# Star Citizen is the Future of PC Gaming, and it \[was\] Free to Play this week (Edit: No Longer Free) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [October 13, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528 "2015-10-13T06:29:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 33
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/641 "2020-12-29T00:34:53Z")
And the sunken cost fallacy. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/642 "2020-12-29T00:45:16Z")
Most definitely. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/643 "2020-12-29T01:18:27Z")
Here’s what I posted back in May: > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > From my recollection, one of the great hallmarks of a confidence scam is that it relies on our inherent weakness to the sunk-cost fallacy. That’s what Roberts is doing here - he’s got people who have invested years of their life and hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars in the idea of THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME BY THE GREATEST GENIUS OF ALL TIME. If they pull out now, they lose all that invested time and money and they might never get to play THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/644 "2020-12-29T03:22:53Z")
I don’t think the base of people paying for Star Citizen stuff is widespread now. There’s not many people making their first purchase or throwing $30 or $60 at the game. I would guess that there’s just a hardcore, cultish base that keeps throwing good money after bad to convince themselves that they’re not getting scammed and that everything is right on track to be amazing. Do we have actual revenue/“backing” numbers? I know they keep releasing even more ridiculous ships and packages, but I’d be curious to see how their actual income looks compared to how it did 3, 5, or 7 years ago. I’m guessing it’s down about 90-95%. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/645 "2020-12-29T06:27:48Z")
Good question. I did some poking around and there’s a massive spreadsheet tracking the data. They’re going to end 2020 just shy of having raised 80 million dollars from backers. I think that’s not counting the 17 million they got from a private backer earlier in the year. So… nope, not slowing down even a little bit. If anything, it looks like it’s been on a steady uptick since very late last year. Warning: very busy Google doc that may chunk up your browser. > **[Crowdfunding Development Spreadsheet Version 2.0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tMAP0fg-AKScI3S3VjrDW3OaLO4zgBA1RSYoQOQoNSI/edit#gid=1694467207)** > > Frontpage > > > Checkout the new Dashboard, its realy cool:,https://ccugame.app/star-citizen-funding-dashboard/funding-dashboard,you dont need a account, just reclick the link if you get redirected to the login page > Al... ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/646 "2020-12-29T19:36:10Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Good question. I did some poking around and there’s a massive spreadsheet tracking the data. They’re going to end 2020 just shy of having raised 80 million dollars from backers. I think that’s not counting the 17 million they got from a private backer earlier in the year. > > So… nope, not slowing down even a little bit. If anything, it looks like it’s been on a steady uptick since very late last year. > > Warning: very busy Google doc that may chunk up your browser > > [Crowdfunding Development Spreadsheet Version 2.0 - Google Sheets](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tMAP0fg-AKScI3S3VjrDW3OaLO4zgBA1RSYoQOQoNSI/edit#gid=1694467207) Jaysus. Eighty million dollars for…what? I think I remember someone posting above that about all you can do in the game right now is go into a hanger, get in to your $600 pretend-spaceship, and fly it around a bit. Which sounds about as thrilling as taking a car for a two-block test drive. Are there any parts of the game you can actually play, right now? ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/647 "2020-12-29T19:37:06Z")
I don’t think you can even get in many of the $600 spaceships met, most of the flyables are very much the cheaper ones. EDIT: Might be a bit unfair, many of the $600+ ships are actually ‘flight ready’ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/648 "2020-12-29T20:14:48Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I think I remember someone posting above that about all you can do in the game right now is go into a hanger, get in to your $600 pretend-spaceship, and fly it around a bit. Somewhere in this thread is footage of a player wandering around some base and getting stuck. Players will be able to do that in _Elite: Dangerous_ when _Odyssey_ drops, presumably without getting stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/649 "2020-12-29T23:33:46Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > EDIT: Might be a bit unfair, many of the $600+ ships are actually ‘flight ready’ What the heck does that even mean? How can a bunch of computer code that represents the performance and cosmetics of a fictitious space ship somehow be “flight ready” but not actually flyable? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/650 "2020-12-29T23:40:07Z")
More to the point, how can a spaceship that exists in a game not be flight-ready? It’s not like you need to custom-design the engine for each one. What makes it flyable is a set of about a half-dozen numbers. How do you make a ship in-game without inputting those numbers? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/651 "2020-12-29T23:47:00Z")
