Ah yeah, that’s a good comparison. But in the case of SC, we’re talking about a $360m game that is literally going to die because there’s no single-player and the AWS cloud servers are super expensive and aren’t something that you’re just going to keep running indefinitely without the rev to pay the bill.
Wow, over four months working on a roadmap, and it’s not close to done? This doesn’t bode wel! (not that anything has for some time now). :D
Its going to be a quality roadmap in 8k , and semi-animated.
I feel the need to buy a new ship just to support the planned roadmap. :)
“I know I’m not going to give you a satisfactory reply right now, and I’ll live with that, but I do want to say that I think folks like you are actually going to quite enjoy the new Roadmap.” CIG staff
:-D [links to CIG forum, source]
Makes me wish I had bought the game because I couldn’t NOT reply to that sort of comment.
A really good update from The Agent, over at somethingawful. The guy has a proven track record of getting real information out of CIG:
hello
quote:
[Re: Roadmap] We have to continue to hold out until we find an honest way to placate our investors. The oversight leveled against us was fine in the beginning, but after the first [SQ42 gameplay “monthlies”] deadline was missed, they started paying more and more attention. If we put a roadmap out for the backers, the investors are going to use that to penalize the project: not only monetarily, but with cuts to our workforce and with additional oversight. Those will only slow down our already somewhat stalled progress this year. Management understands this and is doing a sword-dance around the issues…for the record, we are not holding things back for [backers]. It is much more complicated than that.
quote:
I feel everyone is slacking off right now. The computer issues don’t help. The lack of forward momentum doesn’t help. We’re running around in circles and the people giving us the directions are telling us to keep doing what we are doing. Everyone digitally clocks in and then mentally clocks out.
quote:
The last time we demoed the game, it was heavily scripted. [QA] had been playing it for hours and hours, getting the right route [and content]. The investors wanted it live, so nothing pre-recorded like we are used to sending. Everyone got really quiet when [they] asked if they could play it themselves and not follow the script at all. Almost immediately after the controller was handed over, they crashed. [Someone in the meeting] nervously laughed. I think that was the day we lost a lot of confidence with our investors and they started really looking at our progress.
quote:
We keep saying “a console port is easy, everything is set up for it already, the engine handles almost all the work out of the box” and we repeat it and repeat it until I think even we believe it. There is no console port or attempt for [SQ42], even though we told them it [could be complete] the week before Thanksgiving.
quote:
I can say this about Cloud Imperium and Foundry 42: they are trying very, very hard to keep people on during the pandemic. I can’t say the same about the investors. Turbulent is taking over more and more development responsibilities, because they can plan and hit target dates and the investors like that. [Turbulent] mentioned that they could do the game for a tenth of what [Roberts] promised. I’m scared they might wrestle away more and more control and let our studio close.
My observation: sounds like after taking those investors on, CIG finally has people they really have to report to, and they’re really not used to that.
Shocking.
Maybe this is where Chris is… underground.
This really all points to Chris being sidelined and more and more the company is being taken over by investors as they continue to slip and miss deadlines. Chris is probably hanging on for dear life and can’t put out a schedule that they know they can’t make
Hadn’t heard this. Is Scott Jennings (Lum the Mad) still involved? If not, what is he working on these days?
Sorry for the slight derail. I am always curious about MMOs.
Fully deserved. And maybe actual oversight will be a gasp positive tihing in this case.
Too funny as to not post it.
Clever :)
So Chris Roberts initiates a game project for the BDSSE, takes way too much time and money and doesn’t deliver anything finished or close to it, investors get restless, take the project away from him little by little, salvage what they can, and release a game that’s not even close to what Chris Roberts promised.
That sounds oddly familiar…
I think he was laid off around the time the game was released, or shortly after, with many others. He hasn’t been involved for a couple years now.
He was laid off shortly after Shroud released in 2018. My understanding, and I don’t know if this is still current, is that he is now working on…wait for it… Star Citizen. So you totally didn’t derail the topic!
So he moves from one awful management team to another. Yikes.
Well, he is mad, after all.
People gotta eat and if he’s drawing a salary, I can’t blame him for cashing the check. He’s got to know that Star Citizen is a farce and a scam by now, though.
For those who would rather not venture to SA. The Agent (man on the outside looking in) is back with more insider musings.