Gaming Monetization Sucks & Star Citizen 

The difference IMO between SC and other games like Capcom's is that SC has a funding model that is no different than Kickstater with rewards. You fund the game, you get a ship as a reward. But overall, you can pay 50 bucks and have the whole game available to you. With Capcom and others, you pay the game 70 bucks, and if you want the whole experience, you have to pay all of their DLCs. That's a BIG difference I think. All I have is a Titan in SC, I spent 60 bucks, and I can do about anything with it, and buy any other ship in game if I want to. I'm not locked out of some content by a paywall. If you look at it that way, you'll realize that even pre-order exclusive bonuses are more predatory. Especially since that will make you buy a game you don't even know you'll enjoy (because no reviews available) just for FOMO. I'm a 100% sure that if SC was still on kickstarter and that it was like "$50: Aurora as a reward, $70: Titan as a reward, $1000: Carrack as a reward... etc" no one would complain. Now we know that SCs marketing is pretty bad, and the way it's all presented sucks, but still, it's the exact same thing!

I must be missing something. I couldn’t care less how many ships anybody else has bought, I’m just glad there’s enough money to build the game.

It's kind of funny that I became a whale in SC; but it's taken 5+ years to get there. I don't think I have spent more than $60 (typically less) in one single transaction on CIG's web page. The funniest part is after tallying up my game spending, I've noticed I've purchased less over all and spent less on fewer games since I started playing SC. Guess what I am trying to say is that being a whale has actually saved me money over all (in a broad picture kind of way). So I guess the old saying is true. You either play video games; or you play Star Citizen. I can't wait to see all the really cool tech CIG develops get licensed out in future games to increase their immersion and maybe even win me over.

I had my reservations about SC for years, but as time has progressed, the potential is slowly being realized and its evident that they *do* want the project to do well. I would love to see this hit the mainstream, because like you say, AAA is more or less creatively bankrupt. Good stuff man

I stopped buying "Quadruple A" games many years ago, then around 6 years ago I quit gaming all together. I got tired of the industries anti-consumer practices. When I was still spending money on games I contributed about 500 dollars total to SC. Funny thing is, I actually saved money long term by not purchasing any big publisher backed titles. I knew I was going to get a steaming pile of doo-doo from the EAs and the Ubisofts of the world. So, I donated my money to hopes and dreams instead. I remember the days when Derek Smart was calling SC the biggest scam the industry has ever seen. I also remember walking around my hanger for the first time and seeing my first ship rendered in game. The initial release of Arena Commander was pretty neat. But the first and last time I actually 'played the game' was the best. I took off in my newly purchased Hornet F7C-M, which quickly got blown up by some pirates and I had to eject. While I'm floating there in space wondering what the heck I'm going to do next, some random citizen warps in and proceeds to attack the pirates. The ensuing battle was awesome to watch from the perspective of a tiny little space man floating around in space. I contributed with my pistol of course. After all the enemy ships were destroyed, this random player pulls up next to me, opens their rear hatch and, gives me a ride back to Orison. I have no idea where that player came from, or how they knew I needed help, but that experience alone justified the 500 bucks. Seeing what SC has become after all these years, it's been money well spent in my opinion. I'll probably contribute again once the games are released and, I might even get back into gaming once most of the kinks have been worked out.

Pony up that $250 for the PvE portion of Tarkov! Less logic, more wallet!

Exactly how I feel about SC. I've spent $45 and got 10x that value from gameplay and enjoyment from following development. It's great to see someone pushing the boundaries of technology. No one else will.

When voidy mentioned total warhammer dlc collection I felt the pain

Ima keep it real. I spent like 300€ on a merchantman back in the day (that's like 10 years ago which is kind of a joke in itself, given the ship isn't out yet). Nevertheless, I did not buy that because I wanna get an advantage over others. I bought it because I think the Star Citizen project is awesome and I want to support it. Surely, I could have went with a starter ship and if you do, that's perfectly fine. My point is that it's not always about pay to win but about supporting something you think is awesome. As much as I hate getting into the game and spending the better of one hour on a ladder because the server had a stroke, it's still an awesome thing overall and I will continue to stand behind it.

I do not regret my Grand Admiral standing. Having played video games since the original NES, I have long dreamed of a game like Star Citizen. I will continue to financially support the project so that I may see a dream become reality. Sure, it's a video game at the end of the day, and nothing tangible will ever be owned as a result, but I am happy - and that is all that matters. Another fantastically sarcastic and honest video from Voidy, absolutely loved it!

All these people saying they're not going to be playing SC because of it's monetization during alpha (who knows if they'll stop selling ships) are the same people that will hop on the bandwagon once it full releases and forget they said that.

I would buy a Voidy name package because that would be totally worth my hard-earned money.

Thank you for talking about the Tarkov situation

🤣🤣🤣 That closing statement was awesome! Even though I took it personally as a baby whale. I will respond with "you're welcome, for everything then and now" with the most snotty tone I can muster. Then tell you, "get a job you bum"! This was the best unbiased out look on game funding I have seen! I really don't understand the mindset that thinks "FORCING" players to pay a subscription, or for expanded content is OK. But allowing players the "OPTION" to pay or play with all the same available content is BAD. I have friends who have never spent more than $45 in many years, who have a much bigger fleet than me. ATS sells state map expansions for funding, and no one seems to have problem with that. Remind me again what Elite Dangerous promised 12 years ago, and how many times players and friends were FORCED to pay for that promised content so they can play together. Have they met those promises even after "releasing" the game 10 years ago? How did that turn out rushing the release before building the tech? Hows that funding model working out. But SC is the scam right? Because optionally buying ships is a scam though. Oh wait...

