And the reviews were merely mixed in the end. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5...Nukem_Forever/
SC doesn't even have a steam page yet, so they have no plans to release within the year i guess.
They may be going for the record of a game with the longest development cycle.
Assuming halflife 3 wasn't in development already - but kept under wraps.Last week saw a milestone in videogame history: the release of Duke Nukem Forever (360, PS3, PC), a project delayed so long that it became a running joke. Originally conceived in 1996, DNF took 15 years to reach market, making it likely the longest development period for any game to date.
Though they still need to finish halflife 2...
Last edited by bbr; 2022-09-23 at 06:16 AM.
It does indeed matter, quite a bit, and in the case of CIG the money comes from a very different place than regular companies. Regular companies get their own funds from selling previous existing and released products, asking for loans (that need to be repaid) or from equity raising (in exchange of company/board control, and sometimes even agreed returns). CIG has no existing released products (unless you agree SC has already released), has no major loans to speak of (at least compared to the 500 millions raised from our pockets), and has no major issues with equity (unless we think Chris Roberts has conceded major CIG control to the Calders in exchange for their investment).
If a regular company spends its own money in a project that fails they take the full hit of the loss. Not us. That is money they had that they could have spent in other better projects but didn't, and that can cost them dearly in a large number of ways, including but not limited to loan defaults, potential loss of board control (in addition to the obvious loss of revenue in the case of better alternative project for the owned resources), loss of future contracts etc.
CIG and Chris Roberts in particular on the other hand do not stand to lose much money on this venture as the money they have used in it was ours to start with (those 500 millions didn't come from sales of released products, loans or equity raising), and they set out to do a single and very specific project with all of it (i.e. no alternative projects possible). All the risk of failure is on us. We lose our money, CIG's on the other hand does not lose any money unless you think SC has been released already in which case revenues post release would be indeed earned and owned by CIG.
In fact Chris Roberts does not only lose no money, but he actually gets away probably several millions richer and that after zero products released in 10+ years:
And that is just Erin Roberts in the UK. That is around US$375,000 for 2020. Now you can imagine the salaries Chris Roberts and Ortwin pay themselves, plus Sandi... And that in a company that allegedly hasn't released a single product yet and is still crowdfunding. It is just truly remarkable.Remuneration to the highest paid director: £292,322 in 2020, up from £283,192
That is SC urban myth and unfortunately incorrect I am afraid. I believe you have misunderstood what happened with those "consultations". Do you have a link?
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Most new projects, in game development or elsewhere, usually start with small teams, concept teams, exploring ideas and defining early scope. As some of the chunks of the work get approved it starts to receive further funding and the project teams grow naturally and gradually etc etc. That happens in most companies, large or small, with new projects. And that is exactly what happened in CIG from the early days in 2010 - 2012 where Chris Roberts started that work with the help of the likes of Cryengine staff and other third party companies like Simplygon etc. It is all part of the development process and timeline.
Alternatively, if you want to eliminate that early prototyping and concept phase from your arbitrary way of seeing things then you would probably need to shave off several years aswell from many other actual released games development timelines out there. I.e if SC is only 6 years in according to you, then CP2077 also likely only took 5 years to develop etc etc.
Last edited by Cloverfield; 2022-09-23 at 09:29 AM.
Here is a list of many of these stretch goals:
https://cliqist.com/2015/03/11/star-...here-are-they/
Chris Roberts letter from the chairman posts on RSI acknowledging various funding goals:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/c...rt=publish_new
Last edited by InfiniteCharger; 2022-09-23 at 01:17 PM.
I remember voting no there, yelling against the crowd that it was enough. But the whole ordeal was akin to a bunch of kids in a candy store being asked if they want more candy. The overwhelming response would be yes no matter what.
In hindsight, I think this is precisely what Chris knew and what he was gunning for. He wanted it - and he got it. Now we're in this spot.
The only thing SC has been successful in is crowdfunding so far. And Chris the genius has gotten a big fat CEO salary for so many years and he didn't even have to finish a product.
