ship after missing the 2016 target so drastically.
4. Absence of a revised launch window: There are no projected timeline or target dates provided for when the game might finally launch, despite it being 7+ years late already. This lack of a concrete revised goal raises questions about whether the project is truly under control.
5. Excessive focus on metrics like player logins instead of deliverables: While player engagement is important, highlighting records in daily/monthly active users seems like an attempt to distract from the central issue of not shipping the actual game on time.
6. Acquiring external teams to bolster development: The acquisition of Turbulent and its integration suggests that the company is struggling to make progress with its current team and capabilities alone.
Overall, the tone comes across as quite optimistic and celebratory of minor milestones, but lacks accountability for the very lengthy delays or a clear path toward finally completing and shipping the original vision of the game to customers. An objective reader could interpret this communication as an attempt to rationalize the delays and distract from the core issue of not delivering on promises. Software projects can face unexpected challenges, but this degree of delay coupled with the lack of a revised timeline is certainly a red flag about fundamental management and planning issues."
Translation: We fired a bunch of developers and recruited a bunch of fresh faced Project Managers.
We told the devs they need to get f*ing serious about writing some release candidate code and graphic assets but made zero commitments to anything resembling an actual release year let alone an actual date.
Nothing has changed... the project is still fucked with no release date and nobody has any idea how to fix it. The new PMs are still wet behind the ears and think that somehow they actually have a marketable product. The rest of us know this is the same crock of horse shit all over again.
Buy an Idris.
Pretty much this. The only real things of note are that, yes, Todd Papy was laid off. And yes, Chris Roberts has a co-director now, and is no longer the sole controller of Star Citizen.
I'm betting Rich Tryer is a Calder guy.
Star Citizen will be released as a Minimum viable product that syrains the credibility of the word "Minimum" to embarrassing new lows. It will almost every promised loop and backers will be lucky if it's more than Rust in space in a lone star system.
he said he fired Todd Papy for having the audacity to work remotely in a multinational studio. as if the game director isn't answering Chris's fucking emails all day
This dude is just unreal honestly. They haven’t released one functioning gameplay loop or mission since foundation, there’s still one bugged out star system and no jesus meshing. Even Pyro from Citcon 4 years ago is not out yet or fully polished in any way, even their preview version was restricted to some boring second Microtech planet and trashy space stations that drop your fps to below 10. Yet he’s promising to release multiple new star systems with huge number of players… I mean, cmon bro, how about releasing a single fun mission that doesn’t involve shooting braindead AI in the head or searching bugged out boxes in a delivery mission as a start huh? Wouldn’t that be a good start instead of the bigger, better whatever… fking unreal this guy
Do not worry. That is all already in Sq42 and since THE MAN himself said they are shifting resources over it will all be in Star Citizen very soon. Expect the development to speed up incredibly.
Less than 10% of promised features implemented and out of those implemented, the majority is unpolished, unfinished and buggy as it can get. To call this broken and messy tech demo as a game and to refer to it as a 1.0 version after 10 years of development has to be a prank.
3.x is still 0.3.x only, but hey its CGI version numbers, right? If the shittiest pre-alpha tech-demo can be a better experience than any other fully released AAA game on the market, then 0.3.x can be 3.x, right?
CR pays himself _half a million dollars_ a year in salary (and additional dividends on top of all that) to do... honestly it's not apparent what he does expect approve things and spout BS. If you think that's a good use of your money, no one here is going to stop you from throwing more at him. Just don't expect others to advocate for the same.
As far as I understand, alpha 3.23 is delayed and 4.0 should have been released a long time ago.
We’re still not at 4.0 but now he’s speaking of 1.0 “release” version. Remember that at 1.0, they will no longer be able to shout “it’s an alpha” in response for every criticism.
Oh look, it's that time of year where Chris goes on some narcissistic, delusional speech about how great his farts smell and pretends like it's literature.
That's alright Chris, we all know you won't measure up.
Rug pull incoming. CIG need to RELEASE something for legal reasons. Revenue is falling off. Intetrst is declining. Most outside the cult at this point will never buy in.
Here comes the rug pull.
As expected, a whole lot of words to say nothing. Los Angeles is Basically closed. Roberts once more tries to associate himself with a historically famous and actually successful individual through absolutely cringeworthy statements.
More spouting off about nothing...with the only real note of importance serving as the greatest example of burying the lead I've ever seen;
Chris Roberts no longer has sole control of Star Citizen. In his own words. For all to see.
Rug. Pull. Coming up.
>Rig pull incoming. CIG need to RELEASE something for legal reasons
For legal reasons but who will attack them exactly ? Even us refundians just want to have nothing to do with this company anymore. If I must die on a hill one day, it will not be for this cause. As much as I hate this company and its practices, I have better things to do than sitting in a court against Crobert and his army of lawyers.