I'd actually argue against him on the "scumminess" of star citizen. You can gift stuff from the concierge store to other players, so there is nothing at all to stop a group of players from making an account, buying everything they want off that account then gifting it to their main account to push the one account into concierge to have access to the store, well nothing but trusting each other. To me GW2 SwToR and other games like them are far more scummy. "Here's some loot you just won, oh but it's locked, here pay us 5 to 10 bucks to unlock it, the item in it may be worth 10 cents or 50 bucks, who knows." SwToR alone lives off $50 cosmetic bundles. People drop thousands on those games same as people drop thousands on Star Citizen, the difference is Star Citizen tells you how much you've dropped and gives you presents for it.

Frankly, Argo Cargo is pure pay 2 win

In SC,ingame ship prices have gone up a lot.

I love Star Citizen. Its different than anything else out there. It is purely funded by players and I am down for that. And I am a whale. It has given me more gaming pleasure than any other game in recent memory. I don't have a lot of time to play games any more but yet I always come back to SC and always have a good time. Even with bugs and glitches. It's a landmark development that is pushing the tech boundaries in a huge way and I am glad to be a part of it.

I (and others) have been saying for years the the real CIG end-product is a dynamic server-meshing platform to lease out to other studios / publishers. I'm sure there was another way to get there but given the investment required it's hard to imagine what that path might've been. From what I've heard the development path of SC 2.0 will be much the same as it has been - given the track record of the last few years it is, again, difficult to imagine them changing a winning strategy, or even what might be a better one. If you think there's a lot of noise now, just wait until they start selling digital real estate. Those people that bought the 890s would be delighted to have a skyscraper penthouse landing pad of their own at NB, or Orison, or perhaps on some as-yet unknown city on Terra on which to park it.

I kinda did the math. All the games I've spent less than 100 hours. I could have put towards buying more ships in SC. I've recorded maybe 2k hours on SC, the next game after that is an MMO, Valehim with nearly 1000 hours and 3 other additional games with 300 hrs plus. Call of Mistake was purchased 3 times (60,60, 70) = 190 Battleblunder 2042 = 70 dollars Division 2 and Ghost Recon Wildlands = 120 total 380 dollars that I could have used and had more fun with in Star Citizen vs giving my money to 3 of the worst publishing studios. At this point....I rather throw my money at CIG vs EA, MIcrosoft (because they own Act/Bliz) and Ubisoft.

I've described Star Citizen as a psychotic super model. Beautiful and I want to be with it, but it makes me sad, burns my money, and wrecks all my furniture.

Lol, loving the voidy naming package its a great idea. I also think you could do a Voidy smugglers ship upgrade, where your ship is guaranteed to blow up just before you sell all your maze 😂

the 890j in the current patch can be earned in 1 week, its a ship with no loop(albeit a very cool interior) other then being an FPS map, that can be outmanouvered by freighters doesnt have anything to do with whales its just already ingame

I would absolutely buy a voiDude x Christ Roberts collab "Every Good Ship Has a Name" ship naming DLC for every ship I own. Little Voidy Junior's education is counting on it!!

you don't have to spend the money on anything other than a package with a starter ship. Its up to you personally to support the development and get a ship you want for the start of the game for the game loops your interested in.

Some time ago, spent £3000 on SC, haven't spent a penny since, just melt ships to get new ones. Have I paid to win? Nope, just have more choice of which ship I want to fly whether it is a mining ship, tug, luxury ship, salvager, pvp ship etc. Doesnt matter how much I spend, a player with more skill will either beat me or bring friends to do so. I would be surprised if an eclipse could 1 shot an 890 though as takes 2 torps to pop a catarpiller which is alot smaller. I didnt think SC would ever release or SQ42 as jobs for life for them selling ships, but now, not so sure with SQ42 actually about to be released and advances with 3.23 as a result. Why don't I just earn ships in game? Well, the real life time spent to earn the money to buy a ship is alot less then the time to grind for a ship. Grinding is a waste of time due to wipes. Would rather start out with the ships I want to sue than waste time grinding which is not fun.

Around 2017 I started following SC. And fell in love with the game and in 2019 I invested some money. And shortly after I spent some money. I well full speed and because a legatus in under a couple months. I wouldn't say the second store page is evil and predatory. A lot of legatus whales asked for it because everyone has a life and don't want to spend countless hours farming credits to buy ships. So CIG made all these expensive packages so we can buy them and we can support them with the money. And it's much cheaper to get them in those bundles instead of buying everything one by one.

One thing about sc. the store, you can always touch your money. Melt ships for the full price back in store credit. And use that store credit on all those packs. Those bundles are there so you can group your ourchases

I wish star citizen would mask these arena esque mechanics with more milsim type mechanics, like for example replacing the wacky zoom in feature with a zoom in feature that only zooms in from the visor of the cockpit, so everything outside the glass zooms in, but you can still see the controls and inside, so it makes sense and feels more important and interesting

Great vid as always. Just one point - the phrasing makes it sounds like CIG has “made and pocketed” 750m … when the truth is the ship sales have funded the actual development of the game. An important distinction !

One thing everyone misses about the >$1000 packs is that they represent a saving for people who got there slowly. I spent just over $2300 in the game. As a 1 off that sounds a lot, but actually it equates to about $18.20/month since I started backing. This is almost exactly what I was paying WOW in € which coincidently I stopped playing just when I backed SC for the first time. Due to the CCU chain and melting I get more money for my credits, not something I could ever do with WOW after 10 years.

