Star Citizen Blazes Past $23 Million
It was newsworthy enough when, last week, Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen reached its $22 million crowdfunding milestone, the stretch goal for which involved face-capturing technology that should improve the quality and experience of in-game cutscenes and conversations.
Oh, and the Aurora-class spacecraft got its own commercial:
Well, the crowdfunding machine that is Star Citizen isn’t content to rest, and this week reached its $23 million milestone. This milestone will see another ship — the Xi’an Scout (Khartu-al) — added to the game, and backers can expect to find a model thereof added to their hangars within the next few weeks.
Cloud Imperium Games have also announced the $25 million stretch goal: a bigger, better alpha test with a more global reach.
Kind of makes you wonder if such significant interest in Star Citizen will make some of the studios that own other space sim IP (I’m thinking Wing Commander, Star/Freelancer, X-Wing) might finally get it through their heads that people actually do want AAA titles from this genre and will buy and play them. Never understood why the space sim genre was allowed to die off like it did.
Eve Online is adding a dog fighting mode that appears to be inspired by Star Citizen’s success.
The reason why the big publishers more or less killed off the space sim genre for AAA titles is, I believe, pretty much because it didn’t easily translate to consoles due to complexity of controls. Sure, they could have made peripherals like sticks for consoles, but it’s easier to make a slightly updated sequel every few years to whatever console- and casual-friendly third person shooter is currently your best seller. The EAs and Activisions out there aren’t really interested in games. They’re interested in money and what their marketing departments and focus groups tell them will sell the most units. And when said focus groups are picked from non-gamers and people who have never played anything other than the latest Call of Modern Grand Theft Halo then you get the current situation in gaming. Hopefully the concept of crowdfunding can help change the Corporate Suits stranglehold on a business which doesn’t interest them beyond how much money they can squeeze out of it.
You had Wing Commander though on the SNES and it worked just fine. Maybe feature trimmed vs the PC version just a bit, but still absolutely playable and fun. I’m not saying you’re wrong (I’m pretty sure you’re right, in fact) but I do think it’s a weak excuse not to make space sims. There’s no reason you couldn’t make a good space sim using an Xbox 360 gamepad. Freelancer worked with just a mouse 🙂
And let’s not leave out the more recent example of Galaxy on Fire 2, which handily proves that a competent, complex space sim pairs well with mobile devices.