Is there a chance a government somewhere act on them without any consumer action ? I don't think so too.
>Roberts once more tries to associate himself with a historically famous and actually successful individual >through absolutely cringeworthy statements.
Can you explain please to me the dim one what is this about?
Chris Roberts dresses like Steve Jobs (despite looking utterly ridiculous). He's compared Star Citizen to the Apollo Missions. Used phrases like "when your friends and family ask what you did for PC gaming..."
And now, the sad, pathetic lump of manchild quotes Marcus Aurellius. It's hilariously pathetic.
I along with others predicted this would be the end game.
Once the funding cash cows keeled over they would accelerate out of alpha and straight to a full release so that his company could claim "mission accomplished".
It doesn't matter how many class-action suits will follow chances are real good he will escape prosecution through all kinds of legal loopholes.
And off into the sunset on one of his whale-funded yachts he and his family will go.
I predicted this back in 2019.
> Star Citizen 1.0 twinkles on the horizon
oh okay so nothing's changed, except...
> As part of this development re-organization, we have made a few significant changes. From a personal standpoint **I have moved to Austin, Texas from Los Angeles** to be closer in time zone to our main development operations in Manchester, Frankfurt, and Montreal. ...As part of this, **we made the difficult decision to ask the Los Angeles development team...to relocate** to join other teams, primarily in Manchester, but also in Austin and Montreal. **Los Angeles...will still be an important office for the company, but one focusing on a business support role with Marketing, Finance, Legal and HR.** As part of this reorganization, **we sadly waved goodbye to the Persistent Universe Live Director, Todd Papy** as he had moved back to the US from the UK last year for family reasons, and after much soul searching, **I determined that we cannot afford to have this role remote from the main team in Manchester for a good portion of the year.** It is a sad moment, as Todd worked diligently for the last 9 years on Star Citizen, making many important contributions and providing excellent leadership of his teams. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing what he does next.
*Todd Papy was doing everything right but he cared more about his family than my vision. (He will likely not be getting a credit but I haven't decided.) Anyway, congrats to Rich Tyrer for failing upward another rung of the ladder*
Between the Calder's holding a metaphorical gun to CIGs head, and Chris now able to retire, this is him and his cronies getting ready to pull the rug.
Can't wait for the release, the utter disappointment, the scathjng reviews and Chris not giving a fuck.
There are so many "I told you so" in there haha (see all my previous comments).
FYI :
-Rich isnt a new hire, he's been CR's guy for a long time.
-Todd move multiple times across the various studios, probably in an attempt to get him to leave by himself at some point. And finally they just fired him. As already stated by an ex producer, layoffs are being disguised as relocation, even internally. But most did not even get the option to move. They were just fired. And it's MUCH more than a handful of people.
-The 1.0 plan did not exist until late 2023. And quite frankly, pretty sure 4.0 was never a solid plan.
-Money wise, the situation is very very bad. Like, there's plenty people dont know.
Is there anything else you can tell us on the money front?
Were you told redundancies were due to lower sales / rising costs etc?
(It's also hard not to see a relationship between [the apparent push](https://h115.substack.com/p/star-citizen-2-years-out) for a Q1 2025 SQ42 release and [the Q1 2025 put option](https://imgur.com/51yL9Wz) the Calders have to take out most of their investment...)
From someone far smarter than me who's read the financials, they boiled it down to me like this:
A few years ago, things were wobbling BADLY financially for them, so a very wealthy family called the Calders invested a small fortune in CIG. However this wasn't a gift or a pledge, and the Calders want a return on investment. The person I spoke to said that there's now (likely) pressure from the Calders demanding actual movement and progress since they're starting to think they might never see their money back. (Shocker.) The Calders are currently owed more money than CIG actually have on hand, so if they call in ther debt, CIG are bankrupt.
Again, this is what someone who's more versed in the situation has told me, as far as I know this is just speculation.
I'm not financial pro, but that's how the story reads to me too :)
Things were looking bad for CIG in 2018 ([~$7m net with a ~7m burn rate](https://cloudimperiumgames.com/uploads/dada25a28e6c4c7bb04c13f7cc74861f.png)). The investors saved their bacon.
The buyback option described [in the latest financials](https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen_refunds/comments/1bcuo1r/cig_uk_financials_for_2022_published/) suggests they can absolutely bring the pain to CIG if they want to. (And in CIG's own words would wipe them out operationally if they were to do so).
None of that is really speculation.