The average SC backer will never look at SC’s funding model and see it as pay too win. The average non-SC backer who knows about the game will never look at SC’s funding model and not think its a pay to win scam. Pay 2 win or not, the funding model and marketting tactics tied to it are scummy On a tangential note, As someone who has sunk hundreds of hours into SC, i find the “i put $45 into the game and got a thousand hours gameplay out of it” to be a silly argument that helps convince me that Thor’s point on the effects of the scummy marketting and monetization is correct. You’ve been in the universe for hundreds of hours. How much of that was wrestling bugs? How much was watching QT? How much was time wasted getting somewhere whether it be to asops or getting a ship to a track? Ive had great *moments* in SC. Some absolutely amazing ones like during the Idris boarding. Those moments, while extreme highs, tend to overshadow the average time in game, which are not anywhere near equivalent to the money i put into other games that, while only providing 40-400 hours gameplay (depending on the game), provided 40-400 hours of *gameplay* not waittime, not being a bug tester or avoider. I want SC to work, if they get their tech working it will be absolutely amazing. Its a prime example though of not only the depths the gaming industry has sunk to, but the depths gamers have sunk to and more painful to accept, how gamers *deserve* the depths games have sunk to. We don’t deserve games like Helldivers 2.

I have learned to ignore CIG on features. It's never real unless and until it is in the game AND working. Everything else is sales hype.

I thought this was going to be more negative than it turned out to be. For me the "predatory" funding model of SC is offset somewhat by the fact that most of the money does go back into funding the construction of the game/s, and nothing is gated behind a paywall - Someone spending $50 can earn their way to anything in the game. The game may have "earned" nearly $700M, but almost all of that has gone into building the studio and the games, and although some of the financial decision-making maybe ill considered or wasteful in retrospect, the fact CIG are trying to do something different to redefine gaming is unlikely in the extreme to be trouble-free. As someone who has followed and contributed to the game along the way for many years, for me personally (everyone is entitled to their own opinion) CIGs funding model doesn't feel so crass because it doesn't feel like a ploy to bilk players for money for their personal gain, but to get as much funding as they can to complete the project. CIGs finances are publicly available and their profit margin is actually pretty slim. Few people spending money over and above the base entry amount are unaware that it is unnecessary to do so and I've never seen anyone actually suggest that people SHOULD buy ships - in fact most players and commentators advise against it. Having said that - there are some pretty questionable tactics when 90% of ships are great when they go on sale and then get nerfed 2 months later, and CIG are rapacious in their playing of the FOMO card and the "sales". Also - although it does not actually bother me so much - I can definitely see that someone spending money to help build Star Citizen absolutely has the right to be pissed at CIG using their money to fund Squadron 42 if they do not intend to play it and will be expected to pay money for the right to play it when it is released. I feel like Asmongold that I'm glad someone has a way to get the money to try this project without all the limitations and oversight and deadlines imposed by shareholders (although there are myriad problems there of scope creep, too). As long as people are going in with an understanding of what they're contributing to, where people choose to spend their money is their own business.

Nice summery! And your welcome to try an board some of our ships in the future! We'll be ready! With a pink demeco and green fs9! 😊 Cause we love the 'free' cig stuff!

p2w does not mean you win every time with every purchase. It just means you CAN buy power for money. Low Budged Example, Player A has an Aurora, Player B has an Arrow. The Arrow is just the better ship for a 1v1 in that scenario. I dont even mind, its an alpha, and i dont want to see 20 whale yachts every session so im absolutely okay that this game is funded with "overpriced" ships, its a crowdfund after all... but sc is absolutely p2w. You buy a reclaimer and tell me you dont have a money printing machine right now...

That last point is exactly how I managed to convince myself to support the game. If the game ends up in an endless development cycle, at least we should get more and more tech and content over that time. I don't get that feeling from some of the other heavily monetized games. In the mean time, I just try and treat the game like tarkov or the cycle - an extraction looter that has wipes every now and then

While I'm not happy about how SC is monetized, and I think they could have found a better system they are different from other games in the sense that they are completely crowd funded. This is how they literally pay to build the game. If these ship sales weren't here, we wouldn't have a game. Also, the fact that CIG lets you buy nearly every ship in game is a huge point that is often missed, especially by people shitting on the game. Yes they sell all these, but you can pay $45 (less than a traditional video game now!) and fairly easily obtain any ship you want in game. They don't force the purchases. Traditional studios have other revenue streams to rely on so if they're doing something similar I find it worse because it's more of a cash grab, they don't HAVE to do it. And let's be honest no traditional studio would ever try to build a game like SC. We saw what Bethesda could do in 8 years and that was Starfield which in my opinion isn't even close to what SC is trying to do. So perhaps this is the only way to achieve a game with the scope SC wants, even if it feels gross to sell such expensive ships.

We also shouldn't forget that the funding doesn't just go into Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also funds (and had to fund) the whole company of Cloud Imperium Games. Seeing this company go from 10+ people in 2012 to over 1300 people as of now, proofs to me unlike anything else, that we're dealing with more than just a scammy cashgrab. Great video!