How many are actually in the game at this moment as opposed to only existing in pretty pictures? ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/652 "2020-12-30T14:58:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > More to the point, how can a spaceship that exists in a game not be flight-ready? It’s not like you need to custom-design the engine for each one. What makes it flyable is a set of about a half-dozen numbers. How do you make a ship in-game without inputting those numbers? Oh, the ones that aren’t ‘flight ready’ aren’t in the game at all yet. And, to answer @Skywatcher, quite a lot of them. There’s a list here: > **[List of ships](https://starcitizen.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ships)** > > A comparison matrix of all ships with their most important specifications currently or in the future available in Star Citizen. Concierge ship packages List of ground vehicles List of ship and vehicle prices List of ship packages There’s 110 flyable ships (‘Flight Ready’), 27 In Concept, and 13 In Production. 110 sounds a lot, but it looks like a fair amount of them are slight variations on themes - there are 6 variations of the F7C Hornet, but I don’t know how differently they fly. Still, that’s quite a list. I’m getting new insides for my computer later this month, once I’ve got those upgrades I’ll install it again and give it a look. It’s been years since I did. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/653 "2021-01-19T17:47:43Z")
> **[It’s Hard To Deny There’s Something Rotten At The Core Of Star Citizen As...](https://happygamer.com/its-hard-to-deny-theres-something-rotten-at-the-core-of-star-citizen-as-squadrons-42-goes-missing-from-roadmap-98884/)** > > Since 2012, Roberts Space Industries has raised over $300 million dollars via crowdfunding for its game Star Citizen. There have been... > At this point – when you take into account the ambitions of the developers, the constantly changing technical demands, and the huge amount of money they’re clearly making – Star Citizen make take several more years of development before its full release…if ever. > **[With Odyssey, is Elite Dangerous Becoming The Star Citizen We've Always Wanted?](https://gamerant.com/elite-dangerous-star-citizen/)** > > With the Odyssey expansion, Elite Dangerous is becoming more and more the game that Star Citizen has been trying to make for years. > Both have ambitious scales, and both of them have delivered impressive content throughout the years. _Star Citizen_ is attempting to create a grounded take on a space simulator where players are a person in the universe, able to traverse the stars and everywhere in between, getting to be whoever they see fit. _Elite Dangerous_ didn’t quite start like that, with players limited entirely to spaceships for a large portion of the game’s lifetime. Even when players did get out of that spaceship, they were limited then to [_Elite’s_ lunar vehicle roving around on planets](https://gamerant.com/elite-dangerous-lunar-vehicle-video/). > > But with Odyssey, the two are closer together. _Elite Dangerous_ is attempting to make that leap into a game with three dimensions of gameplay, where players are a person in the Milky Way, free to traverse it as they see fit. The scale and intricacies of _Elite_ are still a little less ambitious than those of [_Star Citizen_, which is looking to create a new game genre](https://gamerant.com/star-citizen-creating-new-genre/), but that feature creep is why _Star Citizen_ seems utterly incapable of releasing on any reasonable timeframe. While _Star Citizen_ seems to be shooting for the stars, _Elite Dangerous_ is still getting to those stars, and it’s doing it in a way that players can experience now. > > Maybe _Star Citizen_ and _Squadron 42_ will fully release someday, with all of the promises made about them intact. But even if it does, it’s not exactly going to be the first of its kind, anymore. While these two games are certainly not carbon copies of each other, _Elite_ is getting closer to achieving the scale that _Star Citizen_ boasts it’ll be capable of someday. The evolution of _Elite Dangerous_ might be what pushes _Star Citizen_ to achieve some of what it’s promised for nearly a decade now, but that’s not all that important, in the grand scheme of things. _Elite_ is doing what it needs to do to stay relevant and keep players interested and invested, making itself into a game that is constantly getting better, and one of the [best space simulators](https://gamerant.com/best-space-exploration-games/) to ever release. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/654 "2021-01-19T18:57:28Z")
> [@](#): > > In an announcement to the huge community of funders/backers/donors (whatever you want to refer to them as), … Marks? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/655 "2021-01-22T22:09:47Z")
Hey, what’s that sound? > **[Star Citizen Video Is All About Rivers & Space Combat as Crowdfunding...](https://twinfinite.net/2021/01/star-citizen-space-combat-video/)** > > Today Cloud Imperium Games released a new video of its upcoming space simulator Star Citizen, which continues to grow. _bling_ _bling_ _bling_ ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/656 "2021-01-22T22:31:56Z")
Hear that, all you haters? It’s got a _playable alpha_! And after only nine years, too! ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/657 "2021-02-16T17:55:01Z")
It took a long time to get here, but there’s [finally a lawsuit brewing](https://starcitizenlawsuit.com/star-citizen-customers-may-be-entitled-to-compensation-b/). Ads for this just started showing up in my Facebook feed. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/658 "2021-02-16T18:04:43Z")
That looks to me like your typical shyster trolling for clients (cf. all those mesothelioma commercials on TV) but sometimes they can get traction so maybe this will actually go somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/659 "2021-02-16T18:40:36Z")
That’s definitely a cash grab, but so is Star Citizen. They deserve one another. Still, a judge already [ruled in favor of RSI](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/07/court-denies-star-citizen-backers-4500-refund-lawsuit/) when an original backer (which is who this suit is targeting) sued for a refund. I doubt it’ll go anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/660 "2021-02-16T19:07:19Z")
Star Citizen has already had lawsuits, this isn’t anything new. And I guarantee it won’t be the last. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528.md?page=32) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528.md?page=34)