Star Citizen, Roberts Space Industries - Chris Roberts' life support and retirement fund [2012-]

[Grall]

Lookin nice. I'm muchly looking forward to when it becomes an actual, playable game.

Little sceptical about the practicality of a 1km long ship though - that's a ludicrous internal volume, it has to be almost completely hollow (as it seems to be from the pics), or else lots of solid internal space, because modelling functional interiors for something like that would take forever.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Anyone that gives money to a crowd funded project should go in with expectations that nothing will be released.

?

 

[Jupiter]

I dont know how much they need to model for Squadron 42 (they talked about the bridge, hangar, other rooms). But when players will able to fly it in the PU, this ship needs to be like the other ships with a completed interior.

The UK team is working for years on a 6km huge mining space station where the player will spent much time in Squadron 42. This station will be fully functional inside with hundreds of rooms. An open world map inside an open world solar system.

They said that such huge vehicles/space stations will have a transport system like monorails.

EDIT:

Bengal vs. Idris

The Idris is fully modeled inside like the Javelin destroyer (from December livestream)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

?

There are Zero guarantees that anything funded by Kickstarter will ship and if it does there are zero guarantees that will be a finished product. There are numerous examples that I've posted about in other posts and threads. Double Fine Productions, for example, is a poster child of not delivering on their Kickstarter promises and not finishing a lot of their Kickstarter funded games.

Only join in on crowd funding if you are comfortable with the potential of not receiving anything or receiving a product that is unfinished and will never be finished.

It is an investment with no guarantees. Kickstarter has wording that successfully funded products should deliver on their Kickstarter promises, but they have no ability to actually enforce that, legally or otherwise. All they can do is prohibit those individuals from using Kickstarter in the future.

Again, this doesn't mean that Kickstarter is a bad thing. Many amazing products would never have gotten made if not for crowd funding. But people really need to be aware of the risks involved. And should be comfortable with those risks before participating.

Unfortunately, most people aren't aware of the risks or ignore it.

Regards,
SB

 

[Jupiter]

Foundry 42 Ltd's FY2015 financials (Jan-Dec): £12m/$15.5m annual running cost after ~20% tax Credits

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-prod/docs/v4D8Ev0kklB4XNIJtd-iufBVnYeDC5KLI-47pkAdGgE/application-pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIAJINBF4LDSYLS5EKQ&Expires=1467997487&Signature=54k93tnMxT3jf1jgZP0CaxVuGTU=&x-amz-security-token=FQoDYXdzENb//////////wEaDNpQtMfUflvIJ7q3DCKcA3Oy6Yvlaift18BcdX7e9Emf7s/ZcBUsocFarj72EFDu5N+0hRWDS/srGPPhybmNb3l+AChEtHAJYcIAFJY69RX+Kuh0Ndynqm99PdiNKoqPa/jHGl2hxoJnXlpuAnrvm+ymzOCj4yu9OdyWnnPxwnfa8tlKbj6vLj4OK4r0uWARrYMw/Z+/RQJfcjd3IZymwI+wYme2nCaJK3kvjcevkXxLLF89zPYl6D/GhJxozcOYLhk6AR2GCAcAPRqncsmzPPjkCTYDMwJEgymwy+LohB/r3Po7kl50JmgGjN9ubJmI+2m4IoCedbE/pHI3moc8dm3CGr01d7bhtE+b2RpM1EzwhMaSKEAeHHKEeACuApv3Zs8MuI+SjSuB3l6ZrQDfhuaU8MLrHdI4Udls4ZOmul6N/KFoUqlWtUerQMz4DMGO1p9dW2WQeE5xub999esQNoGNdJGIetTzvIEAnyOuwuelx9PbEtJgWa8B+DdYjO0hviSEzg5RL9UPmusLBoxokioZP+1PNucEU6v0FLPW7s2TDH8CyfzuQq8PmOYox8j+uwU=

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history

Only 1.3 mio. a month for their Wilmslow studio (their largest studio) with that many people (about 140 in 2015) and that large office space, performance capture, actors etc.
I am laughing about the people who claimed CIG has no money left and were near bankruptcy. Like that shitty The Escapist site. Just lies, no facts.

 

[Davros]

Only 1.3 mio. a month for their Wilmslow studio (their largest studio) with that many people (about 140 in 2015) and that large office space, performance capture, actors etc.
I am laughing about the people who claimed CIG has no money left and were near bankruptcy. Like that shitty The Escapist site. Just lies, no facts.

Your laughing really, thats 15million a year how many years has that studio been running for ? how many more years will it have to run for ? how about all the other studio's they have
how much are they costing, if all their other studio's cost $15 million combined thats 30 million a year so tell me how many years can they afford to run for ?
Hint it's about 3
another hint how long have they been in business for isnt it about 3
still laughing ?

 

[Jupiter]

They opened the UK office in late 2013/beginning 2014. With about 30 employees. People who are able to think would probably know that a studio costs less with 30 employees than with 140. I would not have thought that I need to add this here.

-first year (2012) ~5 people = $250,00 - $400,000
-second year (2013) ~59 people = $2.95mil - $4.72mil
-third year (2014) ~185 people = $9.15mil - $14.64mil
-current year (2015) ~255 people = $12.75mil - $20.4mil.
Which equals between $25.1mio. - $40.16mio. Subtract that from $86.6mil and you get $61.5mil - $46.5mil.

But there are working far more on it (external staff). Currently there are about 450 - 500 people. CIG needs a constant revenue. Even after the release.

Sources:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14839-Letter-From-The-Chairman
http://kotaku.com/how-much-game-makers-get-paid-1608955400

I have already shown how many developers CIG had at different times. They have probably just spent the half from the 117 million USD. Something else: CIG generates about 1,5 - 3 Mio. a month. The Escapist claimed CIG would go bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2016. Just like that not so smart guy.

Of course, they have actually not the money for another two years with all the staff . If Squadron 42 appears, it will bring enough money.

_____

Monthly Studio Report June 2016
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15408-Monthly-Studio-Report

 

[eastmen]

What are you using for the average price of an employee ? What are you using for insurance ? I'm going to say the average pay is $75 thousand with another $15 thousand for health care. $90k an employee.

Your numbers are also off because they were hiring through out the year. Then of course there is rent / utilities , internet connections , bandwidth for the game client. They also scrapped most of the work done on the FPS portion when they found out just how bad it was.

I'd put the costs much higher than you have. Oh and don't forget the fees to kickstarter , credit card companies , taxes and what not.

 

[Davros]

$15 thousand for health care

not in europe, healthcare is free

 

[Zaphod]

Not for employers, it's not. The NHS tax payable is 13.8% on wages over roughly £8K.

 

[homerdog]

not in europe, healthcare is free

Lol Davros nothing is free

 

[Lightman]

Lol Davros nothing is free

I'm free, if you're pretty lady that is

I play beta SC from time to time and there is progress, it's just slow to end user like me. Squadron 42 release would definitely help CIG reputation and silence most sceptics but I don't see it happening this year.

 

[Kyyla]

not in europe, healthcare is free

That sounds amazing. Where is this "Europe" you speak of?

 

[eastmen]

I'm free, if you're pretty lady that is

I play beta SC from time to time and there is progress, it's just slow to end user like me. Squadron 42 release would definitely help CIG reputation and silence most sceptics but I don't see it happening this year.

not with the current flight model it wont .

 

[Deleted member 13524]

It seems some earlier investors have started to get serious about getting their refunds after being unlawfully denied by CIG:
http://www.pcgamesn.com/star-citizen/star-citizen-refunds-ftc
http://www.pcinvasion.com/star-citizen-backer-earns-3k-refund-contacting-us-district-attorney

It seems CIG has been referring to the newer TOS as means to avoid larger refunds for people who invested during a time where an older and different TOS was in practice. That's shady as shit.
The old TOS says the following:

You agree that any unearned portion of your Pledge shall not be refundable until and unless RSI has failed to deliver the relevant pledge items and/or the Game to you within eighteen (18) months after the estimated delivery date

18 months late lol.. that would mean 31st May would have seen most of the game released, instead of a couple of "alpha modules".

This guy got his $3000 back only after complaining to his state's District Attorney and Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, and the FTC.
Now, the same person got contacted by a DCBA investigator in order to gather more complainants in a similar situation and create a full-fledged case.



How was this not bound to happen?

There are Zero guarantees that anything funded by Kickstarter will ship and if it does there are zero guarantees that will be a finished product.

You should take into account that there are zero guarantees, but that's very different from expecting that it'll fail.
No one in their right minds would invest in something they're expecting to fail, not in a kickstarter-y business model anyways.

Squadron 42 appears, it will bring enough money.

Squadron 42 won't bring any money because most of the people who want to play it have already paid 2-4 years ago.

 

[eastmen]

and this is only the tip of the iceburg when it comes the problems with the game. The multi crew ships are mostly workable as multi player since the instances bug out , only the freelancer seems to work without many problems.

 

[Malo]

haha I love ** does not include star

 

[swaaye]

They'd better launch something significant this year or it's going to get ugly methinks. Precedent has been set by "Streetroller".

 

[Jupiter]

It seems some earlier investors have started to get serious about getting their refunds after being unlawfully denied by CIG:

He backed in 2014 and slowly pledged up to 2015. Early investor, lol

This event was coordinated with Derek he even admits it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DerekSmart...t_is_if_your_browser/?st=iqo4n46o&sh=cb1e5016

Just look at his comments
https://www.reddit.com/user/streetroller

____

Elite Dangerous was in development from 2008 to 2014. Not much faster for a small game.

 

[swaaye]

Who wants to wade through all that reddit nonsense. Yikes. I feel internet douchery is quickly snowballing into a civilization-ending singularity of doom.