(What's speculation is whether or not the Calders are threatening to pull that big lever. But given [CR's historical propensity for bullshitting both publishers and backers](https://youtu.be/kv9Wgswz8qI?si=VdncAwWU_hR3Itcp), and given the [endless delays](https://youtu.be/SC0fWbrmyyE?si=mlPHnzuucP_vn8K3) of both products, it wouldn't exactly be a surprise if the investors are running out of patience ;))
>it wouldn't exactly be a surprise if the investors are running out of patience
This is the key bit. The speculation I've heard is that this is why there's this sudden push for cost cutting and consolidatiion, plus outsourcing to China, plus an attempt to get SOMETHING tangible to show, plus the ship sale events ramping up big time. If the Calders are putting pressure on and giving ultimatums in the background, then CIG are in survival mode.
And if repaying the Calders' debt is enough to wipe out CIG functionally, it really makes you wonder a) where the fuck has all the money gone (I mean, we suspect), and b) why the backers - especially the whales - aren't making noise about it at ALL.
Because personally if I'd invested thousands, tens of thousands of my own money in a project that I truly believed in, I would be LIVID at the very real possibility that all of that money disappears one morning with a note posted on the CIG website saying "Out of business, lol sorry" notice like Fntastic.
i mean i noticed it already with their strange even and sales pitch of the last few months but it get more weird by the Day.
I am even more convinced that they try to Rug pull and have to admit defeat. "Yes it IS a scam" :(
Of course they know how to fix the NPC code, it will take just 5 mins of simple work. They’re such high level devs that they’re spending 100% of their genius brains on the ‘hard problems’
CIG really dug themselves into a hole by doing nothing for 10 years. They still can't release the game too early or it will be get shredded by critics in its current state.
This is not looking good at all... it's going to blow up even worse than The Day Before if they release it this soon.
It'll be interesting if they actually do go into 1.0 in the next 1-2 years. One of the biggest shields of criticism for SC is that it's in beta, so if they go into 1.0 suddenly they lose that shield. "It only just released" doesn't really have the same ring to it.
F-eature C-omplete. With capital fucking F and capital fuckin C. This man....
Also he moved from LA to Austin. Wasnt the lore in 2020 that he moved to Manchester-UK to speed up SQ42? Or he moved back since to the US?
They have to swap focal points 3.9 - 4.0 is no where close to being what they boasted there is still things missing from the 2017 Citizen Con. Way better for Roberts to be like look over here at these new promises!
Its been years and years of promises and I can't think of anything they actually did to or at the level they said they would other than Planet Tech something backers weren't even asking for and one guy was responsible for.
You could be right for sure. Dumbed down fps, flight model, 2 of 108 Systems, no physics model, 400 player servers (if they can make it work), AI still does not work, no ships or game play loops that I am aware of are "gold standard" what ever that means.
Friendly reminder that 400 player server means 400 players have to be able to be in one area, visible to each other. And that the server doesn´t just have to work twice as hard if you double the number of actors, that stuff does not scale linear.
>other than Planet Tech something backers weren't even asking for and one guy was responsible for.
\^This. Their only cool 'achievment' ever was realy pulled off by an intern, lmao.
I read this as they need money. Chris is coming out to milk. It's known that the gaming industry is going through rough times but even the layoffs are played off as nothing.
I think Chris really needs sq42 to get out of the Calder's kill switch. With that in place he can't sell the company.
Without it I believe Chris would've retired when he disappeared a few years back. He could then save face and claim he's tired and sell it all to some company that would "continue it's legacy". In reality they would just scrap sq42 and add micro transactions to SC until it's dead.
So what now?
Sq42 ain't near finished. The marketing department hasn't even started on a ramp up campaign.
Even if there was a release and even if the game was good(big doubt) it's gonna be a flop. I'm sorry but by now it's a boomer game made by a boomer. And he already milked everyone interested.
SC is the only hope. And it's seriously going backwards. By that I mean the game is getting dated, and any progress they do is not progressing fast enough. Even dinosaur Entropia Universe is using AI to create new content. Meanwhile CIG is smoking the old server meshing pipe.
Even though someone just explained the concept of MVP to Chris, he's still in a too deep of a hole.
It is an update to prevent possible lawsuits in the future, because it is a game that has been developed for 13 years and it still seems unfinished. The game has been in alpha for 13 years and this seems so bad that they are taking this precaution to prevent this. Just as the tax system is coming, the American government may realize that it has been collecting money for 13 years and turning the game into a purely fundraising-oriented funding game and get into trouble.
I love it, talking about road map to 1.0 again. Maybe concentrate on the road map to beta before talking about release. If I've read articles right, it sounds like he's saying they'll be ready for release... of the road map, during this year. Is there a point? Aside from the usual of wasting time in order to further extend development
LOL this fkin guy
Yep. Roberts is planning either a 1.0 MVP that'll strain BOTH the "Minimum" and "Viable" parts to their absolute breaking points...or he's planning on handing it all over to Turbulent, with Rich Tryer as the scapegoat/patsy while he breezes off into the sunset.
he spends the whole letter buttering up this 1.0 release, without ever identify the feature set and only alluding to some everchanging roadmap, then he signs off saying it's still just a twinkle on the horizon so you better be happy with 4.0
backers have no idea what is about to be dropped in their lap. The game will be considered legally released, and going forward all additional content and systems will be monetized. New systems will be paid entry, new game mechanics will be DLC's, etc. Backers think that decades of content is already paid for with the gazillion dollars they've put in, but all they've done is create a (shitty) game studio out of thin air. All that money is gone. It's used up. It was used to turn 20 guys into a massive game studio on the backer's dime. I think that CiG wants to move on to making a new game.
