It’s a marketing op. As i mentioned previously, it’s hard to underestimate their marketing costs. But it’s also a met positive in terms of money (the added publicity and sales offsetting the costs).
I think this project, with all its problems, is a very hard one to wrap our heads around because of the extremely uncommon funding model. We can’t and shouldn’t expect them to do things as other projects when they are running a permanent kickstarter. That aspect (the fundraising) is working well for them ,at least.
It’s only uncommon in that crowd funding for video games is a juvenile market and hasn’t encountered a boom like this before.
You can call a boom a funding model if you like, but like all booms it’s more about right place right time than any innate wisdom.
The uncommon nature of this boom is the motive is not profit, but a good video game.
Which is quite hard to wrap your head around.
I think the psychology remains the same, and all booms reach their nadir when people openly question their worth.
When the market crashes, the funding will stop nigh on instantaneously - which will cause all sorts of problems if the money hasn’t been squirreled away to fund a well defined project for a set period of time.
The interesting point you raise is how quickly it can be downsized and re scoped, and how content complete it is. But that all assumes rational management. I think there are serious questions over whether El Presidente will accept the boom is over when it comes.
It’s only uncommon in that crowd funding for video games is a juvenile market and hasn’t encountered a boom like this before.
You can call a boom a funding model if you like, but like all booms it’s more about right place right time than any innate wisdom.
The uncommon nature of this boom is the motive is not profit, but a good video game.
Which is quite hard to wrap your head around.
I think the psychology remains the same, and all booms reach their peak when people openly question their worth.
When the market crashes, the funding will stop nigh on instantaneously - which will cause all sorts of problems if the money hasn’t been squirreled away to fund a well defined project for a set period of time.
The interesting point you raise is how quickly it can be downsized and re scoped, and how content complete it is. But that all assumes rational management. I think there are serious questions over whether El Presidente will accept the boom is over when it comes.
No, it’s unusual because crowdfunding for videogames is normally constrained in time and not continuous during the lifetime of the project (which is bound to change production priorities). Early acces would be more similar, but that assumes having an autonomous version of the game available at all points, while this game is only releasing prototypes and fragmented slices (so it’s not really comparable either).
Also, crowdfunding for videogames is well past the boom. We are seeing a very clear decline on its viability, and have been for more than a year now.
Also, if you think crowdfunding doesn’t have profit as a motive, you are being idealistic. Take a look at the marketing expenses of +$500k kick starters.
By ‘boom’ I’m referring to the project specifically. You can laugh if you like, but the terminology doesn’t fit because of the reasons outlined above. It’s an oddity, but the psychology of a bubble is an exact fit.
Kickstarter fetters their market, to prevent this sort of destructive crap. Hence the market is juvenile, and there is no memory of a big failed funding exercise to curb expectations.
Hence 90 million bucks…
Profit motive is also applied to investors… I shouldn’t have to point that out to you. The analogy is a pretty simple one, I think you can grasp it even if you don’t agree with it.
Simply put the bubble (or boom) is investment in a product that is of ever greater and greater perceived value - except the value is not in on selling for profit, it is in a game that is imagined to be better and better.
Same psychology, same result eventually. pop
I believe citizenCon takes place this weekend, so we should get to see what’s going on in terms of progress on the game.
Of all nicknames to give it, ‘Citizen Con’ is probably one of the worst.
Think of it as pre-ordering a $900 item that may never arrive and you may never get a refund.
And that will probably cost much less once the game launches (or after a short period of time).
I’ll prefer to just call it predatory business practice designed to separate fools from their money.
But I guess that’s the same thing.
Well, yeah. Let’s just say that.
“A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place.”
- Gordon Gekko, CFO Star Citizen
Steve_G
1696
What’s with the “IN STOCK”?? . I am assuming if something is IN STOCK you should get something. Is there a model viewer that you have access to where you can view the actual model or do you get absolutely nothing? If its the latter, shouldn’t IN STOCK say “PRE ORDER” or something similar?
Because there’s only so much shelf space for these concepts of virtual products!
It’s obviously engineered scarcity, but it is scarcity.
Steve_G
1700
Wow, that’s insane. They should be saying Preorder-limited quantities or something along those lines.
I’ve supported game development through early access on Steam, because you actually get something. I cannot fathom this though.
KevinC
1701
I don’t think you’re alone in that boat. Spaceship, whatever.
