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Star Citizen truly outdoes itself with a $48,000 bundle for its most loyal whales

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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?


We live in a society where virtual spaceship DLC can cost more than most peoples' annual salary.

Ever since it first warped onto the scene, Star Citizen has been infamous for its rapacious monetisation. The game's development seems never-ending but, long before you could play it in any form, Roberts Space Industries would sell you all sorts of space-things: Like this mine-laying ship that cost over $600 before mine-laying was even a feature in the game.

Here's the thing about Star Citizen, though. Its devotees are fiercely loyal to Chris Roberts' vision and will loudly defend the game's monetisation, its protracted development, and whatever else the detractors take aim at. Those same detractors meanwhile, just point and laugh at folk who spaff $30,000 on virtual spaceships.

But this time Star Citizen has truly outdone itself, with what surely has to be the single most expensive DLC in history. Yes, they warned us that this was the next step after horse armour, and Roberts Space Industries has delivered: Star Citizen now offers a $48,000 Legatus bundle containing every ship in the game (you'd hope so, too). The description of the bundle is as follows:

Star Citizen has been flogging Legatus bundles since 2018 and they've always been notorious within the community for their pricing, with the first clocking in at a mere $27,000. The cherry on top? You can't even buy this thing unless you're already in the Chairman's Club, a level of access that is granted to those who've spent over $1,000 in the game already.

Something about this feels as faintly obscene as it as absurd. Over on the Star Citizen subreddit the reaction is mainly one of amusement, while it seems the "space peasants" label has become a self-applied badge of honor among the game's lower-paying customers.

I guess if you've got $48K to blow on pretend spaceships, then you do you. But there's no doubt that being a Star Citizen fan can certainly cost you an arm and a Legatus.
 
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IFireflyl

Gold Member
i dont want to live on this planet anymore GIF
 
I know that it may get taken wrong, and there is probably many ways my opinion is flawed, but it is good that only people who paid a lot can buy those stupid bundles. It kinda protect people who don't have the money to bankrupt themselves in the process. Still, there is more than one of those bundles, and I can't stop myself from thinking of some crazy man who took more than one. Imagine being someone who took the first bundle at 27 000$ and found out that like any freemium game their purchase is outdated/obsolete and lacking in all the great new toys?
 

Three

Gold Member
This is some old news:

 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
This is some old news:


Ah well, the PC Gamer article is dated yesterday.
 

Sentenza

Member
On one hand this is obvious ragebait, as anyone who spent any amount of time playing Star Citizen would quickly realize that you have virtually no actual reason or incentive to spend this type of money on the game (or ANY amount of money past your initial purchase, really) if you aren't in the rabbit hole of making it an in-circle status symbol.

On the other hand, CIG kinda deserves to be ridiculed at any given chance for this, since their blatant whale hunting keeps getting more and more shameless.

That said...

We live in a society where virtual spaceship DLC can cost more than most peoples' annual salary.
Oh, come on. Drop the fucking bullshit.
"We live in a society" where a player of Genshin Impact, Lostk Ark or Fortnite (or any other popular mobile game, really) can spend four times as much and that's nowhere near to the ceiling.
Say what you want about the shitty whale-hunting going on in Star Citizen, at least these fools know exactly what they are paying for and they aren't spiraled into disguised gambling in the form of gatcha mechanics.
 
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Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Who cares
 

Snake29

Banned
A package that exist for many years already is some big news? It only got updated....

If the media would spent more time writing about SC instead of cherry picking stuff out of it without any context around. Luckely, last CitizenCon made a lot of people realize why this project is big and why it takes time.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
A package that exist for many years already is some big news? It only got updated....

If the media would spent more time writing about SC instead of cherry picking stuff out of it without any context around. Luckely, last CitizenCon made a lot of people realize why this project is big and why it takes time.

It's been 11 years and nearly $700 million dollars in crowd-funding. Realistically, how much more time do you think it should take?
 

Sentenza

Member
Well, $4.7 million of that went to buy Chris' mansion.
Their year-to-year balance is literally publicly available at the end of every fiscal year.
Discussions about this production would be a lot more productive if people gave them shit for the things that they actually do poorly, rather than making up dubious shit about boats and mansions.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
It's insane to me that they're still doing this. So much of the game is still a WIP and it's baffling to me. There are plenty of other teams out there that have made much more solid experiences in less time, but here we are. It's sad that they just keep on doing it before so much of the game is far from done. But what's even worse is that some how there ARE people that are continuing to give them money.
 

Majormaxxx

Member
Their year-to-year balance is literally publicly available at the end of every fiscal year.
Discussions about this production would be a lot more productive if people gave them shit for the things that they actually do poorly, rather than making up dubious shit about boats and mansions.
So you don't believe their salaries are inflated due to the generous budget?
 

