Err, we've sold 1,100 Starliners (including melts), which is more than double the projection
Congratulations!
It does, ah, poop money, which figures significantly into the pricing
Ben. Stahp. Please. This is a really bad habit you fall into. You make comments regarding final gameplay, some of which have already turned out to be untrue because development is still happening and things change all the time.
So you admit that one of the factors in the price is that it will make a lot of money for the owners. How? The game isn't even remotely close to being released and AFAIK many of these design decisions have yet to be locked down. Certainly the gameplay, and therefore the balancing isn't in place yet. So how should this be a factor?
Many of us backers get accused of speculating... and it's true. But I find that you do this pretty often yourself. You don't lie. I get that. But you make comments about the nature of the final game that, even being as involved as you are, you have no way to guarantee. If and when the final game comes out it, these ships might need balancing in many areas and it could turn out that another ship that sold for far less during crowdfunding can actually make money faster. As much as it will pain some people who paid thousands of dollars for ships they thought would be "better", you must know that your final balancing decisions can't be based on the prices from crowdfunding. Some ships might turn out to be a steal, some might complain about their $400 taxi when the game is released. But we aren't even close enough to know.
TL;DR - IMHO it's a bad idea to determine pricing now based on game design and balancing decisions that are a long way off.
As popular as it is to rag on the price right now, everything we're doing is for the end game.
People "rag" on the price for many reasons. Perhaps they speculate on it's in-game value (which again is foolish) and think that the imaginary specs you guys thought up for the concept don't match it's value in the final game. OR they are just getting backer fatigue and find it bad timing that we are informed of yet another delay on the same day that you try to sell us a $400 imaginary spaceship passenger liner. I'm sure there are other reasons. $400 is a lot of money and people need to find value in that if they will pay it. Clearly "ragging on the price" is popular now... because many people don't find value in the Starliner.
Seriously Ben. This isn't about being a hipster who just wants to shit all over Star Citizen and it's development because it's popular. It's about the quickly rising perception that Star Citizen isn't worth our cash anymore. The Starliner is just the focus of that right now.
Making money on a ship is easy. Here's the F99 Superfighter! It's better than every other ship in the game in dogfighting and it carries a million SCU and it has a toilet. And it's invisible, both for stealth and for ease of art resources. Buy now! :)
Ben, Ben, Ben. You've admitted to me before that you can be sarcastic and that it doesn't always come across properly. Well, this is a prime example. When you make comments like that it belittles your own argument and those who you are trying to talk to. It's a ludicrous hyperbolic example, and you know it. It's not funny or even applicable. Moving on.
Would we sell more Starliners for $200 or $100? Absolutely! But it wouldn't be the ship we needed for the game.
Ok. But please explain how "the ship we needed for the game" requires a $400 pricetag. You say this like it's obvious, but it's not. These are digital pixels. You can make an infinite amount. The Starliner isn't a rare precious resource that needs to be mined. They are imaginary, especially at this point. How does a concept sale price have anything to do with what is needed for the game? The biggest connection, as others have pointed out, is that it helps pay for things. It's crowdfunding. The purpose of which is to... fund... using the crowd... who donate you money. If you know you are shooting yourself in the foot with this outrageous pricing, then why even have a concept sale? A few hundred thousand dollars is still nothing to sneeze at, but is it worth it at the expense of long term backer confidence and funding? If you piss people off enough, they won't just stop pledging... they will leave Star Citizen and never look back.
You know what's good for the end game? Making sure your network back-end and matchmaking system can eventually support the $400 ship you are trying to sell. According to Chris Roberts letter on the same day the Starliner was revealed... it can't yet. So maybe there is some of your problem.
Developing the Starliner let us chart through a new, unique in-game career, it lets us build an important part of the world... and it gives us an important asset for the PU. We figured the majority of people wouldn't want to fly the thing, but you're certainly going to need it in the game. A ship like the Starliner generates dozens of extra mission possibilities for the PU, it gives us a tool to build locations (like spaceports!) around, it adds a sense of constant movement... and it solves some very important problems (like how you get back to your Hangar if you're separated from your ship, or whether or not it's possible to be separated from your ship in the first place!)
That's all fine and dandy. I know you are the head ship guy now. That's all great little tidbits of information on your concepts for some gameplay that might one day make it into the game years from now.
But... Ben, it still doesn't answer the actual issue of pricing. Or why pricing has anything to do with what you "need" for the game.
I'm glad to read the other replies to your comments on the official forums, as many of them mirror my own. Some are able to put it more succinctly, but it's clear that backer confidence is waning. The timing for this sale and the price were horrible.
How can you go from....
We don't feel too comfortable doing some big new sales thing when we still have to deliver FPS.
To this?
Yes, I know you tried to rationalize it away a little while ago by saying that you would lose concept artists (Why? Can't they still do the same art right now and you guys just hold on to it until a better time... or you know, use it to build the ships in the game?) and that the money was needed due to creditors pounding on the doors of your multiple studios around the world.
But you had a good gut feeling before when you said that the timing wasn't right. You should have went with that... and if you encountered resistance, fought it. Nevermind the price, this sale isn't doing you or CIG any favours.
I'm sure some people will tell me just to sod off and not pledge for the Starliner. It can't hurt me, right? I'll be able to buy it in the final game for in-game credits... though it will be interesting to see how much of a grind it will be, especially if "it's important to the end game" to keep this ship at a $400 value or more after launch.
"But Citizen4Life, this is to support development!" Because $85 million dollars isn't enough. Fine. I finally concede that point. You guys have so many staff and studios, not to mention other costs, that you are literally hemorrhaging money at this point.
I was going to stay silent on the matter, but I felt I needed to comment on this. Take it as you will.
Ben. Everyone else at CIG. I want you to succeed. Chris, the game you described in 2012 struck a substantial cord with me... and clearly, others as well. Your dream is very much our dream. This is a game that many of us have been waiting for for decades. We see you as one of us, and we have put a lot of faith in you.
Do I think Star Citizen will fail? I frankly have no idea. I used to believe Star Citizen was unstoppable.
Why my change of heart? The messaging. The timing. Situations like this.
Continued below...