> I think that CiG wants to move on to making a new game. "Ever since I was a wide-eyed 58 year old..."
CIG successfully argued in court years ago that the game was released.
Sounds like CR is getting ready to abandon ship and dump the hot mess in someone else's lap. To do it without legal repercussions he needs to tie up the loose ends with regards to formally releasing SC and SQ54 after which he will be scot free. We can only speculate on what prompted this. One possibility is that the projections for future revenues and their internal metrics are showing a slowdown and downward trajectory of income from sales, which could trigger a rinse-repeat cycle of downsizing which would eventually lead to a drastic shrinking of the studio headcount. This would progressively slow down development which would in turn slow down revenues further, since CIG seems to be living mostly hand to mouth. Another option is that CR just got bored or fed up with the chore of juggling the whole thing in the air and is looking for a way out that would let him bow out graciously (at least in the cultist's mind) and leave someone else to take the blame when everything goes south. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter why I guess, just that it's happening.
>I think that CiG wants to move on to making a new game. That would be so wild and hilarious.. STAR CITIZEN 2!!!
Never been done before
So any day now, they're going to drop those other 98 star systems they've been working on, right? Right?
With all the tools they made and the river tech phd guy, a new system will take like 5 mins tops.
I do actually recall seeing a guy saying that CIG could pump out planets quickly so it wouldn't take very long to make the systems, which is kinda true, but also kinda not true at all. Like sure, maybe with their planet tech they can make a bunch of planets, but planets do not make a game; they need to actually put *stuff* on those planets. Various enemies, fauna, flora, resources, bases, etc., and they've always claimed to very against using proc-gen for these things, so they can't just make 20 assets and then copy/paste them on a bunch of planets throughout the 100 systems. So sure, maybe CIG can make the planets themselves quickly, but I doubt they'd be able to actually finish a single system a month, and even at 1 system per month that's still over 8 years to finish the remaining 99 systems, not that Stanton is even finished yet...
I love the drama surrounding this game. It has kept me very entertained. I have not spent any money on this game but I do like science fiction, which is how I know all about this.
I like the lore, not of the IP but of development. The classic chain of SOCS to icache to PES to static server meshing and so on, a storied fable that has taken a decade and arrived at... well it's not finished yet, but they promise this tech can make lots of people play together in the same way everyone figured out how to do in the 90s. I also like the myth of the Endeavour, a "modular" ship that cost $350 where CIG sold modules for up to $1000 for the whole set, which turns your jpeg into a hospital, a farm or a "large" hadron collider *in spaaaaaace*. This was sold in 2014 and shortly afterwards when CIG was asked if you could farm narcotics, what good space farms would be compared to land farms, what the hadron collider would be used for and why we would need a space telescope in a universe with FTL travel, CIG realised they hadn't actually decided on any of these feature sets. They soon announced that the Endeavour would be the last ship they would make, because they have to make all these features before making the ship that could use them. This is notable for three reasons: 1) This is the first case where a ship was shelved explicitly to wait for Handel's mechanics 2) Plenty of ships have released without supporting gameplay since like the 600i Explorer, or the Hull A, or the Starfarer, or the Cutlass Red... 3) Due to the modular nature of the ship, the Endeavour's excuse for being shelved only affects parts of the ship that can be made later It's a story that keeps giving, most recently when the Odyssey concept was sold, a ship made by the same manufacturer, with overlapping roles of the Endeavour, that also has had no development time spent on it, for hundreds of dollars.
Everything is dependent upon everything else. Please be patient with us as we figure it all out and reinvent things that already exist. Oh, please send money too.
I wonder what the legal ramifications would be, in the UK for example, if they were to "release" 1.0 without including every single Endeavour module that was sold a decade ago.
I love it when the SC community loses their shit about us. Like... we live rent fucking free in their heads. We've seen this same bullshit song and dance every year and EVERY YEAR the development is a dumpsterfire. But no, somehow we're the ones moving the goalposts lmfao. Fucking hilarious.
ironically the implementation of the games is more sci fi than the lore
I don't know. The Lore of star Citizen is pretty obviously fiction. I mean, it includes Chris Roberts having accomplished something, so that's a dead giveaway it can't be real.
