Ashes of creation.

Sounds like Sharif didn't put any of his own money in, despite claming from the outset the game was fully funded from his own pocket...

From the some of the stories around online (unverified) he definitely sounds like an arch fantasist/Billy Liar type, but there's verfied text messages where he claims he's a "billionaire gamer".

Believe all Narc.
 
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humbug said:
The irony of all this, the most heavily criticized, the one that even veteran game developers came out to say was "Impossible" Star Citizen, i think? Is now the sole survivor of the Kickstarter era.

its also the one that gave you access to the latest build from day one, and for as little as $30 at the time, now $45 for the same access as those spending a lot more.
Click to expand...


Big whoop after 15 years and a billion dollars.

SQ42 when?

:D
 
Darujhistan said:
Big whoop after 15 years and a billion dollars.

SQ42 when?

:D
Click to expand...

Squadron 42 is the single player campaign set in the MMO that is the Star Citizen universe.

Main Cast.

Gary Oldman: Admiral Ernst Bishop
Mark Hamill: Lt. Cdr. Steve "Old Man" Colton
Gillian Anderson: Captain Rachel MacLaren
Mark Strong: Captain Thomas Wade
Liam Cunningham: Captain Noah White
Henry Cavill: Ryan Enright
Craig Fairbrass: Vat Tagaca
Andy Serkis: Thul'Oqquray
John Rhys-Davies: Randall Graves
Ben Mendelsohn: Julian Wexler
Jack Huston: Cal Mason
Sophie Wu: Cara "Web" Webster
Rhona Mitra: Executive Officer Kelly
Ian Duncan: The Player

Henry Cavill reportedly requested a part.

Full cast is about 50 named actors.

Release date: 2026.

Campaign Length 30 to 40 hours.

1 hour opening segment playthrough.

 
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humbug said:
Squadron 42 is the single player campaign set in the MMO that is the Star Citizen universe.

Main Cast.

Gary Oldman: Admiral Ernst Bishop
Mark Hamill: Lt. Cdr. Steve "Old Man" Colton
Gillian Anderson: Captain Rachel MacLaren
Mark Strong: Captain Thomas Wade
Liam Cunningham: Captain Noah White
Henry Cavill: Ryan Enright
Craig Fairbrass: Vat Tagaca
Andy Serkis: Thul'Oqquray
John Rhys-Davies: Randall Graves
Ben Mendelsohn: Julian Wexler
Jack Huston: Cal Mason
Sophie Wu: Cara "Web" Webster
Rhona Mitra: Executive Officer Kelly
Ian Duncan: The Player

Henry Cavill reportedly requested a part.

Full cast is about 50 named actors.

Release date: 2026.

Campaign Length 30 to 40 hours.

1 hour opening segment playthrough.

Click to expand...


I mean they can't fail to release it this time, can they?

:)
 
Let’s not pretend that a named cast has any bearing on how good the game will be of course.
I hope it’s good and not strictly linear. Not expecting or wanting open world but something in between. With high quality side content if it has any, not just shoehorned in to inflate the time to complete claims.

I’ve not looked at it as want it to be all fresh when I play it.
 
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One investor is said to have lost $90M, Sharif was paying himself and his husband $1M a year salaries! and allegedly bought a house using AOC funds, sold it and then kept the money...:eek:
 
Darujhistan said:
One investor is said to have lost $90M, Sharif was paying himself and his husband $1M a year salaries! and allegedly bought a house using AOC funds, sold it and then kept the money...:eek:
Click to expand...

Let's be honest, you can't trust Kickstarters, you never have been able to.

Anyone who claims to be this bastion of transparency will support it by providing regular audited finances and company documents to the public. Anyone who says "trust me bro" should not be trusted

Yet people keep giving money to trust me bros, and Patrick has a great video on why this happens

 
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Grim5 said:
Let's be honest, you can't trust Kickstarters, you never have been able to.

Anyone who claims to be this bastion of transparency will support it by providing regular audited finances and company documents to the public. Anyone who says "trust me bro" should not be trusted

Yet people keep giving money to trust me bros, and Patrick has a great video on why this happens
Click to expand...

Clearly it's an easy audience to scam though.
 
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humbug said:
I think he wanted to make a game, he put a team together to make it, they got as far in as they did and ran out of money, in a desperate attempt to generate some money he sold stakes in the IP, that kept it going for a bit longer but eventually ran out of money again, they cut back on staff, put it on Steam, tried to farm out parts of the development to cheaper countries, arguments and disagreements faired up, Steven Sharif and other key staff resigned and the whole thing imploded....

300 staff, at an average of $40K per year, that's $12,000,000 per year just to pay staff, over 9 years that's $108,000,000, just on staff, not including property rental, overheads ecte....

