Chris Roberts has decided to address criticisms regarding Star Citizen’s progress in a blog post for Roberts Space Industries, and also Episode 60 of 10 for the Chairman. You can watch the video of 10 for the Chairman above.
To summarize quickly, regarding the accusations of feature creep, that what Cloud Imperium Games is trying to do is impossible to finish, and that the game is essentially vaporware, Chris simply says bullshit. He doubles down on talk of Star Citizen being a ‘dream’, with an ever widening scope to ensure fans would be satisfied.
Chris also explains that they are making the game with incredible scale and fidelity, and as a result, work is taking them longer than it usually would. Chris says there is no situation they do not have a plan for, and nothing that is not doable in the roadmap. Chris wants us to believe, with the developers he has and the money they have raised, that their only limitation is time.
Chris has answers for the staff departures and accusations that there is a ‘sky is falling’ scenario. He claims the turnover is normal, given Cloud Imperium Games now has a 255 person studio. Individually, Travis left because he wanted to work at Blizzard, and Alex left for personal reasons. Chris also confirmed his brother Erin has taken over as global manager of production.
Of course, all of these are in response to accusations from fellow developer Derek Smart. You can read about Smart’s comments regarding Star Citizen here, but let me point something out here.
In my source for one of these excerpts, other Star Citizen backers express their feelings of burnout and dismay that Chris doubled down on his talk of a dream, instead of showing more substantial evidence to back up his claims. You can read other skeptical backers here, here, here, here, here, and here. Some of those fans cite prior experience with an earlier project, Freelancer, and how Chris is repeating mistakes he made with that game today. Others are unhappy with something more relevant today; the amount of transactions the game has, and how rentals have made the game free-to-grind, which isn't satisfying either.
Are you feeling burned out by Star Citizen? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. You can also read transcripts of Roberts comments below.
There are people out there who are going to tell you that this is all a BAD THING. That it’s ‘feature creep’ and we should make a smaller, less impressive game for the sake of having it out more quickly or in order to meet artificial deadlines. Now I’ll answer those claims in one word: Bullshit! Star Citizen matters BECAUSE it is big, because it is a bold dream. It is something everyone else is scared to try. You didn’t back Star Citizen because you want what you’ve seen before. You’re here and reading this because we are willing to go big, to do the things that terrify publishers. You’ve trusted us with your money so we can build a game, not line our pockets. And we sure as hell didn’t run this campaign so we could put that money in the bank, guarantee ourselves a profit and turn out some flimsy replica of a game I’ve made before. You went all in supporting us and we’ve gone all in making the game. Is Star Citizen today a bigger goal than I imagined in 2012? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not: it’s the whole damn point.
There’s a lot of different reasons why people leave; they get an offer they couldn’t refuse or they get to do their dream; for most people here, what we’re building is their dream, but in some cases, like Travis Day being a World of Warcraft nut, working at Blizzard has been his dream. You can’t really stand in the way of something like that.
There is nothing that we don't have a plan for. There is nothing on the roadmap that isn't doable. Just comes down to how long it takes to get it done, sometimes it takes longer than we like.
What do I say [to people who think this is impossible?] Bull shit.
