Star Citizen is still a game that ranks high on my wishlist. But when I look at the latest ship and its price, I feel sick. Crowdfunding or not – but 250 US dollars for a ship?
Already raised 77 million dollars
That the crowdfunding campaign of Star Citizen, the EVE Online competitor, is one of the most successful projects of its kind is undeniable. Long before the actual release, over 850,000 backers have already raised 77 million US dollars for Chris Roberts and his team – respect! Like with any good crowdfunding project, those who invest a bit more trust in the developer team get access to more content early. But not only that, the funders also receive emails encouraging them to invest even more, even though the developers already have access to a huge amount of funds.
The ship of the upper class
Difficult question. What is clear is that many ships are already only available for a short time. Like the new Vanguard, which is sold on the official website as a “Concept Sale”. The price is a staggering 250 US dollars or 238 euros. Not a small amount, as there are also people paying who are already flying around in the beta universe. You can farm these ships too – but later, upon release, you face the disadvantage of having no insurance and it takes some time to build one. According to the American magazine polygon.com, which refers to statements from the developer, such a ship will become even more expensive at release.
That all of this is not new and that Star Citizen is somewhat financing itself alongside the crowdfunding campaign has not escaped us. But the horrendous price raises the question of how “overpowered” these ships will be later on?
We hope that Star Citizen will not turn into a disguised Pay2Win game. Of course, you have to offer backers premium content, but these players should not have an overwhelming advantage either. Already, there are controversial forum threads on this topic, such as on mmorpg.com. There, some backers are anything but happy that Robert Space Industries is relentless in trying to sell extremely expensive ships. The question arises whether they really need to do this in this early development phase, as the most successful crowdfunding project in history.
What do you think about the ship prices and game packages on robertsspaceindustries.com that Chris Roberts and his crew are charging?