I think star citizen is pay to win but in a way that won't affect people as badly as other online games might. Take a small shooting game like bf4 if you could buy an overpowered gun in the game that would probably be considered pay to win. In star citizen you can buy an "overpowered ship" however it still requires a somewhat skilled pilot to use it effectively, it also ( at least providing features are added) will require maintenance and to replace parts that get damaged so more powerful ships will be more expensive in game to actually use. ships that say they need a crew of 3-4 or 5-6 will theoretically require that many players in the ship to effectively use the ship. not to mention dying mechanics which should make dying more costly in star citizen. because of ships potentially requiring multiple players to run effectively and have more parts that can be damaged or break, a skilled pilot in a 1-2 man ship might be able to out maneuver the bigger ship rendering their "overpowered advantage" completely useless.

Being labeled a "handsome viewer" never gets old

Modern gaming has its' problems, but it's not as though no money is exploratory, it's just considerably limited. There's a certain fidelity that audiences have come to expect and it requires a lot of manpower to deliver, which means it's really expensive. Add that expense to the inherent risk of exploratory development and you end up with very expensive rolls of the dice rather than investments, so you can understand why AAA experimental games are not common. Even then, when you do have these projects they're often behind closed doors and if they aren't cancelled before you ever even hear of them, then they're understandably not hyped when they first see the light of day. Pax Dei is mostly the fantasy MMO he's describing. Hello Games' Light No Fire is another title that's really breaking new ground with a to scale world procedural fantasy world to explore. Obviously, people are managing their expectations on these kinds of things. These things are out there if you look for them.

I'm usually not a fan of microtransactions, but I am honestly quite ok with the way SC is doing it. Even if the transactions really arent micro. There is no "premium currency", that you have to calculate around with to find out how much an item cost. What you buy is what you get. Upfront and honest. They have a build in way to get ships you want cheaper with the CCUs. And if you decide you dont like what you bought anymore you can recover your value and get something else. Well and the money doesnt just go "poof" in some investors pockets. It funds the developement. Id say as far as gamemonetisation goes, it quite a respectfull bussinessmodell. That the reason why its one of very few games where I have spend money beyond the initial purchase (got a Talon for roughly 100€), despite only playing for a little over a year at the time. Compare that to gta online. A game I played since 2015. I havent spend a single dime beyond the 45€ for the "floor modell". Mainly because I dont like how R* and TakeTwo do bussiness.

Even if a player confined themselves to the price of the base game (a horrible term, in and of itself) then added each expansion to said game and then a season/battle pass and followed that by only cosmetics they liked, over time and depending on how long that time has been, they will have spent significant chunks of change. Now times that by every game they have played, they might be shocked and surprised at how much across various titles they have spent. You can argue that would be no different to the total amount they have spent on beer, fast food, nights out etc, etc over the same amount of time. And this is all just about money NOT already spoken for, you know what I mean (rent, mortgage, various taxes, utilities, etc)

escape from tarkov being the only full loot game that you talked about on the video I'm going to focus on them since all the other game far as I know let you get your gear back after death so the company that makes escape from tarkov still has the sense not to sell weapons and armor that you lose forever in there cash shop the fact that CIG didn't pull the armor when it went full loot still blows my mind to this day because at this point its been years CIG should have pulled the armor and turned the sub flair into hanger flair just like when they realized it wasn't a good idea to sell one time use ship weapons for ships the fact that at this point its been going on for years is insane to me and the fact that both Devs and RU-vidrs have both hid behind haven't found the right idea yet is madding and should have been met with then take it out of the shop and refund player money and just put it in game till you do its time to s- -t or get off the pot CIG because the whole it may lead to duping line doesn't work since a new player spends $75 on pack of armors displays them all on there ship starts to make a jump to there friend and the ship leaves them well all there armor gone till a reset happens better yet you spend $25 on a single suit of armor get in game and trip in a space port and puts you in a down stat before the game can pick you up someone grabs all your armor well CIG doesn't want you go dup your armor so your SOL unless you refund the armor and buy it again which with local tax does mean you lose money every time an rebuy it which doesn't take it away from the player that swiped it off of you and is just duping with a lot more steps and loss of money hell you can drop a armor set to a friend leave the game refund rebuy and come back a few hours later and all you did was dupe the armor but no we can't put in a easy fix for you to get armor back because someone may dupe it so what those armor sets shouldn't be in the store to begin with if they are one time use I hear you type what's the point of loot then good question is there a reason for it to be full loot if they turned off the full loot part of the game it would do better I get it full loot was hype in 2021 but if games numbers have shown they aren't that big if CIG wants Star Citizen to do Helldivers II or Fallout 76 numbers then the full loot for at least account bond items needs to be address and if everyone got account bond items then what's the point of loot in the first place lastly we all now know a well placed good TV show can bring back or surpass player numbers as long as CIG is still running they can turn this what ever it is anymore around and make it a good game put out even a ok show and all the normies will be jumping on your ship saying I heard Star Citizen good now

10:40 I agree with you on this. People who argue that CIG will never release SC because they "make so much money through the development" (10:21) clearly don't understand how much money actual finished released games can make. SC has made a lot of money for an unreleased alpha game, but it has NOT made a lot of money compared with what can be made by a successful AAA release (which is the market CIG will be aiming for with SQ42 and SC). As of right now CIG have made just shy of $680M in total over the course of 12 years. For comparison, Hogwarts legacy made $850M within just 2 weeks of release! Obviously, that's an extreme example, but a successful game release should make far more money for CIG than they currently do through ship sales, and they know that! Not to mention the fact that currently practically all the money they make goes straight back into developing the games (SQ42 and SC), whereas after release you'd assume that cost will be a lot lower and actual profits a lot higher. EDIT: 13:53 I also strongly agree with this! I may hate CIG's marketing tactics, but they're still literally the only big developer I know of that's actually trying to push gaming tech forward rather than just milking a decade-old game design with slightly different skins on it (looking at you Ubisoft and Bethesda). AAA gaming has almost completely stagnated over the past 10 - 15 years and the whole gaming community needs a project like SC that's actually testing the boundaries and changing what we can do in games. It doesn't matter if you're an SC fan or not, you should still want the project to succeed because even if you never play the game, the tech CIG are developing for it will change gaming forever!

Great video. I lived in Zimbabwe as a kid and often travelled to South Africa. Love your accent!!!!

In alpha, I see the pledge as a way to avoid the grind from the continuous wipes during the lengthy development process. My ideal would actually be a PU sandbox where pledges are there, but a live PU where everybody starts from zero with a basic ship and nothing, and the entire game wipes periodically such as every 12mths and resets, even in the final live game, because I think the zero to hero starting all equal is the ideal for a true MMO with PvP. I don’t like the thought my pledges give me such an advantage over other players, and really would prefer they simply translate into exclusive skins and other rare features for flair than any form of ‘play to win’.

I accidentally hit concierge status when the spirits went on concept sale, day 1 (before their cargo and size ratio got blown to shit). Hitting concierge made me realize that just buying those Goal Items ruins the entire experience. I'm not planning to buy more ships at the moment, even though I still have a few LTI tokens left. I still want a 300i to live in, but I'm not abouta buy it and then just never use it like I do with half my ships. I'd rather spend the money on permanent access to cosmetics. I like League of Legends' model (last i played regularly was 2018), where I unlocked all the characters in game then bought a shit ton of pretty skins to give myself visual and style variety. I'm about as invested into LoL and War Thunder as I am Star Citizen. War Thunder is 💯 the worst of the 3 models. Rotating seasonal grind passes and fomo premium pay to win unit sales.

SC is always going to be in perpetual development just like many MMO's are in perpetual development. There is always one more star system, ship, or game upgrade to develop. Chris Roberts has always said the development will be continual process. There are milestones in that development, and I think in the last 8 months we have started to see things really take shape towards that end. Also you only need a starter ship with a game package to play the game and make money. There is lot of money to be made helping to crew larger ships and share in the profits, which will in turn help you to buy bigger ships.

I've been playing SC since the start. I was an original Kickstarter. I have spend a few hundred dollars over that span of time, but I've played literally thousands of hours in SC. I've more than gotten my money's worth. I've actually spent more on hardware than software at this point (HOSAS is the way to go). I have owned every ship that's available to buy in the game at some point or another but I only "own" one ship. The most fun I have is building back up after each wipe.

That's my perspective too. So long as this business model is able to lead us to the game that was promised, I'm ok with it, but only time will tell.

I couldn't play SC for more than a couple of months. I was quickly locked into hunting around for something new/fun to do (outside of being a pirate) and coming up short.

Honestly, I've given up morals and caring about monetization in video games because everyone is a hypocrite one way or another and inevitably has one moneysink in their life one way or another. I see so many people saying they struggle with money, which is fair if you live in a place with awful rent and life quality but at least for me it's the opposite- spend no money on waste and you have a ton to go on. I don't drink, smoke, I don't even snack either, hell I don't even like going out. I see people complaining over monetization but I don't see anyone boycotting it- that only happens to POORLY IMPLEMENTED elements in games like paid mods, stupidly bad gacha game models and other slowdown features that make it impossible to enjoy the game such as Warthunder's repair model controversy that the playerbase actually boicotted (--yet, they never boicotted the actual monetization of the game to just outright buy a plane.) I'm new to star citizen, but I've also followed it for years. In the beginning it looked kind of bad, like another possibly failing kickstarter among many, but it's the unicorn that has survived since and come out on the other side with not just a tech demo, but an actual playable game. (despite its technical issues) Look at every mmo, even Destiny- every game monetizes the shit out of the game and people buy it up because they feel personally like it's a good deal. I'm okay with Star Citizen so far and the direction it's taking, maybe I won't be later but the monetization so far is ok: Warbonds including LTI, discounted game packages during Invictus and no mandatory subscription model (yet?), making the game much enjoyable and future-proof. There's many facets to the P2W of buying ships, but it doesn't stop people from winning with Quantity- it's an open world pvp game, with pve content and it's only growing- Hilariously enough I feel like it's way better than the lootbox/gacha models most games run, it's just a bunch of whiny people who don't follow the development who can't distinguish between actual Early Access and gotcha-kickstarters. but who knows, maybe my comment will age like milk once they decide to make the game have a mandatory subscription model, add even more FOMO into the game and inconvenience you and sell a solution at every corner.

this video was really good o7 like that you touched on the tarkov situation, firestorm lol

I've only been playing Star Citizen for a little more than a month, but from what I've heard about the game and what I've experienced, you nailed it. Liked and subscribed

In game ship prices are going up with 3.23 by a lot, like 890 Jump will be 65 million soon. Further more as you said its an individual players right to spend their money on whatever they like or brings them enjoyment. Also individuals know their own financial situation and should not engage in practices that put them in a bind. I have enjoyed SC for the last 4 going on 5 years now and have shared many ups and downs in the community during its development. I did become a whale in SC in the second year I was playing and as some in the comments have said that a whale is the players perspective on how much the individual spends on SC that is not true IMHO. As another person commenting said $10,000 was considered a whale, we all know there are players out there that have spent WAY more than that myself included. The bottom line is that monetization in gaming is a end user/players perspective that only that individual can decide to partake in or not. As Voidy said there are MANY other games that do not engage in the practice of monetization and are enjoyable to play. It all comes down to the individual player.

