Man I do not have enough popcorn for all this , they just need to get a show together hell start filming this whole thing cameras following Roberts and smart around like a reality show .
Here's my guess, I have no real issue with the project other than I'm not fond of the idea they sell ships for such crazy amounts. It just seems like where there is smoke there is fire, they are likely low on funds and not as far as long as they should be. I trust nothing Derek Smart says I think he's just taking a gamble and guessing based on the evidence we all see that the game is in money trouble and we all know what Mr. Smart wants out of this whole fiasco.
On the flip side I think Roberts is lashing out because there is a bit of truth to Smarts comments and if people start bailing on buying these ships they keep pumping out the whole game goes 38 studios. This just seems obvious, not saying Roberts should open the books to the public but I'm sure showing people they do have more created than the little bit they have provided would likely calm the whales fears. There lies the problem there is nothing else its a house of cards and its crashing in around Roberts as we speak.
Like I said just a guess from someone that is enjoying the forum nonsense more than any game Roberts has provided in years.
By the way, if a supposed journalist writes a fraudulent article, they should be run out of the business immediately. But instead, people are giving The Escapist and the writer a free pass, because...?
Because it isn't fraudulent?
What should happen to posters who sling false accusations at journalists? Should they be run out of forums immediately?
Maybe it isn't fraudulent, but the original draft was a shit-stained piece of journalism. The slant was biased in the extreme and missing half the perspectives. The description of "hit piece" was well-deserved. Now it's been heavily edited to include more of Chris Roberts response. Well gee, that was swell of them to take care of that after the fact.
It was put up in its original form because why? Just couldn't wait, huh? If they'd given it another day then the anonymous sources would've spontaneously combusted or something? Then the managing editor steps in and says they'd given more notice than they usually would, as if that excuses their publication of a completely biased, obviously one-sided article. Well, I'm glad they cleaned it up after essentially being forced to do so or be laughed off the internet.
Well I have a different perspective:
If Chris Roberts hadn't spend the larger portion of the 24 hours he was given researching and writing a smear piece on Lizzy and just answered the questions (as he eventually did at the end of his bizarre and lengthy character assassination piece) AND if he had had the courtesy to "reply all" so that the original CC recipients, the author and editor, would have gotten his response, his reaction would have been included in the original instead of added 45 minutes later when Lizzy finally got it.
While a valid perspective, I can say with confidence that if I were the one making the call I would NOT have published that article in its original form. If you would have made a different call then okay.
Whenever you ask someone for a response to a story you're going to publish that is critical of them or their company, you ALWAYS give them a deadline and stick to it because their natural inclination is to stall and try to kill the story.
Unless you're fishing for clickbaits or have an agenda, publishing that article to begin with should have been a no go. The claims made by 'sources' have no corroborative evidence to back them up. Now, if they were minor accusations and it wasn't a headline piece then it's probably fine. The issue is there's claims of embezzlement, discrimination, mismanagement of funds, and so forth. There should have at least been more substantial evidence other than words from employees that may be disgruntled and may even see Derek Smart's narrative as a way to hurt the company they're disgruntled towards.
I'm baffled by why people don't understand this since this is a basic part of ethics in journalism when it comes to undisclosed sources.
And you are forgetting : they might not even be employees but fakers endorsed by Derek "moron" Smart or the "moron' himself writing review on glassware. 3 of Lizzy's "sources" without any surprise told her things exactly like the "former CIG employee" reviewer in glassware.
Could be, but I'd like to refrain from calling Derek Smart a moron. He's not a moron, but suffers from a massive case of egotism. It's his egotism that makes him do 'moronic' things. Besides, Derek Smart is probably either going to slink away soon after some well known people start dropping some information or he's going to start bombing everyone with threats of lawsuits.
Man I do not have enough popcorn for all this , they just need to get a show together hell start filming this whole thing cameras following Roberts and smart around like a reality show .
Oh, that'd be epic. Every time Chris Roberts makes a rebuttal Derek Smart would threaten to sue and call his FTC buddies.
Man I do not have enough popcorn for all this , they just need to get a show together hell start filming this whole thing cameras following Roberts and smart around like a reality show .
