The SF mega project Star Citizen has now been in development for 10 years. Fans of the game are currently excited about a YouTube video in which a developer announces an important internal development step towards the “persistent universe”, the day when “everything in Star Citizen matters”, like in a real MMO. However, there is mockery from the outside.
How much money has Star Citizen made so far? The SF project Star Citizen has currently generated 496.9 million US dollars in revenue from 4.06 million “Star Citizens”. That is 499.2 million euros.
What is the important step? In a 14-minute video, a developer from Star Citizen, Benoit Beausejour, explains the important step his team has just accomplished:
The step involves moving the “persistent universe” of Star Citizen from an experimental stage, where only a small team is working, to mainstream development so that the whole team can work on it.
So it is an internal, important development step that, however, currently has no impact on players:
- the persistent universe is getting closer
- Star Citizen does not yet have a date for when it will be available in the playable version.
Crowdfunding MMOs have had a hard time in the past – Star Citizen aims to triumph:
What is the persistent universe? The “persistent universe” ensures that servers in Star Citizen remain stable and every action taken there has lasting consequences.
The developer explains it this way:
The system allows us to make the entire game world persistent. We can then restore it at any time, so nothing is lost. The changes made by players are significant.
Benoit Beausejour, Turbulent Studios Chief Technical Officer
For players, this means:
- every time they return to a server, the game will be in the same state
- if you leave a ship or a drink can somewhere, they will stay there
When will this be the case in the game? There is still no exact date for this. The tech chief only states that an important step has been taken to integrate this technology into the main development branch of Star Citizen. Now it is about stabilizing this important step.
Fans of Star Citizen are thrilled about the announcement
How is this received by fans? The video is enthusiastically received by the fans. It has already garnered 5,470 likes with just over 73,000 views. Fans praise in the YouTube comments, as someone speaks without a PR filter:
- The video is a proper “deep dive”, the described step is an extremely important step for the future
- One user says: “Congratulations on uniting the development branches. This is a big moment for the game and for the team”
- Another says: “It’s so exciting to see that you have worked so hard and it’s now taking shape. Keep up the great work.”
How is it viewed from the outside? On the site Massivelyop, the video is also discussed. Here, the mood in the comments is skeptical to hostile (via mop):
- “It’s really nice that you are testing some fundamental technological stuff… 10 years after the development began.”
- Another user quips: “You’re supporting a 500 million US dollar project that can barely run at 60 FPS on the best system on the market. 10 years in development and only a fraction of the planned content and systems are in the game so far.”
Star Citizen can only be understood if you are “in” it
This is behind it: The view of Star Citizen differs significantly depending on whether you are “in the bubble” or “outside the bubble”.
The step described in the video is immensely significant for insiders and the developers themselves because it shows: “It’s progressing”.
For outsiders, such a step is hardly comprehensible, as these are internal developments that are not discussed in other games at all. New features are usually shown to players in other games twice: when they are announced and when they go live. Such intermediate steps are usually done internally and not discussed.
Outside the Star Citizen bubble, players think of terms like “beta start” or “release date” when it comes to important development steps. However, Star Citizen no longer wants to talk about such things.
MMORPG Star Citizen talks about release date – fans mock and groan
