Star Citizen Introducing a $48,000 Ship Bundle, but Only for Players Who Have Already Spent $10,000::Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is releasing a ship bundle for its controversial space simulator that costs an eye-watering $48,000.
Because there are lots of people in this thread who paint whales as “rich schmucks” who can afford to spend $48k without thinking twic. This is a myth that lots of the gaming industry itself loves to perpetuate, because it absolves them of taking responsibility for ruining lives.
Research has shown repeatedly that whales are much more likely to be people with mental health problems and/or gambling addicts. That Star Citizen isn’t a freemium game with loot boxes makes it marginally better than - let’s say - Genshin Impact, but offers like the bundle in the article is still predatory.
And yet? Nothing will be done. This is a target market that is more than acceptable to disdain, abuse, and otherwise fuck over.
It might be “cool” to be a nerd now, my fellows, but only on the surface. Don’t get suckered into believing they accept you. They’re just commodifying our interests for their gains. They are not us and they don’t want to be. They just want us to like them enough to pay them more than we otherwise would.
Fuck the poseurs.
I wonder if games that require such farfetched amounts of money should be included in the Luxury tax?
A lot of those “whales” have cognitive difficulties and/or gambling addictions issues. Since many if these game developers/publishers have no qualm blindly milking and profiteering. It should be no surprise if some sort of tax is levied to help societies (à-la-tobacco or sugar tax) attenuate the ravages of gambling addictions.
Moreover, Star Citizen has been released over 10 years ago while been continually updated.
At what point is it just senseless greed that has taken over the game?
I know it’s not the same, but you could just play elite dangerous which is an actual game, and you can get new ships through a crazy new innovative mechanic called “playing the game”
Never play Star Citizen, even if it somehow becomes playable. Got it.
The game costs $45, for the record. For an MMO. With no subscription fees.
WOW costs $155 per year.
Apparently it costs up to 48k to get certain ships, so that means absolutely fucking nothing.
It costs 48k for every ship in the game. The most expensive single ship that I’ve seen was about 1.2k.
1.2k … for some bits and bytes.
I know professional software licenses that are cheaper.
Dude that’s like a month of any Autodesk software! :O
And yes it’s utterly ridiculous, and I just wanted to take a shot at Autodesk because screw them lol.
I don’t like WoW, but that’s at least an actual game. SC is still nothing but a glorified tech demo. And I say that as one of the earliest backers.
Yes, it is nothing but a glorified tech demo right now. You’re absolutely correct.
That $45 price (or whatever you choose to spend on the game) is a pre-order.
If you don’t like owning incomplete products, don’t buy incomplete products. This seems pretty simple.
That’s a incorrect comparison. You’re treating WoW and Star Citizen to be similar games. When WoW for more than a decade has been in its own premium bucket.
The average MMO today is free. Then the small percentages of MMOs that require the core game purchased.
No MMO is free. The question is just how you’re paying.
Servers cost money no matter what.
If it’s $45, how are people spending $10,000 on it?
Some poor fuckers are getting fleeced.
Only for Players Who Have Already Spent $10,000
This is so predatory in itself.
Just being eligible for it is a sign that you need to make some life changes.
According to a friend of mine that plays, the whales were asking for this feature so they didn’t have to go through the purchase process for each ship
Fucking billionaries… :)
Wait, in real money? Or like video game money?
If this is a genuine question you have some epic story to treat yourself to about how the bestest game of all times was
madepromisedGenuine question my friend lmao
You’re up for a ride if you have a read.
Game is 11 years in alpha development, still a buggy mess that requires a supercomputer to work smoothly, only recently got a second star system (dozens more are pinky promised, and hundreds promised since beginning of development), is constantly exploited in all ways possible, barely has any actual content…
…which absolutely didn’t stop it from earning over half a billion dollars (yes, billion) by selling in-game ships for hundreds and sometimes thousands of very absolutely real dollars, as well as such monstrous packs.
It’s weird, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone actually playing this game. Hell, I don’t even know what gameplay looks like, and honestly I’m happy keeping it that way
It’s an ethically shitty and exploitative funding model, but if you look at the gameplay, you’ll see the appeal of buying the $45 game package. Very few people stop at though. No matter how much you hear that spending more is unnecessary, they’ve built a system of incremental spending and incentives that draw people ever deeper.
The insane thing is that the supposed final vision sounds incredibly tedious in a way that I doubt most people would ever actually play it. For the sake of immersion, you will have to physically move every item from spare sets of armour to bulk cargo for transport jobs. There is a light survival mechanic of hydration and nutrition, but personal hygiene is also planned. Upgrading ships will mean physically pulling components and replacing them, but the real gains will be in the subcomponents!
Maybe that sounds fun as a vision statement, but I assure you, after losing that hand loaded, hand upgraded ship to bugs or exploits for the third time, the joy will all be gone.
I suppose it’s lucky that none of their vision or promises ever come to pass. Anyway. You want my referral code?