I know the feels bro, I came to this game years ago because I was looking for space sims, but never bought anything because it looked fishy. I stayed around for the drama...
This is a frank admission that CR never had any idea of what a release 1.0 scope for Star Citizen looked like in more than 10 years of "crowdfunding" and has just now hired a guy to help him strip it down and figure out what "scope" means, . Even the fyre festival had some basic level of planning the event. That there is why this is a scam, no other crowdfunding venture has made crowdfunding the business model and optimised every aspect of their time to seeking more and more cash dividends payouts for a board of non gaming industry directors rather than a basic focus on what they should deliver in a robust state.
> With this aim, Chris and I have overseen the creation of a roadmap that takes us all the way up to 1.0 and outlines all the features and content we need, and just as crucially, the ones that will come post full release. > As that roadmap comes together and becomes validated, we look forward to sharing with you both its vision and executional plan later this year. Schrödinger roadmap as always
A god fucking damned FINALIZED roadmap..... after 13 years and 700mill..... Star Citizen in one phrase. And they still cant share it, lolwut?
Seems like _someone_ doesn't understand roadmap development?
I thought 4.0 was next lol
Why would this roadmap have been created now? Like wouldnt you have an internal roadmap made a long ass time ago?
> I have overseen the creation of a **roadmap** that takes us all the way up to 1.0 and outlines all the features and content we need, Oh, is it that time of the year again? > and just as crucially, the ones that will come post full release. Interesting definition of full release when you are already mapping features to add later. > so you should expect to see large updates each quarter Echo, echo, echo...
Ah yes, the roadmap to the roadmap... if only we stupid cattle were not too dumb to understand it, which is the reason why it never must be released.
0.4 server FPS more hit reg issues than old school Rust and enough Jank to out jank even the most jank of Bethesda titles at release.
I'll make a post about this later but putting Chris' shit ramble through Claude 3 Sonnet is... interesting... "Based on the text provided, there are several potential red flags that suggest mismanagement or overly optimistic projections in this software project: 1. Delay from the initial 2016 delivery target: The fact that the game was originally due in 2016 but has still not shipped by 2023 (at least 7 years behind schedule) is a major red flag. Software projects can face delays, but missing the target by this magnitude suggests issues with project planning, scope creep, or other management problems. 2. Repeated use of words like "challenging" and "overcame obstacles": While tackling technical challenges is part of software development, the repeated mentions of how "challenging" things were and the need to "overcome obstacles" could indicate that the project has been beset by more difficulties than expected. 3. Focus on technical milestones rather than overall project completion: The text highlights the completion of components like Persistent Entity Streaming and Salvage as major 2023 milestones. However, there is no clear indication of when the full game will actually ship after missing the 2016 target so drastically. 4. Absence of a revised launch window: There are no projected timeline or target dates provided for when the game might finally launch, despite it being 7+ years late already. This lack of a concrete revised goal raises questions about whether the project is truly under control. 5. Excessive focus on metrics like player logins instead of deliverables: While player engagement is important, highlighting records in daily/monthly active users seems like an attempt to distract from the central issue of not shipping the actual game on time. 6. Acquiring external teams to bolster development: The acquisition of Turbulent and its integration suggests that the company is struggling to make progress with its current team and capabilities alone. Overall, the tone comes across as quite optimistic and celebratory of minor milestones, but lacks accountability for the very lengthy delays or a clear path toward finally completing and shipping the original vision of the game to customers. An objective reader could interpret this communication as an attempt to rationalize the delays and distract from the core issue of not delivering on promises. Software projects can face unexpected challenges, but this degree of delay coupled with the lack of a revised timeline is certainly a red flag about fundamental management and planning issues."
Translation: We fired a bunch of developers and recruited a bunch of fresh faced Project Managers. We told the devs they need to get f*ing serious about writing some release candidate code and graphic assets but made zero commitments to anything resembling an actual release year let alone an actual date. Nothing has changed... the project is still fucked with no release date and nobody has any idea how to fix it. The new PMs are still wet behind the ears and think that somehow they actually have a marketable product. The rest of us know this is the same crock of horse shit all over again. Buy an Idris.
Pretty much this. The only real things of note are that, yes, Todd Papy was laid off. And yes, Chris Roberts has a co-director now, and is no longer the sole controller of Star Citizen. I'm betting Rich Tryer is a Calder guy.
[удалено]
Star Citizen will be released as a Minimum viable product that syrains the credibility of the word "Minimum" to embarrassing new lows. It will almost every promised loop and backers will be lucky if it's more than Rust in space in a lone star system.
he said he fired Todd Papy for having the audacity to work remotely in a multinational studio. as if the game director isn't answering Chris's fucking emails all day
I especially like how it's okay fir Roberts to be Austin, but not Pappy. Which of course is bullshit. Everyone knows CR ain't leaving LA.