**** expensive and they couldn't generate that kind of money.
Click to expand...


So it looks like this was not a failed project that went down in the flames of good intentions, but an outright scam from Steven Sharif even before it launched. He never out any of his own money in, bought assets with AOC funds, and then sold them (his house being one) and keeping the money, led a party lifestyle, lied consistently from the outset about the finacial backing of the project, lied about having no board or investors, and at the end even stooped so low as to steal payroll.

They STEAM launch was a final rug, both to get one last bag, and to set themselves up with a defendable case for the game having launched, as they were obviously going to renege on earlier promises to "refund everyone if the game didin't launch".

All that and more was in the video, that you called "clickbait" and could therefore summarise without watching.

;)
 
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Darujhistan said:
So it looks like this was not a failed project that went down in the flames of good intentions, but an outright scam from Steven Sharif even before it launched. He never out any of his own money in, bought assets with AOC funds, and then sold them (his house being one) and keeping the money, led a party lifestyle, lied consistently from the outset about the finacial backing of the project, lied about having no board or investors, and at the end even stooped so low as to steal payroll.

They STEAM launch was a final rug, both to get one last bag, and to set themselves up with a defendable case for the game having launched, as they were obviously going to renege on earlier promises to "refund everyone if the game didin't launch".

All that and more was in the video, that you called "clickbait" and could therefore summarise without watching.

;)
Click to expand...


This really matters to you doesn't it?
 
humbug said:
This really matters to you doesn't it?
Click to expand...

I don't like people being dismissive of information because it's something they don't want to hear, handwave it away and think they know best...(this is what the AOC cult were doing for years by the way) - the wider issue of course with KS scams, is the rest of us have to pay the consequences for mugs who donlt have any critical thinking skills, which has lead over the years to advancemnet of predatory monetization and anti-consumer practices in the Industry, things like pre-order, games released in Alpha states, morons paying to be unpaid beta testers and so forth...

I understand why you wanted to think of it as a failed enterprise and not a scam, because it's eerily similair to SC, there's a lot of crossover in the Venn diagram of the games and their audience. One thing I will say is, CR is a much better snake-oil salesman than Sharif, but he's very well qualified to actually make the game he's making. I just doubt he'll ever release it, because endless development is easier than facing the cold light of day of a released product.

$1BN and15 years and no games released, just think about that...
 
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Darujhistan said:
I don't like people being dismissive of information because it's something they don't want to hear, handwave it away and think they know best...(this is what the AOC cult were doing for years by the way) - the wider issue of course with KS scams, is the rest of us have to pay the consequences for mugs who donlt have any critical thinking skills, which has lead over the years to advancemnet of predatory monetization and anti-consumer practices in the Industry, things like pre-order, games released in Alpha states, morons paying to be unpaid beta testers and so forth...

I understand why you wanted to think of it as a failed enterprise and not a scam, because it's eerily similair to SC, there's a lot of crossover in the Venn diagram of the games and their audience. One thing I will say is, CR is a much better snake-oil salesman than Sharif, but he's very well qualified to actually make the game he's making. I just doubt he'll ever release it, because endless development is easier than facing the cold light of day of a released product.

$1BN and15 years and no games released, just think about that...
Click to expand...

I get the idea that there is no incentive to release the game because vast amounts of money keeps coming in, its a logical argument and critics all make the same argument.

I've been a backer since Feb 2013, i saw it back inn October 2012 when it was announced, i put it on my watch list, i didn't actually back it until they started releasing content.

There is a problem with this argument, it is released in its fullest form, every time a new feature or technology is completed it gets added, what this also means is they have to do at least some level of quality assurance and stability testing, in game development this doesn't normally get done until at the end of development once the game is done, normally only at that point does the game get polished and stabilised, Star Citizen are doing that about once per month, at least last year, 11 major patches for 2025, this adds to the workload and the expense, i know, i'm an NDA level tester for them, i have access to the devs and what they are doing.

What's more... you only need to look at their financials history to realise the more complete the game grows the more money they get, 2025 the game grew in completion by quite a chunk as a lot of critical technology was completed in 2023 and 2024, they then built the game out on top of that technology in 2024 / 2025, by the end of 2025 revenue grew 33%
The goal is to get it to a 1.0 state, that is to get all the necessary technology developed and in, build viable product features and content off the back of that, polish and stabilise it, publish it.

Even then its not done, they will keep adding feature and content there after for as long as the game lives.

I'm not worried about Star Citizen, the game has many complex never been done before and not done since technologies in and working, technologies that were said to be impossible by seasoned game developers, for whatever their reason was, the developers, CIG have cracked it all.

One final thing, no AAA publisher is ever going to go near a project a fraction of the size, scope and complexity of Star Citizen, too difficult, too risky, too expensive. Starfield, Bethesda's very pale imitation of Star Citizen, Bethesda are an established successful studio, 8 years and $400 Million to produce what they did.
 
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