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SQ 42 roadmap updated
rodarin
Member EpicPosts: 2,611
in Star Citizen
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As we look forward to the holidays, I want to give you all a couple of updates. The first item of news is that the Squadron 42 public roadmap is going live today. As with our Persistent Universe roadmap, this is linked to our company’s internal JIRA tracking system, so you can see at a glance the work remaining to complete the game. It was a lot of work to make sure every remaining task was broken down in detail and estimated to the best of our ability.
The same caveats will apply to the Squadron 42 roadmap as they do to the PU's, but our plan is to be feature and content complete by the end of 2019, with the first 6 months of 2020 for Alpha (balance, optimization, and polish) and then Beta.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
They exhausted approximately 40-45% of their reserved cash over the past three years. SQ42, the less ambitious project, still has another year and a half to beta at best, meaning final SC release is likely 3+ years out (that sound fair?).
At the rate they were burning through the reserve cash, they would likely fall short of covering expenses by the release year of SC (assuming a stable rate of cash burn that doesn't decrease or increase year over year).
Does it seem to anyone else like the investor money was as much pragmatic necessity as anything else? And, if so, that tacit admission that, after hundreds of millions of dollars from backers, CIG will burn through it all without actually having completed a single title... Does that rub any backers here the wrong way?
With everything that was dropped on people today it was probably worse news than if Crytek had won the lawsuit against them.
Because now the lights are on and the dirty corners of this fiasco are getting exposed.
And if theyre willing to admit Q4 (which lets face it means Dec) 2020 or whatever for the beta then tack on at least another year or two to that. So another 3 years at least more than likely 4. So that makes it just over a decade from the first interview and the release of a SINGLE player game that they did the voice acting for 2 or 3 years ago. How much longer for the Multiplayer portion?
I don't remember any part of the crowdfunding campaign mentioning that they were crowdfunding to get to the point where they could grab an investor. I thought the reasoning behind the extravagant cash CIG was accepting from backers was to avoid needing to sell up parts of the company and/or make commitments that leave them beholden to an investor like this. What if the investor exercises their influence to pressure CIG on a certain issue, such as cutting scope back? Would you be okay with that?
9 Years to develop a beta for a non complete version of the game. This is literally going into the territory of longest development time.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
great article, they basically had 14 million left in the bank of the 210 million. So lets call the tech demo guys are playing in 200 million bucks. So awesome I cant stop laughing.
I am not the guy...ahh shit who am I kidding...I TOLD YOU SO.
So their 14 million and this guys 46 million they now have 60 million (two years worth of salaries). How does an investor curb future ship sales? I think it will be a lot. Of course the die hards will still throw money at it but I imagine the people who were living the dream wont.
After reading everything I suspect that they will be all hands on deck to release SQ 42 (which I said should have been their priority three years ago.) However now, instead of using those sales to fund SC, I think those sales will go directly to pay off the guy who just basically bailed them out.
I suspect they were much better at selling SQ 42 release (with all those famous actors voicing it) and said once we release that you will get your money back.
But even so I suspect it was a wink and a nod and they made up a figure and called it a valuation and basically the guy really has nothing (because he doesnt) because as I said CIG has almost no assets. Guy is gambling, and more than likely the 46 million comes with a 75 or 100 million dollar pay back price tag (assuming SQ 42 is a success). Of course that wont make it into any press releases.
The entire idea of this project was to avoid the traditional funding and, so, avoid pressures from investors. If they start taking on traditional investors, the biggest reason CR stated for taking all this money from gamers is moot and invalid.
This is an interesting development.
Of course Roberts being what (I think he is) could still broker deals with the full intention of defaulting on everything in a desperate attempt to complete his vision.
But I suspect these investors are all in on SQ 42 and more than likely have a clause that says no one else other than no stake pledge givers can 'invest' in SQ 42. That would be what I would do. If I actually was willing to gamble on something like this. SQ 42 MIGHT be worth it if the incentives were enough. I laid out what I think would be enough.
I would start at full recoup of my initial 46 million if they sell 2 million copies. (less than the number of 'citizens' they have.) Then I would graduate it it in comparison to other games. Ending with something like 5 million which is what GW 2 and a few other games sold which is basically a top 10 scenario I wold want 60 million. For 10 million sold I would want 75 million. If they outsold Minecraft at around 29 million and became the number one PC game of all time I would want 100 million. I might throw a 25 million in there for a safety net for 80 million.
But really I Shouldnt be making up nonsense like that the reality of it all is entertaining enough.
FGrom the article:
By the end of 2017, the company brought in a total of $207 million and had spent $193 million since 2012. Capital on hand at the end of 2017 fell 26% to $14 million from the prior year. Total income—made up from fan pledges, its subscription pass and fan events like its annual CitizenCon event—has been consistent the past three years, with the company bringing in $44 million in 2017.
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them
It's on Cumulative Net Position, CIG uses the ongoing crowdfund to cover most of the operative cost, only keeping a cash reserve for costs beyond that income.
Thread for this here: https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/478267/cig-publishes-financials-for-years-2012-2017/p1
I'm sure a lot have said they believe it
..Cake..
I think I actually spent way more time reading and theorycrafting about MMOs than playing them