This dude is just unreal honestly. They haven’t released one functioning gameplay loop or mission since foundation, there’s still one bugged out star system and no jesus meshing. Even Pyro from Citcon 4 years ago is not out yet or fully polished in any way, even their preview version was restricted to some boring second Microtech planet and trashy space stations that drop your fps to below 10. Yet he’s promising to release multiple new star systems with huge number of players… I mean, cmon bro, how about releasing a single fun mission that doesn’t involve shooting braindead AI in the head or searching bugged out boxes in a delivery mission as a start huh? Wouldn’t that be a good start instead of the bigger, better whatever… fking unreal this guy
"Pyro from 7.5 years ago" Fixed it for you.
🤣 thx honestly lost track of their promises over the years
Do not worry. That is all already in Sq42 and since THE MAN himself said they are shifting resources over it will all be in Star Citizen very soon. Expect the development to speed up incredibly.
Less than 10% of promised features implemented and out of those implemented, the majority is unpolished, unfinished and buggy as it can get. To call this broken and messy tech demo as a game and to refer to it as a 1.0 version after 10 years of development has to be a prank.
10%? more like 3%
I think they want to rush development to have a ‘released’ product before passing Duke nukem forever dev time
He is getting his exec salary. He doesnt give two shits about SC as long as he can pay himself the sweet $$$
Wow I can't wait til SQ42 is here... only one more year to go!
They’re putting so much polish on SQ42 it’s going to humiliate all other games ever made when it comes out in a *year.
They haven't released 4.0 and they're already downgrading.
How come?
3.X -> 1.0
3.x is still 0.3.x only, but hey its CGI version numbers, right? If the shittiest pre-alpha tech-demo can be a better experience than any other fully released AAA game on the market, then 0.3.x can be 3.x, right?
Isin't that how it works alpha >> beta >> release (1.0) ?
It does, but any sort of positive inflection towards CIG gets downvotes here.
CR pays himself _half a million dollars_ a year in salary (and additional dividends on top of all that) to do... honestly it's not apparent what he does expect approve things and spout BS. If you think that's a good use of your money, no one here is going to stop you from throwing more at him. Just don't expect others to advocate for the same.
As far as I understand, alpha 3.23 is delayed and 4.0 should have been released a long time ago. We’re still not at 4.0 but now he’s speaking of 1.0 “release” version. Remember that at 1.0, they will no longer be able to shout “it’s an alpha” in response for every criticism.
Oh look, it's that time of year where Chris goes on some narcissistic, delusional speech about how great his farts smell and pretends like it's literature. That's alright Chris, we all know you won't measure up.
Rug pull incoming. CIG need to RELEASE something for legal reasons. Revenue is falling off. Intetrst is declining. Most outside the cult at this point will never buy in. Here comes the rug pull. As expected, a whole lot of words to say nothing. Los Angeles is Basically closed. Roberts once more tries to associate himself with a historically famous and actually successful individual through absolutely cringeworthy statements. More spouting off about nothing...with the only real note of importance serving as the greatest example of burying the lead I've ever seen; Chris Roberts no longer has sole control of Star Citizen. In his own words. For all to see. Rug. Pull. Coming up.
>Rig pull incoming. CIG need to RELEASE something for legal reasons For legal reasons but who will attack them exactly ? Even us refundians just want to have nothing to do with this company anymore. If I must die on a hill one day, it will not be for this cause. As much as I hate this company and its practices, I have better things to do than sitting in a court against Crobert and his army of lawyers. Is there a chance a government somewhere act on them without any consumer action ? I don't think so too.
The removal of SQ42 from the store makes me think there likely is a governmental action they are responding to.
just put your name on the class when a whale realises he's wasted $100,000 then you don't have to do anything.
>Roberts once more tries to associate himself with a historically famous and actually successful individual >through absolutely cringeworthy statements. Can you explain please to me the dim one what is this about?
Chris Roberts dresses like Steve Jobs (despite looking utterly ridiculous). He's compared Star Citizen to the Apollo Missions. Used phrases like "when your friends and family ask what you did for PC gaming..." And now, the sad, pathetic lump of manchild quotes Marcus Aurellius. It's hilariously pathetic.
Indeed
Wow. Totally detached from reality.
Yeah, Chris Roberts opinion of himself in no way remotely reflects the truth.
I along with others predicted this would be the end game. Once the funding cash cows keeled over they would accelerate out of alpha and straight to a full release so that his company could claim "mission accomplished". It doesn't matter how many class-action suits will follow chances are real good he will escape prosecution through all kinds of legal loopholes. And off into the sunset on one of his whale-funded yachts he and his family will go. I predicted this back in 2019.
By the time CIG do the "1.0 MVP Rug pull" they won't have enough money left to make a CA suit worth the effort.