Thoughtful nuance from space drug pirate guy? I love it here.

to think you added a little section about Tarkov only to ignore the current Elite Dangerous situation

don't forget that this patch increases in game ship costs by up to 5X the previous patch prices, on top of further nerfing some of the better money making paths

I wish there was some ships you could not buy at all with real money and was only in game , because it just feels like what the point in playing the game when i can just pull out my wallet and pay for it. they really need to stop selling every last ship for real money.

My uninformed opinion: regardless of the efficiency of dynamic server meshing, the game will need a multitude of servers. Whatever formula CIG develop on "spin up servers x when player density = y" gets calculated, the more money they have for servers, the larger value of 'x' they will allocate. The server farms will want to know what 'regular income' CIG can provide, so that as a business they can say "z much money gives you x servers if you can assure us that you can provide z amount of money per month." To me, purely relying on ship sales is unsustainable as a business model as this is an irregular income source. I would be happy to pay a monthly server fee so that CIG can look at their numbers and say "we have 250k players paying US$5 per month, how much server reliability can we buy with 1.25m per month?" It would be interesting for CIG to survey the player base to discover what would be acceptable monetization strategies. Whatever gets settled on, CIG may have to break promises to early backers on the path to a reliable business model.

Great video. As Noiceguy said yesterday, we're investing in the future of video game technology with Star Citizen. That's why I'm (just barely) concierge and willing to spend $100 every big sale. I want the future of games that won't exist without SC paving the way.

I'm not sure CIG will stop selling new ships until and unless people stop wanting to buy them. Yes, to an extent there is some PtW involved there, but it's far from guaranteed. Partly for the reasons you mention (890J example) but also partly because there's a skill factor too. I could go and buy a fancy expensive megabeast warship, but my combat flying sucks and so some sweaty pvp fighter boi would just murder me on his dragonfly anyway. The other problem I see with SC specifically is that while PtW may be A Thing, what exactly is there to win? Maybe with a small "w", in terms of each individual encounter (see above), but in terms of Winning the Game, there really is no way to Win the Game, because, again as you say, the gameplay isn't there yet. Even then, though - and the clue is in the name, Star Citizen - this feels more like an alternate life than a traditional game per se. I suspect that emergent gameplay will arise from that, and people and orgs will create their own stories. I hope, and suspect, that if it becomes successful/stable enough, development will continue indefinitely, precisely because there is no "end" in the "game" as such. All interesting stuff. I think a healthy degree of scepticism is a good asset to take with one into the game shopping experience. As long as we all know what we're buying into/getting for our money then it's a matter of personal choice. Where it gets really evil is when companies act disingenuously, BSG being the latest and perhaps most egregious example of that. Thanks as always Voidy!

I was going to rant about SC and whales - then I just heard the Tarkov news. They make CIG look good in comparison.

The Dragon's Dogma 2 thing is something that is not the fault of the developer studio. THEY are the reason all those items are pointless garbage. You get 6 port crystals per playthrough cycle and can only place 10 on the map any way. *Capcom* is the one that forces their studios to include this in order for them to publish their games. DD2 studio essentially gave Capcom the middle finger with their forced MTX.

My biggest concern is what will happen it goes live, the monetisation could get out of control

So ive been playing the game since 2021 and on average i would not be surprised if i have spent at least 4 hours a day on the game, with some days being more and some days being none, This puts my total time played in start citizen around 4000-5000. Ive spent enough to be a Wing Commander - 10k spent on the game. When you consider for my entertainment ive only spend 1.5 - 2.5 dollars an hour that is a million times better than going out to the bar or buying a boat. Going out with friends to go bowling get drinks and eat im looking at like 100 dollars for maybe 4 or 5 hours of entertainment, or 20 dollars an hour. When i look at it like this i dont have a problem with the money i have paid, and not to mention it is funding a game that i have wanted to play, and if my funding can help great.

In general I refuse to play any straight up pay to win games, or at least I refuse to spend money on the microtransactions that result in power for your money (though no shame on those that do, this is just me), however I have been a backer of Star Citizen for 10 years now and have spent a fair bit on it, as some have pointed out, it is how they fund the development of the game, so more like Kickstarter that rewards you for your support. When I have bought ships part of my motivation is supporting this game that is pushing boundaries and making something I can't wait to see in it's full potential (just like I have donated to some projects on Kickstarter before). . I also have played WoW since it came out back in the day and still do, have a lot of friends on it, and I preferred a monthly subscription fee to a game that didn't have pay to win mechanics over a free to play game where people could get ahead by spending more money (WoW has some microtransactions, but they are all for cosmetics that don't give you any edge, so that doesn't bother me as much). . Well I was talking to one of my WoW friends a bit ago about Star Citizen and mentioned to them how much I had spent on it in the last 10 years, several hundred, and they couldn't believe that I had spent that much on a game and thought it was pretty sad, which I thought was a little funny, because they had been playing WoW as long as me, and at about $15 a month that comes out to a cost of $1,800 over a 10 year period alone.... so we had both spent CONSIDERABLY more on WoW over the same amount of time than I had spent on Star Citizen. It all comes down to perception.

I have a different reason for the game not being "finished". My reason is, because all the major backers and CR have a dream of what the game can be. If CIG actually finishes it and releases it, now it exists at that point in time, and is no longer the dream game that they desire. SC will always be perpetually developed and never released because then it can stay the dream game everyone desires it to be. Maybe one day CIG will release the tech to other companies and finish other games in the SC universe (squadron 42, some kind of racing game, etc) but never SC.

