Star Citizen’s biggest update has been a disaster

by Danny Craig · 3/15/23, 3:06 PM
Star Citizen’s biggest update has been a disaster
Cloud Imperium Games

Multiplayer space simulator Star Citizen has just launched its biggest update yet. However, its arrival brought with it many bugs and service issues, causing outrage among the community.

The details:

  • Star Citizen's history has been turbulent, beginning with a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over $2 million, before being in development for over a decade amid numerous controversies involving unfulfilled promises and policy changes. Cloud Imperium Games appears to be unable to avoid further issues, as the March 10 release of the game's Alpha 3.18 patch has frustrated players, with the title experiencing a "major outage", being unresponsive, and players receiving multiple error codes when attempting to log in.
  • The update itself introduced Persistent Entity Streaming, which aims to bring the game's universe to life by leaving items floating around after deaths and allowing players to salvage fellow pilots' downed ships. The addition of the technology has been welcomed as the game moves closer to the original promises made during its crowdfunding campaign. However, the developer needed to perform "a series of modifications" to the system on Monday, which reportedly went poorly as the game's infrastructure is now in a "partial outage" state. Fans have since expressed their frustration with the situation, with AdmiralGrogan claiming that the problems are "embarrassingly bad, even by Star Citizen standards.”
  • As previously mentioned, the title has been in development for over a decade now, with pre-production beginning in 2010. Cloud Imperium Games announced the game in 2012 via a private crowdfunding page before opening up a Kickstarter campaign that raised $2,134,374 for the project, with over $500 million raised in total as of 2022. Many have dismissed the game as a poorly managed cash grab due to the lack of an estimated full release date, the slow pace of development, and as much as $100 million in crowdfunding in a single year. The game was later divided into two parts, with the announcement of a single-player title called Squadron 42, though no release date was given for this game as well. There’s no word on when we’ll see a finished product, although the developer did release a roadmap for its roadmap in 2020, so things are looking rough.

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