Oh, that'd be epic. Every time Chris Roberts makes a rebuttal Derek Smart would threaten to sue and call his FTC buddies.
They can call it Gone With The Wind.
Playing the Wind - 100mil Playing Gone - Chris Roberts
Here's my guess, I have no real issue with the project other than I'm not fond of the idea they sell ships for such crazy amounts. It just seems like where there is smoke there is fire, they are likely low on funds and not as far as long as they should be. I trust nothing Derek Smart says I think he's just taking a gamble and guessing based on the evidence we all see that the game is in money trouble and we all know what Mr. Smart wants out of this whole fiasco.
On the flip side I think Roberts is lashing out because there is a bit of truth to Smarts comments and if people start bailing on buying these ships they keep pumping out the whole game goes 38 studios. This just seems obvious, not saying Roberts should open the books to the public but I'm sure showing people they do have more created than the little bit they have provided would likely calm the whales fears. There lies the problem there is nothing else its a house of cards and its crashing in around Roberts as we speak.
Like I said just a guess from someone that is enjoying the forum nonsense more than any game Roberts has provided in years.
This could all very well be true. However, I honestly believe that what set Chris Roberts off was Derek Smart going after his wife and tweeting pictures of his kid. CR is a long time developer so he's probably seen his fair share of hate. You tend to grow a thick skin. However, when you start involving family you're pushing buttons you shouldn't.
Honestly, stop playing the fences, please. I'm tired of this Derek is this and that, but Chris Roberts responding is blah crap. Derek Smart, the Escapist article, and a lot of people on the Internet have strait up put a bullseye on Sandi and have dragged their kids into this.
That's a line that any reasonable person would say shouldn't be crossed.
Unless you're fishing for clickbaits or have an agenda, publishing that article to begin with should have been a no go. The claims made by 'sources' have no corroborative evidence to back them up. Now, if they were minor accusations and it wasn't a headline piece then it's probably fine. The issue is there's claims of embezzlement, discrimination, mismanagement of funds, and so forth. There should have at least been more substantial evidence other than words from employees that may be disgruntled and may even see Derek Smart's narrative as a way to hurt the company they're disgruntled towards.
I'm baffled by why people don't understand this since this is a basic part of ethics in journalism when it comes to undisclosed sources.
Whether it should have been published or not is an editorial decision and they made the call that they had enough corroboration to print it. Not everything they know, nor documents they have were used in the story. A lot was held back and used as background to prevent their sources being identified.
You're right that what the current and former employees told The Escapist are very serious allegations. The editor has to make the call as to whether they're being fed a line by disgruntled employees with an agenda or the allegations have some substance. They made the call that they believe the allegations are substantial.
Did they make the right call? I can't know because I don't have the source material and emails nor did I personally speak to the employees.
So all I can go on is making a choice about what to believe is based on what I have read: the article, CR's reply and the follow-up article by the EIC. I see legitimate above-board behavior on the part of The Escapist and a shameful tirade by CR that he really...really, should have run by a PR professional before emailing it and especially before proudly publishing it on the website for the world to see. Who to believe?
It's not like I'm unfamiliar with toxic work environments, dismissals and investigations including interviewing people and trying to get at the truth - doing just that has been my job for 35 years. I have pretty finely honed BS detectors
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Give it a rest, when the game will be released and will be considered one of the greatest game in the history, these people along with Derek "moron" Smart and escapist. will still bash RSI, CIG and SC. they just want this game to fail because RSI and CIG got so much money from crowdfunding. It is like the mentality of poor : rich has more money so they are evil.
How do people come to this kind of conclusion?
Please do educate me: In what way do DS, escapist and some other magazines could potentialy able to ruin SC, CR and CIG by publising negative articles towards them? Explain in great details please, I beg you. How are they able to make SC fail when they have no hand in the development of the game?
CR/CGI has full fund for the development of SC; Long before any of this so called mudslinging towards CR/CGI even begin.
Who missed the deadlines and milestones of the development? Is caused by the negative articles about CR/CGI?
Bashing the newspapers due to lack of credibility does not make the truth goes away. The truth needs no validation.
