Cloud Imperium Games [Star Citizen developer] Undergoes Major Shake-Up to Hit Deadlines : games

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 37 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

As of now, Star Citizen has raised $769,261,551. Three quarters of a billion dollars.

And now they say they need to fire the QA department to "laser focus" to meet the deadlines of the release. That's when you need QA the most. Otherwise that release is going to be a fucking mess.

I call bullshit. This is a money saving decision, which means they've blown through their $760 million dollar bank account. Insane.

[–] orrk@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

the source is anonymous, I'd take this info with a heaping serving of NaCl

[–] aciDC14@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

There’s a deadline?

[–] squirrelwithnut@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago

They have deadlines?

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 18 points 6 days ago

What deadline? Of their life? Cause deadlines are gone since it was supposed to release 10 Yeats ago

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago

Its a buggy mess and they axe qa?
I guess when you have so many pay piggies you dont need to pay anypne

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Since when does anything to do with star citizen involve a hard deadline. Roberts will never get finished. He lacks that basic ability.

[+] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] Zomg@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I have a friend on discord trying to convince us all to play it. All I hear is "Dude, I want to get all my friends on before Pyro so you all know how to play".

When a games got a whale shop while it's developed, and the only thing I've seen pumped out are more ships with designs for future implementations that are probably a decade away, I feel like you're more buying a hope and dream than a game.

Besides, the tutorial sucks ass, and doesn't work half the time, maybe make the onboarding experience better before pumping out the next $1000+ ship. That would be my suggestion for that thing.

[–] Harvey656@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm pretty happy with 4.0. They sucked all the features from it, and the missions are having problems. But the game fucking works, finally. Or at least it did during the first 24 hours of the patch. About fucking time.

That being said this whole shake up was clearly a cost saving strategy, since most of 2024 was not the best in term of making money, a LOT of people jumped shit this year, and I don't blame them. CIG messed up so much this year. They have alot of goodwill to re-earn from the community and 4.0 is a start but only that.

[–] northendtrooper@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

They're 3rd highest. Possibly could break to be 2nd highest year of funding. Wanted that the be clarified.

But I bet acquiring turbulent has put a slight bump in their expenses.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 98 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What deadlines? Squadron 42 was supposed to release in 2016...

That ship has sailed.

[–] psmgx@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah was about to say something similar.

What's some special about this deadline?

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago

This deadline was set once the money was coming in more slowly than it was going out.

[–] Silverseren@fedia.io 56 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There was a deadline? What did they set, a 20 year development cycle???

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 31 points 1 week ago

Must ship by: ~~2017~~ ~~2020~~ ~~2025~~ The heat death of the universe

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

prominently those in the QA department, as a part of its restructuring efforts.

That's certainly one way to make sure you hit a deadline.

[–] Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 week ago

They just find pesky bugs, that need to be fixed. No bugs, no need to fix stuff.

[–] Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

... with head honcho Christ Roberts ...

Interesting typo.

[–] Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm surprised they set a deadline at all, considering how the game itself will never release

[–] TRBoom@lemm.ee 12 points 6 days ago

Oh it'll release, just not by Chris Roberts.

The last game he was in charge of was Freelancer, a highly ambitious game for the time and he never finished it. His company, Digital Anvil, started to have financial woes due to the long development of Freelancer and was acquired by Microsoft. He left the company and then a couple years later Freelancer was released!

It was very different from what it was supposed to be, but it was still an awesome game, imo.

I think the same thing will happen to Star Citizen. The money will dry up and they'll be forced to sell. The buyer will kick Chris out and then have the team make a finished product.

[–] granolabar@kbin.melroy.org 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How is this still a thing lol

Is it playable yet?

[–] northendtrooper@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

For all intent and purposes. 4.0 has been by far the most stable release yet. And that is saying something since the player cap is 500 and now has a new star system.

The new Pyro soundtrack is amazing and if you haven't listen to Pedro's work I would recommend to do so.

There are some dumb bugs that qa and the ptu should have found and smashed but they (cig) dragged their feet with 3.24 and server meshing this year IMO.

[–] Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

To be fair the "most stable release yet" label is applied to almost every patch by star citizen fans.

Just take a look at any reddit thread (let alone the fan forum) and for every patch you having something along the lines of "perfectly stable" or "best AI I've ever encountered" or "a monumental achievement".

And yet you have threads like this one:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/4-0-preview-unplayable

There is a reason to be skeptical of "most stable release yet" style proclamations.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago

Yes.

Buggy, incomplete, kind of a mess, but absolutely playable if you have a sufficient tolerance for jank.

While it's for sure a ways away from being the game that was promised, what's there is still one of the most unique and ambitious gaming experiences you can ever have.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What are the chances they never deliver what they promised?

[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Pretty good chances.

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Yep, at this point, never actually releasing the game is part of the business model.

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