The MMO Star Citizen has now raised 587 million US Dollars through “donations”. However, there is now criticism in the forums about the business practices of the developers: The single-player campaign “Squadron 42” has been missing from the store for weeks, and a price increase is apparently being prepared. The price of three virtual spacecraft was raised without warning – fans find all of this highly suspicious. Star Citizen is responding and temporarily lowering the prices of the ships.
What is happening with the single-player campaign?
- Star Citizen is essentially a sci-fi MMORPG that is supposed to become the home of countless space pilots at some point. The project has been in development since 2010.
- Squadron 42, however, is a single-player campaign that features Hollywood stars. The campaign aims to please fans of Wing Commander, the game series that made Chris Roberts famous.
- There is no release date for either Star Citizen or Squadron 42. Originally, Squadron 42 was planned as part of Star Citizen, but has since been detached.
Squadron 42 disappears from the shop – CIG has long concealed the reason
This is the change: Squadron 42 was available for purchase on the Star Citizen sales page all along: either alone or as part of a bundle.
However, since May 18, it has disappeared from all offers (via mop). Squadron 42 can no longer be bought.
CIG left this for about 10 days without further explanation.
But now a community manager has responded in a post that was already a week old (via rsi) and said: “Squadron 42 has been removed from the shop for its current price and will return later. This change is not meant to signify anything significant, other than that a price change can be expected.”
What is being criticized? People on Reddit criticize:
The response is said to be “deliberately” hidden. By responding to an old post, the community manager probably wants to ensure that as few people as possible notice the suspected price increase.
Moreover, there is absolutely no reason for the price changes – especially since no release window for Squadron 42 has been announced yet.
Star Citizen raises prices for 3 ships, then temporarily retracts the increase
Which prices have been raised? Also officially confirmed by CIG is the increase in prices of some virtual ships.
Ships like “The Avenger Titan” have risen from 55 $ to 60 $, “Cutlass Black” went up from 100 $ to 110 $. The price of the “Vanguard Hoplite” was also increased by 5 $.
Here, fans also criticize that the price increases came without warning and for no reason. They only noticed the price increase when it was already active.
Fans are demanding an explanation. A fan says: “Because they can. That is the explanation.”
From the developers, it is said (via rsi) that they have said the team would regularly review the value of offers and make price changes. These adjustments have now been made. They would prefer to announce such things in advance and will do so again soon.
In this case, they will reset the prices back to the old level to finally raise them again on June 27.
In addition to criticism, fans also show understanding
Do people also have understanding for this? Yes, there are some who find these price increases quite acceptable. These are apparently either people who wholeheartedly support CIG or “investors” who see ships as investment objects:
- One user says: The prices were intentionally reduced at the beginning to help the developers make money until the game was released. CIG has always communicated that.
- Another says: The prices reflect the value, not the sum of their costs – one can probably assume that the man bought some spacecraft with the intention of reselling them later at a higher price.
Fans with this much understanding for price increases are something needed by a game studio:
