Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
DeepCool LS720 (LCS) review
Fractal Design Pop Air RGB Black TG review
Palit GeForce GTX 1630 4GB Dual review
FSP Dagger Pro (850W PSU) review
Razer Leviathan V2 gaming soundbar review
Guru3D NVMe Thermal Test - the heatsink vs. performance
EnGenius ECW220S 2x2 Cloud Access Point review
Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora HPE 360 LCS cooler review
Noctua NH-D12L CPU Cooler Review
Silicon Power XPOWER XS70 1TB NVMe SSD Review

New Downloads
Prime95 download version 30.9 build 1
Intel ARC graphics Driver Download Version: 30.0.101.1743
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.6.1 WHQL driver download
GeForce 516.59 WHQL driver download
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema v1.9.22 Download
AMD Chipset Drivers Download v4.06.10.651
CrystalDiskInfo 8.17 Download
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.6.1 Windows 7 driver download
ReShade download v5.2.2
HWiNFO Download v7.26


New Forum Topics
FSR Thread RDNA2 RX6000 Series Owners Thread, Tests, Mods, BIOS & Tweaks ! Should I force "Rebar" in games that aren't on Nvidia's approved list? Unable to use AMD software after switching to Windows insider AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.6.1 - Driver download and discussion [3rd-Party Driver] Amernime Zone Radeon Insight 22.5.1 WHQL Driver Pack (Released) Ubisoft is cutting off online gameplay for 15 games, players will no longer have access to purchased DLC Can you measure if a CPU was used before? ASUS equips the ROG Phone 6 with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor and a 165Hz screen. We need to talk about UE4 Shader compilation issues




Guru3D.com » News » Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ?

Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ?

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 10/02/2015 08:46 AM | source: | 80 comment(s)
Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ?

The Escapist has posted an article with insider information from nine former employees of Star Citizen, alleging a hostile work environment, the company has burned through $82 Million of their $90 Million in crowdfunded revenue.

According to several former employees and industry veterans, the reason Star Citizen is so popular is because it's never been done. And, they continue, the reason it has never been done is because it can't be done - at least, not with $90 million. 

"$90 million for what he's pitching, even with a competent leadership, you couldn't do," CS1 wrote. "The thing you have to remember about Chris Roberts is that, before this, he hadn't made a game in 12 years. He has no concept of what can and can't be done today with that amount of money, or for a game like this. Chris Roberts hadn't made a game in 12 years, and he was actively ignoring the input of people who have been in and a part of the industry that entire time." 

To this, Roberts says: "How do you or they know this? Which employees said this and what makes them qualified to make that judgement? I know it's what Derek Smart loves to say but he couldn't make a good game with $200m so I don't think his opinion matters. Outside of that, no employee beyond me and a few other key people who are leading Star Citizen would have the appropriate information and overview to make any judgement about the cost of the total project. Secondly, the company uses additional sources of funding such as tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships, but we do not discuss these issues in public for obvious reasons. We always keep a healthy cash reserve and operate our business prudently based on the incoming revenue. It should tell you something that we are actually increasing our global headcount not decreasing it." 

Over concerns that he is not responding to advice from workers, Roberts writes "I have a very strong vision for Star Citizen, which is why I believe we have been backed to the level we have. I have no doubt what we can achieve. Now that most of the base technology is in place we will be able to get with the Large World and MultiCrew milestone a game experience that will allow you to seamlessly go from foot, to boarding a fully realized spaceship with your friends, take off, fly thousands or millions of km in space, exit your ship in EVA and explore derelict space stations or wrecks, engage in FPS combat, return to your ship, engage in space combat and return to your home base to share the tales of your adventures with your other friends. All with no leading screens, all at AAA first person fidelity that you can't even get on a next gen console. This is the core of the Squadron 42 and Star Citizen experience that we will continue to iterate on and add content to, but even the first release will be more "game" than most commercially released space games. In terms of not listening to the advice of people that have worked in the industry that is not true. I have a very strong executive management and design team with huge experience in AAA titles that all contribute to the decision making of the company. I listen to everyone - from our top level all the way through to our QA testers and community giving feedback on gameplay and features. I care and want to build the best game possible. Now that doesn't mean I agree with everyone's opinions and feedback as a project director I owe it to the community to stay true to my vision and pick the things that I think will make the game better which can occasionally lead to people feeling disgruntled, which I suspect is the root of this "concern"." 

The popular consensus among most of the people who reached out is that Chris Roberts is not intentionally a con man. "He doesn't set out in the morning to screw anybody over. He's just incredibly arrogant," CS2 stated.


Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ? Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ? Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ?