Unless you're fishing for clickbaits or have an agenda, publishing that article to begin with should have been a no go. The claims made by 'sources' have no corroborative evidence to back them up. Now, if they were minor accusations and it wasn't a headline piece then it's probably fine. The issue is there's claims of embezzlement, discrimination, mismanagement of funds, and so forth. There should have at least been more substantial evidence other than words from employees that may be disgruntled and may even see Derek Smart's narrative as a way to hurt the company they're disgruntled towards.
I'm baffled by why people don't understand this since this is a basic part of ethics in journalism when it comes to undisclosed sources.
Whether it should have been published or not is an editorial decision and they made the call that they had enough corroboration to print it. Not everything they know, nor documents they have were used in the story. A lot was held back and used as background to prevent their sources being identified.
You're right that what the current and former employees told The Escapist are very serious allegations. The editor has to make the call as to whether they're being fed a line by disgruntled employees with an agenda or the allegations have some substance. They made the call that they believe the allegations are substantial.
Did they make the right call? I can't know because I don't have the source material and emails nor did I personally speak to the employees.
So all I can go on is making a choice about what to believe is based on what I have read: the article, CR's reply and the follow-up article by the EIC. I see legitimate above-board behavior on the part of The Escapist and a shameful tirade by CR that he really...really, should have run by a PR professional before emailing it and especially before proudly publishing it on the website for the world to see. Who to believe?
It's not like I'm unfamiliar with toxic work environments, dismissals and investigations including interviewing people and trying to get at the truth - doing just that has been my job for 35 years. I have pretty finely honed BS detectors
"If and when we get verifiable documentation to support the allegations, that will be published."
That's a snippet. Read the whole thing. However, it appears that they have accepted Chris Roberts's offer. Of course, they had to, otherwise they'd look worse than they already do among respected journalists.
Honestly, stop playing the fences, please. I'm tired of this Derek is this and that, but Chris Roberts responding is blah crap. Derek Smart, the Escapist article, and a lot of people on the Internet have strait up put a bullseye on Sandi and have dragged their kids into this.
That's a line that any reasonable person would say shouldn't be crossed.
I don't really follow the DS side of things at all but weren't there accusations of nepotism with people saying "No lol, they're not married, they don't have kids" and all the 'other' side did was post proof, simple to find proof from imdb or whatever. That seems fair enough.
If they had been more open, if Lesnick hadn't lied in the first place, a fair bit of this mess might have been avoided.
Well if you think i am going to take a guys word who speaks to people over a video then you would be wrong, so him not willing to end this shows me that he may have something to hide, i mean who would let it go on for this long ?
You know who Chris Roberts is, right? Furthermore, you've read his response to all of this, correct?
I wouldn't be taking his word as gospel, i'm an atheist, i am not religious, i am just saying as i see it my view isn't clouded, i didn't even know who chris roberts or derek smart was until all this.
Well that has been posted mutliple times in different threads on this forum can't remember which ones i have read so many about all this.
500k and yes year late to answer the core question you keep asking with nothing about DS
Well if that is true then that makes me feel even more sure that there might be a problem then.
A more complete answer is the original KS goal was 500k for a relatively small(and achievable) feature list. Not to long into the campaign the $ windfall incentivized them to decide to massively expand on the original feature set( wisely or un wisely other people can argue about) beyond the scope of the original goal and modified from what the original backers supported(again wise or unwise I won't get into).
Well that has been posted mutliple times in different threads on this forum can't remember which ones i have read so many about all this.
500k and yes year late to answer the core question you keep asking with nothing about DS
Well if that is true then that makes me feel even more sure that there might be a problem then.
A more complete answer is the original KS goal was 500k for a relatively small(and achievable) feature list. Not to long into the campaign the $ windfall incentivized them to decide to massively expand on the original feature set( wisely or un wisely other people can argue about) beyond the scope of the original goal and modified from what the original backers supported(again wise or unwise I won't get into).
And for the sake of completeness, their original Terms of Service stipulated that if the game was not released by December 2014, the backers could get a refund after November 2015.
They then changed the TOS in February 2015 to make the completion date at the end of 2016 and refunds available 18 months after that in June of 2018.
Details... details.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Well that has been posted mutliple times in different threads on this forum can't remember which ones i have read so many about all this.
