Star Citizen investigation concludes at Kotaku UK

Kotaku UK wrapped up its in-depth look at the goings-on at Star Citizen today with a new report called, appropriately enough, What to Make of Star Citizen. The past half-decade has been a rough and sometimes downright unpleasant ride, with plenty of "scandalous allegations" made, but development continues, most backers seem happy to wait, and if the project does ultimately run out of steam, the site concludes that it will likely be for the same reasons that bring down most other videogames that never see the light of day. 

"There is a notion—which Roberts alludes to in the exhaustive four-hour interview he gave us—that crowd-funded games are free of the strings and pressures that traditional publisher or financier funding bring with them. That may be true in some ways, but the Star Citizen story proves that there is a multitude of other perils," the site wrote. "You might not be accountable to corporate investors, but you absolutely are accountable to the people who pledge their £50 or £500 or £5,000+ to your vision and expect to see something in return. In a crowd-funding situation you absolutely cannot take those people for granted, because if they turn on you, they could well become your worst enemy." 

Despite its troubles, the author believes that Star Citizen "will make it to some form of release," although not for at least a couple more years. Whether it will live up to its billing is an entirely separate question, and impossible to answer until it's out. 

The rest of Kotaku UK's Star Citizen investigation is available below. 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.