EA also launches games at a much higher rate than one game per nine years. Or zero games per nine years, for that matter. To spend $351 million on developing a single game before launch is unusual.
Add all those games and divide EA running cost along the years per them you'll notice how much it's spent.
CIG is developing 2 games. Star Citizen the MMO and Squadron42 the Single-Player campaign. Their funding encompasses everything. From R&D to Marketing to paying the janitor the constructor who builds the new studios or the accountant that does the finances. In EA those expenses are not accounted specifically to games or studios. They go into managing/operating costs.
EA also launches games at a much higher rate than one game per nine years. Or zero games per nine years, for that matter. To spend $351 million on developing a single game before launch is unusual.
Not to mention, its no where close to launching.. like years away probably
Technically they launched back in 2013 when they released their first playable build. Since then the servers have been running 24/7 and the game is being updated more and more regularly while being actively developed akin to an Early Access game.
You have a remarkable way of slithering around the facts. Star Citizen has crowdfunded 350$ million, has raised about 50 million from investors, and has tens of millions more from other sources. The only game arguably more expensive is RDR 2 because its exact cost is not known. Cyberpunk, in third place, cost $330m.
It just sounds bad that the most expensive game in history is still an early alpha with no release date in sight.
And will keep crowdfund much more as they have akin to a game in early access that can be played and keeps getting improved regularly. There's a product to play already, albeit unfinished, it has enough new people seem to enjoy it at a rate to continuous generate funding for the company developing it.
RDR2 took ~10 years and involved 3000 people to make, the operating cost plus Marketing alone easily surpasses the 500$million. Add the R&D expenses in developing all the technology needed to make a game like that and you reach the billion mark quite easily. Check Take-Two/Rockstar financial reports.
What sounds bad is that after 9 years no other company has been able to make a game even remotely alike what the Star Citizen Alpha already provides.
And that's fundamentally why they keep getting more funding and players every year, rinse & repeat.
I wonder...can crowdfunding double as a front for money laundering?
If one thing is absolutely clear, then its that the money is actually being spend, not laundered.
Those A-list hollywood actors he hired for Squadron42 probably took the main bulk of the cash so far.
Then he has now several studios spread around the world with hundreds of people in employment. Not exactly cheap either.
So if money is well spend or being wasted.... whatever floats your boat. The money is definitely being spend on development.
The main problem with this game, is the endless feature creep and someone needs to put a stop to Robert and tell him "Enough is enough! Lets finish the game! and worry about extra features later." /shrug
Wow...to think that all that money is actually being spent with not a beta version ready after so many years is just mind boggling. I guess the good side is that at least people are employed.
The game that took the longest in development of all time was Duke Nukem Forever, coming in at 15 years. SC still has some ways to go yet but is still on track to beat that.
The game that took the longest in development of all time was Duke Nukem Forever, coming in at 15 years. SC still has some ways to go yet but is still on track to beat that.
But there's plenty more, we just don't ever know about them being developed because it's not in most companies interest to disclose that to their shareholders
I haven't even been able to play it over the last year. Constantly crashing. I don't think this is what "more money more problems" is supposed to mean.
LOL a full year and not able to play once?
+200.000 NEW backers in 2020... because none were able to login, test/play they decided to pledge because they can't do a damned thing in game.
EA also launches games at a much higher rate than one game per nine years. Or zero games per nine years, for that matter. To spend $351 million on developing a single game before launch is unusual.
Add all those games and divide EA running cost along the years per them you'll notice how much it's spent.
CIG is developing 2 games. Star Citizen the MMO and Squadron42 the Single-Player campaign. Their funding encompasses everything. From R&D to Marketing to paying the janitor the constructor who builds the new studios or the accountant that does the finances. In EA those expenses are not accounted specifically to games or studios. They go into managing/operating costs.
According to Wikipedia, EA has averaged launching about 30 games per year over the last decade. So assuming that your development costs are correct, that comes to about $70 million per game. That's a lot less than $350 million for a game that isn't even done.
Mixing in marketing costs isn't a clean comparison. CIG doesn't have any launched games, so they don't really have anything to market yet. Unless you're counting fundraising costs, which is a very different thing.
When you include the money they received from private investors, Star Citizen is now or will soon become the most expensive video game ever developed.
Not even close. In reality it's peanuts considering the task at hand.
Imagine all the money spent on you and the one you acquired throughout life. From all food, clothing, the birthday gifts since birth along with all the money you've made from working all this years while Ignoring every single expense. Just keep adding and adding the sum of that.
Should be quite a big one by now right. Many thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe million?s? if you're old enough. Yet most here are not millionaires. (I assume). We've built our lives and used the money along the way to make a living.
