When did they ever “release” it without saying its also early access?
Yeah it’s “released”. Meaning that yes, you can buy it for money and launch it (so released), but it’s so shit they had to quickly officially declare it broken (“early access”) to save face.
breadsmasher@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Carighan@lemmy.world 7 months ago
What I mean is, “early access” is just release with the makers openly admitting that everything is unfinished and broken, instead of people finding out on release day. It’s still a product X being sold money Y, just like a “real” release. And hence it should always be evaluated for what you get vs what you pay, not the promise of what you might get later. See also: Preorders (at least these are protected by a lot of laws in some countries), Kickstarters, Religions.
DaDragon@kbin.social 7 months ago
Maybe because development has a high ongoing cost that they do not have any other product to take up? Star citizen has a fairly large scope, and the fact that they have even gotten to the point where a fairly high number of gameplay loops are fully integrated is quite impressive. If you look at their ship designs, for example, you can see just how much care was put into a lot of the designs (see the architectural reviews, for example)
Denjin@lemmings.world 7 months ago
Star Citizen has raised more money than the budgets of GTAV, Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 COMBINED.
The only people defending it now are those so deep in the sunk cost fallacy they can’t get out.
bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I’ve spent $49.99 on it. As a space sim fan, it’s one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had in a game. Blows Elite Dangerous out of the water in terms of seamlessness. If it was better optimized it’d be one of the only things I’d play.
I’m not trying to you’re wrong about anything. But for a certain customer, it’s already a pretty great experience.
KISSmyOS@feddit.de 7 months ago
And it’s much better than any space sim game developed by Sao Tome & Principe in 2023.
Checkmate, atheists.
Carighan@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yeah, maybe. But it’s also ridiculous, finish what you have instead of constantly bolting on scope to keep the sales treadmill running.
Of course, it’s a business first and foremost. And if that’s what people gladly pay for, no fault in pocketing the money I guess.
Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Except scope hasn’t really changed in years? I might be wrong since I’m not trawling through every single piece of content released but I’m pretty sure most of the expansions are related to CIG figuring out details of already promised features.
I’m sure someone following the game closer can provide more details on that.