What I absolutely HATE about this is that...honestly, I genuienly cannot see Star Citizen being made any other way. And what sucks about it is that if it does end up massively successful, I'm afraid that the industry will take the wrong lessons from its' success.

People would rather complain about paying the $60 for Call of Duty to reskin itself every 18 months then pay $1,000 over 10 years for something that is awe-inspiring, extraordinary, and has the potential to change gaming forever. The worst part of consumerism is the consumer, who demands ever more, but will pay ever less.

On the one hand, yeah, sure. On the other hand, there's two serious debates to be had. First, does it actually take this much money to make this game? Meaning, could CIG not have done the same thing with less money if they had not wasted some of it on pCache, then iCache, and like 5 different flight models before master modes? (Which I personally believe will not be the last one anyway, but that's a separate issue.) CIG has never had any apparent plan for the game with the kind of fine grain detail that other developers have. They've published plans for individual portions of the game - death of a spaceman, for example - but then they have inherent conflicts in the designs for medical gameplay and FPS combat and never address them, almost like those two teams have never spoken to each other. A master plan would address this, so it appears, from the outside looking in, that CIG has no master plan. Second is the question of whether or not it's ethical to take all this money from people and spend most of it on SQ42. I don't think it is. There is no option for players to tell CIG how much of their backer money they want spent on each game, but the mere fact that the actual price of SQ42 was never more than $15 indicates that even the cheapest game package included no more than 30% of its money intended to be used for SQ42. I know that I personally have less than zero interest in SQ42 and will never play it, ever. I was planning to solely to unlock the F8 and now I have one so that's no longer on the table for me. I doubt I'm alone in wishing for the option to tell CIG that they had to spend 100% of my backer money on the PU and not a single dime on SQ42. A lot of people will say "it's okay because they share so much tech so all that SQ42 spending is going to benefit the PU anyway." But I would ask, if you went to get the oil changed in your car, and AFTER YOU PAID THEM they told you "by the way, 20% of your oil change money was spent on the owner's yacht, which you are invited to visit" would you be happy or mad? Sure, you have an invite to visit a yacht that you didn't ask for, but if the yacht is a 20 hour drive away, or you hate boats, or a million other reasons, a free ticket for a boat ride doesn't appeal to you. And no, the fact that someone mentioned the boat ride on the back of the second page of the terms of service in 8pt font doesn't make it okay. Anyhow, I still believe in the project (though every day without a PvP toggle confirmed I believe just a tiny bit less) but CIG's sales and marketing teams are absolutely top notch - which is bad for customers, IMHO.

I love your content. Keep up the hard work and edits. I appreciate it.

I enjoyed the topic pretty darn close in how I feel. ❤

Whether or not Star Shitizen ever releases is not the issue. The issue is that CiG has no reason to ever focus on quality or player experience because they are not selling either. They are selling a dream and nothing more. Quality is not a priority for CiG, and it never will be. Enjoy the bugs.

i had a deep laugh @5:30 lol why waste time when i can waste MONEY!!!!!

I started SC in 2014 and made it to the special category right mid-late 2016, and to this day, now a bigger special category player, I still think it has been the most fun waste of money to date. I am $$$$'s into this development, and it has been by far better than the Limited Edition set I got of SF; I still keep coming back and playing this buggy, imperfect fun game. This game is fun, and if people like me don't mind dropping some $$$$'s to make it fun for me and possibly others in the future, then who gives a rats ass or spaces whales ass. You play and invest in a game that is fun to you, not to others. If the game dies, move to another, but if you can justify spending that money on whatever it is you like, do it. If you average out, say, 10 years, and you spend, say, $295 per year, and it totals out to $$$$'s, and you had fun, so what? Well, I can gladly stop drinking 1 Starbucks coffee per day to enjoy the stupidity of SC to justify the 10 years of silliness. Cheers

Publisher's and devs are just jelly that they aren't getting a cut of the pie

I agree with most of what you've said here voidy. i dont really have a problem with the way CIG monetizes, as long as they continue to optimize the game and improve gameplay and try to keep the game fairly balanced. BSG has me kinda fuming though, I bought EoD back in the day thinking I would be getting access to all future DLC/gameplay gamemodes and whatever, thats literally the point of having bought that edition of the game. I havent played tarkov in a long while though as in my opinion I think the game has been going backwards for a fairly long while after exploding in popularity. basically tarkov got too big for its own boots. Devs need to keep in mind that its not the whales that hold the game together, sure their financing is extremely important but if the average player is shafted or put off the game due to predatory or greedy decisions this could cause the dedicated community to drop the game, the pop dies and then you lose it all.

You didn't make a good case for why SC's monetization is evil. I paid $60, and for that: I get all the ships I want with in-game money; what is looking to be an epic single-player campaign in SQ-42; and what is shaping up to be an epic live-service MMORPG (without a subscription fee). As I see it the only reason to pay for ships with real money is to support the game's development, and that is fine. In fact, I thank everyone who is supporting the game in this way. But doing so is entirely optional, I feel no need whatsoever to do it myself. That is a hallmark of bonafide monetization in my book. SC's monetization is mostly being called evil by people who have never played the game; who have no idea of the scope of it; and who are shocked by hearing the amount of money a tiny fraction of the player base has spent on it. I would wager however that the majority of players just tossed in their $60 buck, or whatever it was at the time they started playing, and kept it at that. Because that is all you need to spend on it realistically.