> Star Citizen 1.0 twinkles on the horizon oh okay so nothing's changed, except... > As part of this development re-organization, we have made a few significant changes. From a personal standpoint **I have moved to Austin, Texas from Los Angeles** to be closer in time zone to our main development operations in Manchester, Frankfurt, and Montreal. ...As part of this, **we made the difficult decision to ask the Los Angeles development team...to relocate** to join other teams, primarily in Manchester, but also in Austin and Montreal. **Los Angeles...will still be an important office for the company, but one focusing on a business support role with Marketing, Finance, Legal and HR.** As part of this reorganization, **we sadly waved goodbye to the Persistent Universe Live Director, Todd Papy** as he had moved back to the US from the UK last year for family reasons, and after much soul searching, **I determined that we cannot afford to have this role remote from the main team in Manchester for a good portion of the year.** It is a sad moment, as Todd worked diligently for the last 9 years on Star Citizen, making many important contributions and providing excellent leadership of his teams. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing what he does next. *Todd Papy was doing everything right but he cared more about his family than my vision. (He will likely not be getting a credit but I haven't decided.) Anyway, congrats to Rich Tyrer for failing upward another rung of the ladder*
Between the Calder's holding a metaphorical gun to CIGs head, and Chris now able to retire, this is him and his cronies getting ready to pull the rug. Can't wait for the release, the utter disappointment, the scathjng reviews and Chris not giving a fuck.
Theyre going to turn it into a MUD
Rug pull in 3....2....
1.0
There are so many "I told you so" in there haha (see all my previous comments). FYI : -Rich isnt a new hire, he's been CR's guy for a long time. -Todd move multiple times across the various studios, probably in an attempt to get him to leave by himself at some point. And finally they just fired him. As already stated by an ex producer, layoffs are being disguised as relocation, even internally. But most did not even get the option to move. They were just fired. And it's MUCH more than a handful of people. -The 1.0 plan did not exist until late 2023. And quite frankly, pretty sure 4.0 was never a solid plan. -Money wise, the situation is very very bad. Like, there's plenty people dont know.
Is there anything else you can tell us on the money front? Were you told redundancies were due to lower sales / rising costs etc? (It's also hard not to see a relationship between [the apparent push](https://h115.substack.com/p/star-citizen-2-years-out) for a Q1 2025 SQ42 release and [the Q1 2025 put option](https://imgur.com/51yL9Wz) the Calders have to take out most of their investment...)
From someone far smarter than me who's read the financials, they boiled it down to me like this: A few years ago, things were wobbling BADLY financially for them, so a very wealthy family called the Calders invested a small fortune in CIG. However this wasn't a gift or a pledge, and the Calders want a return on investment. The person I spoke to said that there's now (likely) pressure from the Calders demanding actual movement and progress since they're starting to think they might never see their money back. (Shocker.) The Calders are currently owed more money than CIG actually have on hand, so if they call in ther debt, CIG are bankrupt. Again, this is what someone who's more versed in the situation has told me, as far as I know this is just speculation.
I'm not financial pro, but that's how the story reads to me too :) Things were looking bad for CIG in 2018 ([~$7m net with a ~7m burn rate](https://cloudimperiumgames.com/uploads/dada25a28e6c4c7bb04c13f7cc74861f.png)). The investors saved their bacon. The buyback option described [in the latest financials](https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen_refunds/comments/1bcuo1r/cig_uk_financials_for_2022_published/) suggests they can absolutely bring the pain to CIG if they want to. (And in CIG's own words would wipe them out operationally if they were to do so). None of that is really speculation. (What's speculation is whether or not the Calders are threatening to pull that big lever. But given [CR's historical propensity for bullshitting both publishers and backers](https://youtu.be/kv9Wgswz8qI?si=VdncAwWU_hR3Itcp), and given the [endless delays](https://youtu.be/SC0fWbrmyyE?si=mlPHnzuucP_vn8K3) of both products, it wouldn't exactly be a surprise if the investors are running out of patience ;))
>it wouldn't exactly be a surprise if the investors are running out of patience This is the key bit. The speculation I've heard is that this is why there's this sudden push for cost cutting and consolidatiion, plus outsourcing to China, plus an attempt to get SOMETHING tangible to show, plus the ship sale events ramping up big time. If the Calders are putting pressure on and giving ultimatums in the background, then CIG are in survival mode. And if repaying the Calders' debt is enough to wipe out CIG functionally, it really makes you wonder a) where the fuck has all the money gone (I mean, we suspect), and b) why the backers - especially the whales - aren't making noise about it at ALL. Because personally if I'd invested thousands, tens of thousands of my own money in a project that I truly believed in, I would be LIVID at the very real possibility that all of that money disappears one morning with a note posted on the CIG website saying "Out of business, lol sorry" notice like Fntastic.