Of course he did, and now it became the perfect excuse for his shitty lead-developer behavior.
The dude is always miles off from the shit he says, but it’s fine, because “the community voted for it!”.
The vast majority didn’t even vote, and those who did besides “more and better!” had no real clue what they were actually voting on.
Ahahahaha!
Not just a CEO salary. He's still the major stakeholder and CiG has put out dividends. CiG bought the IP off that thief for cash too. The dude is extracting money in as many ways as possible including a stock swap in another development studio that also pays dividends... CiG is their only customer.
STAR-J4R9-YYK4 use this for 5000 credits in star citizen
I just don't get it. The latest financial statements I've seen have them putting out a dividend, on just the UK section of the company, in 2020, where they paid him around a $1m dividend. The company had a revenue stream of about $40m that year. He pocketed 2.5% of all revenue that year, even aside from his salary, and aside from whatever he's getting through his stock swap with turbulent. Paying dividends before there's even a product launch is just incredibly fucked up. It's essentially saying "Our business plan is not to release a game, but to swindle these marks for the foreseeable future."
Indeed. Not only that, but a "poll in a website" is not necessary and sufficient to confirm any change in scope, especially when not even 10% of backers at the time participated.
If CIG had really wanted to properly change the scope of the development they would have required to explicitely change the conditions of the "sale", describing the new scope and timeline, and that would have required them to communicate directly and individually to all backers asking each one of them for an explicit agreement to the change. Or failing that offer a refund. Especially if the change means a delay of over 8 years. And not a poll in a website that only a minority of the community probably was aware of. CIG is the only party managing the revenue received, and therefore any eventual change of plan, fair or unfair, is their sole responsibility, not the backers'.
Last edited by Cloverfield; 2022-09-25 at 08:59 AM.
It all has to do directly with players pledging towards SC/SQ42 I am afraid. The majority of those 10 millions is simply based on "subscription" money (mostly related to game content and dev news or early access to that content) and local tax incentives (plus some commercial promotional aspects). If players were not "pledging" that would mean there is no game nor development going on for SC. Without SC being developed there would be no subscriptions or promotion deals, nevermind local tax incentives.
Now if you are telling me those 10 million are related to a totally different product than SC or SQ42 then I am all ears. Especially if you also do not consider tax relief as "generated" revenue
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Wow, @kenn9530, care to explain and reconcile all those statements? Honestly curious.
Last edited by Cloverfield; 2022-09-25 at 09:36 AM.
It brings us to the discussion we were having some pages ago.
"It's not a scam because if it was they would have bailed with the money", but why would they? When they can just keep printing money every year without any legal repercussions attached regardless of how this ends : )
Good luck with that, check the links in my signature, I'm still waiting : P
Ahahahaha!
And in those 12 years, it wasn't even in active development for quite a few of them. This game has been in active development for the entire time. At least with Forever, they can use the excuse that it changed hands so explain why the quality wasn't there. What will be the excuse here if/when it releases out of an unfinished state and there are still issues with stuff. We should start a bingo board for it.
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You know, there is a term for this. It is on the tip of my tongue. Starts with a P and ends in an I.
every time i see this on the front page i expect to see something about maybe just maybe getting a release but seeing shady business practices and people defending them...im ok with that entertainment
It is always funny how often he avoids your points. Whatever game it is he goes 100% on the bullshit train making any excuse possible. I still remember him in the New World thread defending the game up and down. He seems to think any criticism must be corrected, not seeming to understand that a lot of people want this game to do well as for those of us who have played other space games like Eve Online, etc, that this is what a lot of us has always wanted. However we want the best game we can get and refuse not to call out the bullshit that surrounds this game and all the problems that it has, as well as to hold the people who make it to their word.
The points aren't even mine, it's his own points!
Last time someone else confronted him about avoiding my posts he pretended to have me ignored, because my posts are just "BS", not worth reading, ironic considering these posts are basically quotes of him, not too long after he was already replying to some of my posts
Ahahahaha!