« OCZ Storage Solutions Z-Drive 4500 Achieves VMware Ready Status · Star Citizen Employees Speak Out on Project Woes - Crash and Burn ? · Acer 35in Ultra-wide Predator XZ350CU Has FreeSync and 144Hz »

Related Stories

Star Citizen might require 100GB of storage capacity - 03/13/2015 08:26 AM
Okay, that's just getting out of hand bigtime. Star Citizen is looking to be a great title, a huge game .. but not just as a title, it will require a massive amount of storage space as well. Jeremy M...

Star Citizen To Support AMD's TressFX Tech - 10/13/2014 08:16 AM
AMD reconfirmed today that Star Citizen will support its TressFX tech. In addition, a new commercial video has been released that can be viewed below. And no I won't make any jokes about spaceships w...

Star Citizen's Latest Ship has 100,000 Polygons - 08/25/2014 08:57 AM
Cloud Imperium Games Technical Designer and resident CryEngine expert Dan Tracy explains the technology behind the stunning Origin M-50, which is the latest ship released for the game and an agile rac...

Star Citizen crowdfunding nears $35 million - 12/27/2013 09:05 AM
Star Citizen continues to break all records for crowdfunding, the upcoming space sim has not hit the $35 million mark. Interestingly, given that the game has around 330,000 backers, this means the act...


16 pages « 2 3 4 5 > »


Denial
Senior Member



Posts: 13757
Joined: 2004-05-16

#5167337 Posted on: 10/02/2015 03:09 PM
"Do you guys realise the game has been in development for four years now? It's still not close to being finished"

Errrm... no. Up until the crowdfunding was completed, it was literally a pitch project/video. After that, hiring and development was gradually scaled up to the point where the first *development* offices were sorted out and further staffing could happen. Which was..... about Feb 2013.

As more funding has come in, more staff have been hired and offices opened. There wasn't a massive ready built team and infrastructure to just start developing a game.

Which essentially means we are merely two and a half years into development and the scale of the game and company working on it have been expanding during that entire time. I'd expect at LEAST another 1 1/2 years of dev before we see anything approaching the "release" of the entire thing proper. Which is 2016. IE when pretty much everyone expects it to be, even if that is in a late beta state with lots of content and functionality.

S'fine with me. *shrugs*.

Oh, and anyone bleating on about Chris Roberts hiring his unqualified wife clearly needs their head examined. SHE HAS RAISED 90 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE WORLDS LARGEST CROWD FUNDING CAMPAIGN EVER. Hardly dropped the ball, eh? It's ironic that she's getting the negativity she is entirely as a result of wildly overperforming. LoL

CDJay

Yeah I don't really see the problem. It could be way worse, they could have released nothing so far and just made promises like other studios. At least they are showing something, even if it's unfinished modules.

H83
Senior Member



Posts: 3900
Joined: 2009-09-08

#5167350 Posted on: 10/02/2015 03:34 PM
This story reminds me of Dike Nuke Forever, too ambitious that in the end the released game was crap.

I hope this games is released but the development of it seems to be turning into a giant mess...

schmidtbag
Senior Member



Posts: 6575
Joined: 2012-11-10

#5167357 Posted on: 10/02/2015 03:40 PM
Personally, I felt the whole FPS part of the game (on-foot) completely unnecessary. It's cool, but it's not why people were initially interested in the game. If they never got into that they probably would be in a much more stable condition.

Koniakki
Senior Member



Posts: 2843
Joined: 2009-09-15

#5167360 Posted on: 10/02/2015 03:46 PM
I've bought into this game and even if it won't ever be released I have no regrets because this is the boldest game idea ever and this is how I always wanted to see space sim to look like.

What makes a game great? is that they try to create something much more than ever before was done.

4 years may be enough for normal limited games but they didn't have all this money from the beginning so real development started much later.

I honestly see this project as constantly evolving, it will never be finished, once they release PU and FPS modules, they will be tweaking them constantly adding more content missions ships and so on, it will be living thing!


That post is a living proof of how good their marketing was for getting everyone excited and invest in the game... :)

CDJay
Senior Member



Posts: 135
Joined: 2009-08-22

#5167361 Posted on: 10/02/2015 03:47 PM
It's far from unnecessary. It's entirely NECESSARY to achieve what the game was pitched as! If you don't do the "FPS" stuff properly, you can't have mutli-crew. Or ship boarding. Or running around landing zones with other people. Or EVAing around in space.

The "FPS part of the game" is the FOUNDATION of the game. The pew pew part is dressing, the core functionality is a requirement for Star Citizen to exist. Nothing less. IMO!

I'm in moderately deep, and I'm not overly concerned. I started paying more attention again to what was going on once DS started bleating relentlessly but I'm fairly convinced he's genuinely lost his mind. I checked out some videos of people playing his latest Early Access game and I'm amazed he's managed to get so worked up about SC yet maintain the attitude to his game and audience that he has.

We'll see, eh?

CDJay

16 pages « 2 3 4 5 > »


Post New Comment
Click here to post a comment for this news story on the message forum.


Guru3D.com © 2022