500k and yes year late to answer the core question you keep asking with nothing about DS
Well if that is true then that makes me feel even more sure that there might be a problem then.
A more complete answer is the original KS goal was 500k for a relatively small(and achievable) feature list. Not to long into the campaign the $ windfall incentivized them to decide to massively expand on the original feature set( wisely or un wisely other people can argue about) beyond the scope of the original goal and modified from what the original backers supported(again wise or unwise I won't get into).
And for the sake of completeness, their original Terms of Service stipulated that if the game was not released by December 2014, the backers could get a refund after November 2015.
They then changed the TOS in February 2015 to make the completion date at the end of 2016 and refunds available 18 months after that in June of 2018.
Unless you're fishing for clickbaits or have an agenda, publishing that article to begin with should have been a no go. The claims made by 'sources' have no corroborative evidence to back them up. Now, if they were minor accusations and it wasn't a headline piece then it's probably fine. The issue is there's claims of embezzlement, discrimination, mismanagement of funds, and so forth. There should have at least been more substantial evidence other than words from employees that may be disgruntled and may even see Derek Smart's narrative as a way to hurt the company they're disgruntled towards.
I'm baffled by why people don't understand this since this is a basic part of ethics in journalism when it comes to undisclosed sources.
Whether it should have been published or not is an editorial decision and they made the call that they had enough corroboration to print it. Not everything they know, nor documents they have were used in the story. A lot was held back and used as background to prevent their sources being identified.
You're right that what the current and former employees told The Escapist are very serious allegations. The editor has to make the call as to whether they're being fed a line by disgruntled employees with an agenda or the allegations have some substance. They made the call that they believe the allegations are substantial.
Did they make the right call? I can't know because I don't have the source material and emails nor did I personally speak to the employees.
So all I can go on is making a choice about what to believe is based on what I have read: the article, CR's reply and the follow-up article by the EIC. I see legitimate above-board behavior on the part of The Escapist and a shameful tirade by CR that he really...really, should have run by a PR professional before emailing it and especially before proudly publishing it on the website for the world to see. Who to believe?
It's not like I'm unfamiliar with toxic work environments, dismissals and investigations including interviewing people and trying to get at the truth - doing just that has been my job for 35 years. I have pretty finely honed BS detectors
"If and when we get verifiable documentation to support the allegations, that will be published."
That's a snippet. Read the whole thing. However, it appears that they have accepted Chris Roberts's offer. Of course, they had to, otherwise they'd look worse than they already do among respected journalists.
Yes I did that and although not stated, that will still mean only if documents do not identify a source unless the source wants to be identified (apparently a few of them do.)
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Well that has been posted mutliple times in different threads on this forum can't remember which ones i have read so many about all this.
500k and yes year late to answer the core question you keep asking with nothing about DS
Well if that is true then that makes me feel even more sure that there might be a problem then.
A more complete answer is the original KS goal was 500k for a relatively small(and achievable) feature list. Not to long into the campaign the $ windfall incentivized them to decide to massively expand on the original feature set( wisely or un wisely other people can argue about) beyond the scope of the original goal and modified from what the original backers supported(again wise or unwise I won't get into).
IMO it was wise to expand it; it was unwise not to create an engine and base space simulator first, and then build the other stretch goal features after they had something concrete.
Well if you think i am going to take a guys word who speaks to people over a video then you would be wrong, so him not willing to end this shows me that he may have something to hide, i mean who would let it go on for this long ?
You know who Chris Roberts is, right? Furthermore, you've read his response to all of this, correct?
I wouldn't be taking his word as gospel, i am an atheist, i am not religious, i am just saying as i see it my view isn't clouded, i didn't even know who chris roberts or derek smart was until all this.
As am I. Glad to meet a fellow skeptic. I'm not a backer for two reasons: 1) I won't back a product that sells shit for a game that isn't even released -- let alone thousands of dollars for a ship (this criticism of CIG is a very legit one) and 2) I don't care for the space/scifi MMO's.
I'm not taking Chris Roberts's word as a gospel. I'm merely pointing out that I believe that his description of where they're at holds more weight, atm. I don't think there's enough evidence to prove otherwise right now.