Madonis

Member
Hey, if you can afford to burn money like that, please go ahead. It's fun to read the resulting news stories.
 

TVexperto

Member
It seems that some Star Citizen backers are more interested in collecting jpegs of spaceships than playing the actual game. While I appreciate the passion and dedication of the community, I can't help but find it a bit amusing that someone would be willing to spend $1,000 on a digital asset that doesn't actually do anything. (just look at the other thread here... so many idiots actually pay that stuff)

Star Citizen remains an unfinished, bug-ridden mess, with people eager to purchase JPEGs of spaceships rather than a completed game.
 
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Godot25

Banned
This is fucking hilarious because if any other western gaming company tried to sell even 500$ microtransaction they would be burned alive by media. But with Star Citizen it's like...meh, we don't care.

I wonder what is causing this strange behaviour. Why are people outraged at 20$ optional skin in Overwatch 2 (for example) while this shit doesn't even warrant an attention?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
This is fucking hilarious because if any other western gaming company tried to sell even 500$ microtransaction they would be burned alive by media. But with Star Citizen it's like...meh, we don't care.

I wonder what is causing this strange behaviour. Why are people outraged at 20$ optional skin in Overwatch 2 (for example) while this shit doesn't even warrant an attention?
The game being called scam citizen left and right is not enough for you? What, you want actual investigative journalism to get some actual dirt on them? They've been trying all these years and even with so much staff in several different studios and people who once worked in them but don't any more all over the place they haven't got shit, but it's easier to just make memes when you can't get anything concrete against them. As other said you can spend a lot more on mobile games that shut down in a year losing everything but you don't see such passionate devotion about those from the people who froth about this one. This is already the second thread made about this specific package update for the usual people to say the same tired shit like this. Feel free to make a third a few days later if you think that's still not enough criticism I guess, nobody's gonna stop you apparently 🤷‍♂️
 
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Majormaxxx

Member
They are the ones deciding their own salaries, like every executive in every company ever existed, so "inflated" is entirely a matter of opinion.
Then your previous claim about the imaginary boats and mansions is a moo point. Moo, like a cow's opinion ;)
 

Majormaxxx

Member
This is fucking hilarious because if any other western gaming company tried to sell even 500$ microtransaction they would be burned alive by media. But with Star Citizen it's like...meh, we don't care.

I wonder what is causing this strange behaviour. Why are people outraged at 20$ optional skin in Overwatch 2 (for example) while this shit doesn't even warrant an attention?
Bruh if you HIRE someone to design you one of these space ships in a 3d program it will be cheaper than "buying" it from scam citizen. This is sick. I think the scam is so huge people are getting desensitized.
 

Ribi

Member
This is fucking hilarious because if any other western gaming company tried to sell even 500$ microtransaction they would be burned alive by media. But with Star Citizen it's like...meh, we don't care.

I wonder what is causing this strange behaviour. Why are people outraged at 20$ optional skin in Overwatch 2 (for example) while this shit doesn't even warrant an attention?
You know eve exists right? You complain then?

Hell what about Rocksmith?
 
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Sentenza

Member
Then your previous claim about the imaginary boats and mansions is a moo point. Moo, like a cow's opinion ;)
Aside for the fact that Chris Roberts does NOT own a boat (despise people using pictures of him being ospited on one to prove the contrary) the core point is that they can buy whatever the fuck they want with their salary, but they didn't "steal funds to buy things" because their balance accounting has been made publicly available.

This is turning like the Kotick's thread where people wonder "why someone is taking his side".
Because truth matters and "I don't like the company" or "I don't like the guy" shouldn't be used as a retarded excuse to make up shit on the spot or to complain about vapid bullshit.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
We were not born in the age of sail to explore the world. We were not born in the age of ships to explore space.
We were born in the age to buy horse armor, NFTs and packs of digital stuff for 48.000 dollars.
And Prime. Don't forget Prime

rXR4l3s.jpg


'Gotta catch em all'
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
Aside for the fact that Chris Roberts does NOT own a boat (despise people using pictures of him being ospited on one to prove the contrary) the core point is that they can buy whatever the fuck they want with their salary, but they didn't "steal funds to buy things" because their balance accounting has been made publicly available.

This is turning like the Kotick's thread where people wonder "why someone is taking his side".
Because truth matters and "I don't like the company" or "I don't like the guy" shouldn't be used as a retarded excuse to make up shit on the spot or to complain about vapid bullshit.
I just wanted Sqaudron 42 :messenger_unamused:
 
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