The universal wisdom of VD shared again. Thanks for sharing from South Africa where you live which is not Hawaii where I live 🏝️🤪🪐

Unlike so many of you who constantly whine about CGI's monetisation scheme, I actually like and prefer it. I much much rather pay for my ships and be done with it than have to pay a recurring monthly membership to access the game, which would be the only viable alternative for SC. I hear so many people complaining about CGI's monetisation, but what I never hear these people do is offer a good alternative.

Kinda sucks to say, but given CIG are a brand new company with no previous cash reserves, and giving the sheer overwhelming scope of what CIG is trying to achieve (nothing less than both the best single player space game AND best multiplayer space game), I feel their ludicrous cash shop is kinda necessary. People talk about how much money CIG have raised, but if you compare this to how much it costs to make most AAA games, let alone two of them simultaneously, it's actually pretty even. Take a look at Elite Dangerous. They also promised the world ... and delivered on virtually none of it. Or delivered basic skeletons of features. The only cash shop they had was for cosmetics and that game is now dying ... AND have also announced they will do ship cash shops to keep going.

Excellent thought piece on the state of the game industry through the lenses of SC! It comes off as honest and fair and makes good points. The current toxic model of game marketing is here to stay so at least let it be used to further innovation in game design rather than pump out the same cookie cutter product every couple of years to extract the fanbases coin

Can someone explain to me: Can you just "buy" ships with in-game money?

I think ppl confuse monetization with pay to win. Guys nothing about star citizen is pay to win. Everything that impacts gameplay that is on the RSI store can be bought in game or will be available in game very soon. Everything that cant be bought in game are cosmetic. I see no issue with ppl choosing to skip investing time and would rather spend real money to get things they never would be able to otherwise because of time constraints. It's a hobby. Ppl can buy what they want. I do think companies should find a way to reward ppl who spend time in game vs just paying though. Like earnable only skins or trophies or something.

I guess some types of monetization can be harmful, but honestly, a person who could spend that amount of money on star citizen is probably someone who is afluent and well off. There are all kinds of people in the world with weird and strange hobbies, some people spend a fortune collecting all kinds of weird stuff from around the world. In essence, aside from spending to sustain themselves, their families, the purpose of spending money seems to be to satisfy and make oneself happy. As long as Companies make their monetization not affect gameplay in an unfair manner, and ensure that there is no trickery, there seems to be no major issue I guess. There is factor of addiction to it however that needs to be addressed.

Well put bro! great watch!

GTA 6 has been in developement for the same amount of time. Spending billions on their game that is large but not as the scope of Star Citizen. Everything is voluntary. One can pay for the base game and spend nothing. People that hyper focus on this always think 600 million is a lot.

I regret pledging as much money as I have on Star Citizen, but I won't shit on it altogether. $45 is the minimum price for a game pack, and that will give players access to the whole game. Anything beyond that is just flexing. I *_highly_* recommend against spending more than $100 US dollars altogether on Star Citizen, unless you really enjoy it and spend several hours per week playing it.

u miss one crucial thing from SC... u can "melt" sell back your ship to buy new one every f time when they release some ship u wanna have rather than previous one... and it will cost u nothing... or that u can upgrade from your ship to expensive one in like 5 bucks...

I don't even get how star citizens monetization is bad anymore. I am a new(er) player (about a year) and $200 ships aint much of a jump from the $140 valorant skins or the $300 cs knives.

I think I’ve spent 60 bucks on SC in 5 years. I’ve spent 60-90 bucks on AAA games and spent maybe 20-100 hours in each VS the over 500 in SC. Hmmmm….

I can no longer log into SC. Mostly bc how the game has no real DEPTH! Okay so you sit in your cockpit in your ship and most of the heads up displays just do nothing. Most buttons and UI elements in the cockpit do NOTHING! Finally, it feels like playing a demo from 1999.

I would care if the game wasn't a dumpster fire but its just bunker missions and some broken ai and a few trade skill ships mining cargo and salvage. Nothing really matters and from the way things look and are going nothing is going to matter for years to come.

Idk the way I see it I bought a $45 game package, and I've gotten more out of this game than most AAA titles. Plus, we are actively funding the development of the game as well.

SC will always be a somewhat playable testbed. I don't expect it to be finished any time. And I'm ok with that.

My 2 cents: How is any ship p2w? If you buy the Argo Mole with Cash, you still have to do the mining yourself, and learn to mine. Only benefits are the stronger and more lasers. Buying a C2 increases your cargo load but you still need to load it, and risk more money (which you need to earn) A reclaimer is not a "win" for salvage, making it more tedious if you are alone. And name one fighter which is so OP that buying it with real money would b p2w Only real progress is in reputation So why does anyone care who pays for what? Star Citizen is NOT a Tarkov money grab 😂 And, once again an awesome vid, Voidi! 👍

3.23…. What a polished turd compared to 3.22. Same exact problems problems, same exact bugs, even more WTF random stupid problems that everyone is having.. Why does the “X” button not work now to close the inventory screen and forced to push “I”? Master Modes love it or hate it, that’s where we are at, and they changed EVERYTHING that did work pretty well. Let’s add in about 20 more button clicks while we are at it to accomplish the same thing we had already accomplished. Fix problems and bugs? HEEELLLLLL NAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!…….. How can a game when so much money and time on their hands they had not be able to accomplish what pretty much every other video game has already accomplish and that is just basic gameplay that is not so whacked out all the time?