You have to remember that the $90 million raised could have provided them enough cushion for another couple years. What's lost in this is that other games have had 500+ people working on them for just as long, and sometimes longer, that are in the $100 - $150 million range.
Even if their actual cash on hand was $8 million, as claimed by non-credible sources, this doesn't mean that that's a stagnant amount nor that's the right representation of their financial situation. There's additional things to consider, one of which Chris Roberts points out on his response letter, where they established additional funding sources.
Also, that $8 million cash is liquid capital. They could have paid some funds or made some funds unavailable for various contracts/etc in other areas for work that hasn't yet been completed. Again, though, that actual number hasn't been verified (no evidence for it).
It's not as simple as saying they obviously have low cash reserves and therefore they're in trouble. Unless you have direct access to all the financial data this cannot be probably assessed.
Well if you think i am going to take a guys word who speaks to people over a video then you would be wrong, so him not willing to end this shows me that he may have something to hide, i mean who would let it go on for this long ?
You know who Chris Roberts is, right? Furthermore, you've read his response to all of this, correct?
I wouldn't be taking his word as gospel, i am an atheist, i am not religious, i am just saying as i see it my view isn't clouded, i didn't even know who chris roberts or derek smart was until all this.
As am I. Glad to meet a fellow skeptic. I'm not a backer for two reasons: 1) I won't back a product that sells shit for a game that isn't even released -- let alone thousands of dollars and 2) I don't care for the space/scifi MMO's.
I'm not taking Chris Roberts's word as a gospel. I'm merely pointing out that I believe that his description of where they're at holds more weight, atm. I don't think there's enough evidence to prove otherwise right now.
You have to remember that the $90 million raised could have provided them enough cushion for another couple years. What's lost in this is that other games have had 500+ people working on them for just as long, and sometimes longer, that are in the $100 - $150 million range.
Even if their actual cash on hand was $8 million, as claimed by non-credible sources, this doesn't mean that that's a stagnant amount nor that's the right representation of their financial situation. There's additional things to consider, one of which Chris Roberts points out on his response letter, where they established additional funding sources.
Also, that $8 million cash is liquid capital. They could have paid some funds or made some funds unavailable for various contracts/etc in other areas for work that hasn't yet been completed. Again, though, that actual number hasn't been verified (no evidence for it).
It's not as simple as saying they obviously have low cash reserves and therefore they're in trouble. Unless you have direct access to all the financial data this cannot be probably assessed.
Well when you make comments like this i think you might be a little bias.
You know who Chris Roberts is, right? Furthermore, you've read his response to all of this, correct?
And for the sake of completeness, their original Terms of Service stipulated that if the game was not released by December 2014, the backers could get a refund after November 2015.
They then changed the TOS in February 2015 to make the completion date at the end of 2016 and refunds available 18 months after that in June of 2018.
Details... details.
Wow that's shady.
Yeah. I think so too.
In the podcasts I linked above, the author of the escapist piece, Lizzy Finnegan, says that it was precisely that detail that got her interested in doing a piece in the first place.
That original TOS, they also say, appears to be extremely difficult to find anywhere although some websites have copies of it.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Comments
The shills are strong atm.
On the flip side I think Roberts is lashing out because there is a bit of truth to Smarts comments and if people start bailing on buying these ships they keep pumping out the whole game goes 38 studios. This just seems obvious, not saying Roberts should open the books to the public but I'm sure showing people they do have more created than the little bit they have provided would likely calm the whales fears. There lies the problem there is nothing else its a house of cards and its crashing in around Roberts as we speak.
Like I said just a guess from someone that is enjoying the forum nonsense more than any game Roberts has provided in years.
Could be, but I'd like to refrain from calling Derek Smart a moron. He's not a moron, but suffers from a massive case of egotism. It's his egotism that makes him do 'moronic' things. Besides, Derek Smart is probably either going to slink away soon after some well known people start dropping some information or he's going to start bombing everyone with threats of lawsuits.
Playing the Wind - 100mil
Playing Gone - Chris Roberts
Honestly, stop playing the fences, please. I'm tired of this Derek is this and that, but Chris Roberts responding is blah crap. Derek Smart, the Escapist article, and a lot of people on the Internet have strait up put a bullseye on Sandi and have dragged their kids into this.
