Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has been something of a sore spot for eager players over the last few years.
The game has now officially been in development for seven years, facing delay after delay and near-constant issues, and never really getting anywhere in terms of its end.
According to a report from Forbes [via GamesIndustry.biz], Star Citizen isn’t just guilty of taking way too long to fully launch – it’s actually been blowing through crowd-funded money at a worrying rate.
Forbes exposes that the game’s funds – which primarily came from crowd-funding – have gone from a whopping $288 million to just $14 million at the end of 2017.
Of the $288 million in funds, over $242 million came from crowd-funding.
The Forbes report states that Cloud Imperium’s CEO, Chris Roberts, managed to raise more money for the game by selling off spaceship models for up to $3000 dollars a pop – but development on the game has definitely slowed.
Forbes writes that the developers are mostly spending their days on demos which will encourage players to keep paying for the spaceships, therefore keeping the game afloat a little longer, at least financially.
Although this buys time for Star Citizen in its current state, it’s not winning favour with the fans who want to game to launch in full already.
It’s stated that some of the p*ssed off players who’ve paid “anywhere from $1,000 to $4,500” for the ships are now asking the Federal Trade Commission for refunds.
The Federal Trade Commission has reportedly received 129 consumer complaints about Star Citizen‘s Cloud Imperium, with refund requests going up to the eye-watering figure of $24,000.
The future of Star Citizen isn’t know at this point, but it doesn’t look good for its players…
What’s your opinion on Star Citizen?
Featured Image Credit: Cloud Imperium Games