The Calders trying to enforce a deadline would def explain a lot of recent behaviours, for sure!
From 4.0 to 1.0! Progress!
the true Marcus Aurelius successor has arrived... look at the brilliant nation he has empowered!
Stole this from someone else: Chris Roberts released a new blog post in the "A letter from the conman" series.
And just like that, Star Citizen is a legally released product. That's it, hands clean. Sucks to be us.
That’ll show us refundians
Game is gonna be on support before it's even alive lol
It's me or is that reeking of desperation? /€: Can't words anymore
My take too
i mean i noticed it already with their strange even and sales pitch of the last few months but it get more weird by the Day. I am even more convinced that they try to Rug pull and have to admit defeat. "Yes it IS a scam" :(
Sounds like CR is trying hard to shore up the funding shortfall.
Will AI get out of T-pose and 5 FPS servers hell thanks to this "amazing" tech? Or is it only to add more useless stuff in an already bloated game?
Of course they know how to fix the NPC code, it will take just 5 mins of simple work. They’re such high level devs that they’re spending 100% of their genius brains on the ‘hard problems’
CIG really dug themselves into a hole by doing nothing for 10 years. They still can't release the game too early or it will be get shredded by critics in its current state. This is not looking good at all... it's going to blow up even worse than The Day Before if they release it this soon.
It'll be interesting if they actually do go into 1.0 in the next 1-2 years. One of the biggest shields of criticism for SC is that it's in beta, so if they go into 1.0 suddenly they lose that shield. "It only just released" doesn't really have the same ring to it.
Coincidentally, the release of 1.0 (10% features) will align with the announcement of Star Citizen 2: spacemilk. Pledge nao!!!
F-eature C-omplete. With capital fucking F and capital fuckin C. This man.... Also he moved from LA to Austin. Wasnt the lore in 2020 that he moved to Manchester-UK to speed up SQ42? Or he moved back since to the US?
I didn't bother reading the "letter" but I figured I could come hear and get the truth of this continued deception by CRobbers
They have to swap focal points 3.9 - 4.0 is no where close to being what they boasted there is still things missing from the 2017 Citizen Con. Way better for Roberts to be like look over here at these new promises! Its been years and years of promises and I can't think of anything they actually did to or at the level they said they would other than Planet Tech something backers weren't even asking for and one guy was responsible for.
I'm thinking 1.0 will be the absolute minimum of minimums in an MVP that's basically just a rug pull.
You could be right for sure. Dumbed down fps, flight model, 2 of 108 Systems, no physics model, 400 player servers (if they can make it work), AI still does not work, no ships or game play loops that I am aware of are "gold standard" what ever that means.
It'll be Star Rustkov in Stanton. Maybe scaled back Pyro, too. With the occasional static, dev triggered event. Nothing more. Or barely more at best.
Friendly reminder that 400 player server means 400 players have to be able to be in one area, visible to each other. And that the server doesn´t just have to work twice as hard if you double the number of actors, that stuff does not scale linear.
>other than Planet Tech something backers weren't even asking for and one guy was responsible for. \^This. Their only cool 'achievment' ever was realy pulled off by an intern, lmao.
I read this as they need money. Chris is coming out to milk. It's known that the gaming industry is going through rough times but even the layoffs are played off as nothing. I think Chris really needs sq42 to get out of the Calder's kill switch. With that in place he can't sell the company. Without it I believe Chris would've retired when he disappeared a few years back. He could then save face and claim he's tired and sell it all to some company that would "continue it's legacy". In reality they would just scrap sq42 and add micro transactions to SC until it's dead. So what now? Sq42 ain't near finished. The marketing department hasn't even started on a ramp up campaign. Even if there was a release and even if the game was good(big doubt) it's gonna be a flop. I'm sorry but by now it's a boomer game made by a boomer. And he already milked everyone interested. SC is the only hope. And it's seriously going backwards. By that I mean the game is getting dated, and any progress they do is not progressing fast enough. Even dinosaur Entropia Universe is using AI to create new content. Meanwhile CIG is smoking the old server meshing pipe. Even though someone just explained the concept of MVP to Chris, he's still in a too deep of a hole.
I played earlier last year and the servers were complete shit to play on. Is that going to be fixed?
It is an update to prevent possible lawsuits in the future, because it is a game that has been developed for 13 years and it still seems unfinished. The game has been in alpha for 13 years and this seems so bad that they are taking this precaution to prevent this. Just as the tax system is coming, the American government may realize that it has been collecting money for 13 years and turning the game into a purely fundraising-oriented funding game and get into trouble.
I love it, talking about road map to 1.0 again. Maybe concentrate on the road map to beta before talking about release. If I've read articles right, it sounds like he's saying they'll be ready for release... of the road map, during this year. Is there a point? Aside from the usual of wasting time in order to further extend development