A crowdfunding tracker shows the big sum gathered along the years. Not the story behind the journey to get there.
If you look at it as a whole without context it might appear a lot but when you account what's being done, the time and expenses it requires, it really isn't.
And if you dabble into the Financial reports of the major studios you'll notice just how much money goes into running game development studios, developing technology and making games.
It took CIG 9+ years of crowdfunding to reach 351$Millions. That's <40$Millions per Year!
That's almost 2 Billion Dollars last year alone expense solely on R&D.
Sure EA has multiple studios and many games under their wing with roughly 9000+ more employees than CIG but since Star Citizen crowdfunding campaign launched back in October 2012 EA as spent ~23$Billion dollars in R&D alone lol. Now imagine how much they spend in other divisions, marketing and so on.
Even if you divide that money along all the games they released it's still a butload of $$$.
Star Citizen/SQ42 is the biggest crowdfunded project ever but still far far away from rubbing shoulders with the giants of the industry.
Based on quick Wikipedia count, on 2020 EA launched 10 new games, 2 remasters and 3 expansions. If you count the 2 billion dollars research budget they have, that's less than 200 millions per launched game.
Whereas RSI has more than 400 million funding without a single launched game.
Do we really need 350M to make a decent game? Have we reached that point? I have played good games that cost only a few thousand.
No, you don't need that much.
The issue with Star Citizen development is that crowdfunders keep giving them money, and Chris Roberts is a dreamer who wants best of everything so he keeps spending it. Making a game like that doesn't even really make it good since games are about gameplay rather than impressive technical tricks. But it makes for some really impressive looking marketing material and a really expensive development.
According to Wikipedia, EA has averaged launching about 30 games per year over the last decade. So assuming that your development costs are correct, that comes to about $70 million per game. That's a lot less than $350 million for a game that isn't even done.
Mixing in marketing costs isn't a clean comparison. CIG doesn't have any launched games, so they don't really have anything to market yet. Unless you're counting fundraising costs, which is a very different thing.
That's EA expenditure in R&D alone, making games involves more than just R&D.
Based on quick Wikipedia count, on 2020 EA launched 10 new games, 2 remasters and 3 expansions. If you count the 2 billion dollars research budget they have, that's less than 200 millions per launched game.
Whereas RSI has more than 400 million funding without a single launched game.
The total Operating expenses in last year was ~4Billions though. R&D is just one part of the costs.
Star Citizen.exe launched back in 2013. It's akin to an early access game like many others GaaS (Games As a Service) it's available to buy and play while it gets developed. That means the servers are online 24/7 and juicy updates are added every quarter.
Which, despite being unfinished, unoptimized and buggy resonates better with the spaceship aficionados than whatever EA has puts out in the last decade.
I still think the most obvious thing is true, the game is playable right now and thats whats bringing in more money. People have their opinions but obviously the consumer is speaking with their wallets. I hope SC keeps doing what they are doing, and winning.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I haven't even been able to play it over the last year. Constantly crashing. I don't think this is what "more money more problems" is supposed to mean.
LOL a full year and not able to play once?
+200.000 NEW backers in 2020... because none were able to login, test/play they decided to pledge because they can't do a damned thing in game.
Hater hate that's what they are good for
What in the hell does any of that have to do with me not being able to play due to crashes?
Here I was on reddit trying to figure it out with all of the other people crashing every 30 minutes, and the whole time the solution was in knowing that there were 200k bakers in 2020.
[SOLVED]
I have ran SC on a wide array of settups for hardware. What are you running currently?
I liked the Rabbit. Hope he's having fun somewhere....
What happened to him, I don't really follow these sorts of threads except to do a wind up or welcome, but I remember his posts elsewhere as being quite solid.
Comments
Wow...to think that all that money is actually being spent with not a beta version ready after so many years is just mind boggling. I guess the good side is that at least people are employed.
mmorpg junkie since 1999
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
LOL a full year and not able to play once?
+200.000 NEW backers in 2020... because none were able to login, test/play they decided to pledge because they can't do a damned thing in game.
Hater hate that's what they are good for
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
Mixing in marketing costs isn't a clean comparison. CIG doesn't have any launched games, so they don't really have anything to market yet. Unless you're counting fundraising costs, which is a very different thing.
Whereas RSI has more than 400 million funding without a single launched game.
The issue with Star Citizen development is that crowdfunders keep giving them money, and Chris Roberts is a dreamer who wants best of everything so he keeps spending it. Making a game like that doesn't even really make it good since games are about gameplay rather than impressive technical tricks. But it makes for some really impressive looking marketing material and a really expensive development.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.