That's a line that any reasonable person would say shouldn't be crossed.
You're right that what the current and former employees told The Escapist are very serious allegations. The editor has to make the call as to whether they're being fed a line by disgruntled employees with an agenda or the allegations have some substance. They made the call that they believe the allegations are substantial.
Did they make the right call? I can't know because I don't have the source material and emails nor did I personally speak to the employees.
So all I can go on is making a choice about what to believe is based on what I have read: the article, CR's reply and the follow-up article by the EIC. I see legitimate above-board behavior on the part of The Escapist and a shameful tirade by CR that he really...really, should have run by a PR professional before emailing it and especially before proudly publishing it on the website for the world to see. Who to believe?
It's not like I'm unfamiliar with toxic work environments, dismissals and investigations including interviewing people and trying to get at the truth - doing just that has been my job for 35 years. I have pretty finely honed BS detectors
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Please do educate me: In what way do DS, escapist and some other magazines could potentialy able to ruin SC, CR and CIG by publising negative articles towards them? Explain in great details please, I beg you. How are they able to make SC fail when they have no hand in the development of the game?
Bashing the newspapers due to lack of credibility does not make the truth goes away. The truth needs no validation.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/14727-The-Escapist-Explains-Its-Star-Citizen-Sources-Vetting-and-Respo?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all
That's a snippet. Read the whole thing. However, it appears that they have accepted Chris Roberts's offer. Of course, they had to, otherwise they'd look worse than they already do among respected journalists.
I don't really follow the DS side of things at all but weren't there accusations of nepotism with people saying "No lol, they're not married, they don't have kids" and all the 'other' side did was post proof, simple to find proof from imdb or whatever. That seems fair enough.
If they had been more open, if Lesnick hadn't lied in the first place, a fair bit of this mess might have been avoided.
I wouldn't be taking his word as gospel, i'm an atheist, i am not religious, i am just saying as i see it my view isn't clouded, i didn't even know who chris roberts or derek smart was until all this.
Well if that is true then that makes me feel even more sure that there might be a problem then.
A more complete answer is the original KS goal was 500k for a relatively small(and achievable) feature list. Not to long into the campaign the $ windfall incentivized them to decide to massively expand on the original feature set( wisely or un wisely other people can argue about) beyond the scope of the original goal and modified from what the original backers supported(again wise or unwise I won't get into).
They then changed the TOS in February 2015 to make the completion date at the end of 2016 and refunds available 18 months after that in June of 2018.
Details... details.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Yes I did that and although not stated, that will still mean only if documents do not identify a source unless the source wants to be identified (apparently a few of them do.)
And if you didn't see today's video podcast where both Lizzy and the EIC talk more about this, here's the link:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-podcast/57500-Crowdfunding-Podcast
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
oops yea what he said
EDIT there's enough of that around here from everywhere
I'm not taking Chris Roberts's word as a gospel. I'm merely pointing out that I believe that his description of where they're at holds more weight, atm. I don't think there's enough evidence to prove otherwise right now.
You have to remember that the $90 million raised could have provided them enough cushion for another couple years. What's lost in this is that other games have had 500+ people working on them for just as long, and sometimes longer, that are in the $100 - $150 million range.
Even if their actual cash on hand was $8 million, as claimed by non-credible sources, this doesn't mean that that's a stagnant amount nor that's the right representation of their financial situation. There's additional things to consider, one of which Chris Roberts points out on his response letter, where they established additional funding sources.
Also, that $8 million cash is liquid capital. They could have paid some funds or made some funds unavailable for various contracts/etc in other areas for work that hasn't yet been completed. Again, though, that actual number hasn't been verified (no evidence for it).
It's not as simple as saying they obviously have low cash reserves and therefore they're in trouble. Unless you have direct access to all the financial data this cannot be probably assessed.
You know who Chris Roberts is, right? Furthermore, you've read his response to all of this, correct?
In the podcasts I linked above, the author of the escapist piece, Lizzy Finnegan, says that it was precisely that detail that got her interested in doing a piece in the first place.
That original TOS, they also say, appears to be extremely difficult to find anywhere although some websites have copies of it.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED