Video Game Raised $148 Million From Fans. Now It’s Raising Concerns.
Mark Kearns, 38, a web designer and gamer from Chicago, stumbled upon a new video game called Star Citizen while online in late 2013. The game, which was in development, promised to revive the spaceflight simulation genre with a sprawling universe for players to explore.
Intrigued, Mr. Kearns decided to pledge money to see the game come to fruition. In total, he donated $175, which gained him access to Star Citizen’s alpha version — a playable version of the game in its early stages — plus a virtual ship to use in the game.
Mr. Kearns and others have now vaulted Star Citizen into the record books. Since 2013, the game has quietly amassed more than $148 million in funding — all from regular people who have donated either through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter or through the game’s online donations page. The amount is a record for a crowdfunded video game, and one of the largest for any crowdfunded project. Star Citizen’s developer, Cloud Imperium Games, has not taken any money from traditional financiers.
“My expectation was that we’d raise around $4 million,” said Chris Roberts, 48, the founder of Cloud Imperium Games. “I had investors lined up to help with the rest but Sandy, my wife, told me not to worry about investors — that we’d make it to $20 million. I told her she was crazy, and then it kind of went from there.”
Fans Have Dropped $77M on This Guy’s Buggy, Half-Built Game | Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts |The World Designers Com 2018
www.wired.com/2015/03/fans-dropped-77m-guys-buggy-half-built-game/
Fans Have Dropped $77M on This Guy’s Buggy, Half-Built Game
Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts. Zachary Scott
The United Empire of Earth Navy caused quite a stir last November when it announced that it would be putting 200 decommissioned Javelin Destroyers up for sale. Each 1,132-foot-long spaceship has the sort of amenities that your average interstellar mercenary finds hard to resist: four primary thrusters, 12 maneuvering thrusters, a heavily armored bridge, private quarters for a captain and an executive officer, six cargo rooms, general quarters for a minimum of 23 crew members, and a hangar big enough to accommodate a gunship. There’s even a lifetime insurance policy.
The document that announced the Javelins’ impending sale took pains to stress that these warships were fixer-uppers. “They are battle-hardened and somewhat worse for wear,” it read, “and have been stripped of the weapons systems.” Thus, any would-be buyer would eventually have to shell out extra to equip the 20 gun turrets and the two torpedo launchers. The asking price for each ship: $2,500. And that wasn’t some form of fictional futuristic space bucks; it was 2,500 real dollars. Actual, real, present-day American Earth dollars.
Despite those caveats, all 200 Javelins sold out. In less than a minute.