After fans have invested countless millions in Star Citizen over more than a decade, they draw a line with the latest shop update. They share some of the blame for the increasingly problematic monetization – at least that’s what MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz believes.
You may have heard: The people responsible for Star Citizen want to monetize certain components of spaceships. This includes so-called “Flight Blades,” which influence the flight behavior of ships by increasing maximum speed or improving maneuverability. Weapon kits are also part of the new offering.
Anyone who dares to enter the Reddit area of Star Citizen since the announcement will find numerous discussions surrounding the recent expansion of the shop. It is once again about Pay2Win accusations, the alleged greed of the developers, and ideas for many more (sarcastic) suggestions for microtransactions that Cloud Imperium could offer in the future.
The first response from the developers to the harsh feedback is also criticized: Despite the criticism, they want to sell smaller components like the “Flight Blades” or bomb racks for real money currency aUEC from June onwards, while also making them earnable as a compromise (via robertsspaceindustries.com).
Although the Polaris cost almost 1,000 euros, it is too cheap to rank among the top 5 most expensive spaceships from Star Citizen. Here is the trailer:
The wallet dictates what developers dare to do
In general, I also criticize this recent announcement. The more gameplay-relevant content ends up in a shop, the more negatively it affects the player experience – always. And as soon as purchases potentially influence the strength of one’s own characters or spaceships, I see it as Pay2Win, regardless of whether these things can also be earned through gameplay.
At the same time, I have some questions in my head:
- Why are fans drawing a line now and not earlier?
- And what did the fans expect would happen?
After all, more than 5.6 million supporters have clearly indicated to the developers with their wallets over the past 14 years that their willingness to invest more and more money is record-high, and that even in 2025.
Just one result of the nearly 820 million US dollars collected by players so far: Cloud Imperium has grown into a huge AAA studio over the years and burns a fortune every year just on salaries. This is money that has to regularly come in somehow, especially since not a single game has been released yet.
From my perspective, it was therefore clear that the developers would continue to expand the shop over time, especially when selling always new ships or starter packs no longer meets the targeted revenue goals. Though one could also argue that the developers are merely expanding a known monetization strategy.
The officially expressed statement from the developers regarding the criticism supports this: they are now effectively doing what they have done before with other offers, following the usual approach so that fans who want to can additionally support the development. It’s not mandatory, after all. The game isn’t even released yet. So why the fuss?
What else might land in the Star Citizen shop?
Willingness to pay with 7 seals
The very criticism that is now taking place on Reddit should have occurred on a large scale many years ago. As appealing as the promise behind Star Citizen sounds – even to my ears, by the way – there are so many “red flags” surrounding the project – and that has been the case for many years.
- The sci-fi MMO has been in development for longer than Duke Nukem Forever and a final release is still not in sight.
- With the original version from the first Kickstarter campaign in 2012, Star Citizen has hardly anything in common anymore. Back then, the expected delivery of the digital copy of the game was cited as November 2014. As a supporter of this campaign, I would feel somewhat duped.
- Although Star Citizen is still in alpha, a kind of working service model around the sale of ever new ships has been established, which cost four-digit dollar amounts. This eliminates the pressure on developers to finalize and release the game.
- Instead of finishing Star Citizen first, they have taken up a second, ambitious project in the meantime, Squadron 42, which is said to be “feature complete” as of October 2023 but will likely not be released until 2026.
- Due to various missed release windows and numerous insider reports, it seems certain that the management behind Star Citizen has been doing a catastrophic job for over a decade and has likely burned through a lot of money.
- There have repeatedly been reports of layoffs without severance pay and long periods of overtime.
Moreover, investing money in an MMO that has not yet been released is generally a bad idea. The destructively poor track record of Kickstarter MMOs from the past 13 years underscores this.
In short: I don’t understand why players invest horrendous sums into a project like Star Citizen, where it is uncertain whether, when, and in what form it will be released. Nor do I understand why the uproar is happening right now. The supporters made the financing model of Star Citizen possible with their wallets. You reap what you sow… or something like that.
The developers are also creating a problem for themselves: The more packed the shop becomes and the more it allows big investors to simply buy their power in Star Citizen, the more discouraging the “paywall” is likely to be for all potential newcomers at launch.
At least it seems that Star Citizen is slowly but surely becoming a real game that can actually be fun – so it’s not a scam intended to consciously pull money out of players’ pockets without delivering a playable product in the end: Players tried Star Citizen years ago, couldn’t even get through the tutorial – try it again now and are in love
