Kotaku UK on Star Citizen

[Michael Navas]

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/23/inside-the-troubled-development-of-star-citizen

Given the history between SC and the Escapist, I thought this would be of interest to the community, as it largely seems to back up what this site reported a year ago.

I'm frankly surprised it hasn't been spread on here already. Surely the bogus lawsuit threat didn't in fact scare the Escapist?

EDIT:
Part 2 is now up, with direct backing of the Escapist article.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/26/the-24-year-feud-that-has-dogged-star-citizen

EDIT:
Part 3 is up.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/28/who-are-the-star-citizen-superbackers-2

EDIT:
Part 4 is up.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/29/what-happened-to-star-marine-star-citizens-missing-module

EDIT:
Final part is up.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/30/what-to-make-of-star-citizen

 

[Zhukov]

Crikey. That was quite a saga.

It's not quite as accusatory as the Escapist article. This one details a disorganized clusterfuck born of excessive ambition while the Escapist article basically suggested it was a sham and mentioned intentional misuse of money rather than just wasteful spending.

 

[Michael Navas]

The first of five such articles, though. We haven't seen the end yet.

 

[Redryhno]

Crikey. That was quite a saga.

It's not quite as accusatory as the Escapist article. This one details a disorganized clusterfuck born of excessive ambition while the Escapist article basically suggested it was a sham and mentioned intentional misuse of money rather than just wasteful spending.

To be fair, when you're constantly asking for money, there's a point where refusing to hire people that say "NO" stops being wasteful spending in every sense of the word. I mean, there's small indie studios eerywhere these days, but most don't/haven't had access to even a tenth of Star Citizen's budget.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Well I'll be damned; Kotaku displaying actual, honest-to-God investigative journalism. Did they turn a new leaf lately, or is this a case of the UK branch being more competent than their American counterparts?

Anywho, sounds like The Escapist news staff and Razorfist were right on the money about this; lack of focus, bad communication and feature creep, with a heaping helping of workplace drama to boot. The claim that Roberts demands features he's seen in other video games definitely reminds me of things I've read about Duke Nukem Forever's infamous development.

I'm frankly surprised it hasn't been spread on here already. Surely the bogus lawsuit threat didn't in fact scare the Escapist?

News posts tend to be few and far between on Saturdays and Sundays, likely on account of the staff getting weekends off.

 

[Mangod]

Well I'll be damned; Kotaku displaying actual, honest-to-God investigative journalism. Did they turn a new leaf lately, or is this a case of the UK branch being more competent than their American counterparts?

Anywho, sounds like The Escapist news staff and Razorfist were right on the money about this; lack of focus, bad communication and feature creep, with a heaping helping of workplace drama to boot. The claim that Roberts demands features he's seen in other video games definitely reminds me of things I've read about Duke Nukem Forever's infamous development.

I'm frankly surprised it hasn't been spread on here already. Surely the bogus lawsuit threat didn't in fact scare the Escapist?

News posts tend to be few and far between on Saturdays and Sundays, likely on account of the staff getting weekends off.

I feel like I'm obligated to post this:


But yeah, I'm not surprised that SC would have problems. How's the expression go? "Perfect is the enemy of Good Enough"?

 

[Michael Navas]

UK branch is apparently not even owned by Gawker, being Kotaku in license only or some such. For the express purpose of using their "jurisdiction" to do what the US branch can't.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yeah, I'm still not seeing anything to persuade me that the release of SC is not going to be an epic crash and burn that will make No Man's Sky look like a firecracker.

I really don't want that to be the case, but this is all looking very familar to other Epic fails.

Edited for a proper context

 

[Avnger]

Yeah, I'm still not seeing anything to persuade me that the release of SC is going to be an epic crash and burn that will make No Man's Sky look like a firecracker.

I really don't want that to be the case, but this is all looking very familar to other Epic fails.

I feel like you might be missing a negative somewhere in your first sentence?

I'm not really feeling a crash and burn scenario here, though. I find it much more likely that we'll end up with the equivalent of if Duke Nukem Forever (@Neverhoodian thanks for the perfect analogy) had been developed in early access from 1998/2000/whenever it started initially.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Kotaku is still around? Weren't we all joking that they would be shuttered soon?

Anyway, from what I have seen, what they have done in Star Citizen so far is pretty great. But there is NO way they will accomplish everything they have promised.

 

[SweetShark]

Well I'll be damned; Kotaku displaying actual, honest-to-God investigative journalism. Did they turn a new leaf lately, or is this a case of the UK branch being more competent than their American counterparts?

Kotaku is still around? Weren't we all joking that they would be shuttered soon?

Anyway, from what I have seen, what they have done in Star Citizen so far is pretty great. But there is NO way they will accomplish everything they have promised.

Is Kotaku really so bad? I use Kotaku daily to read news and other articles I am interested in [like arts from different talented people].
Is there other example of good articles like this one?
For reference, I visit also Destructoid, Siliconera, RPS and Polygon.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Well I'll be damned; Kotaku displaying actual, honest-to-God investigative journalism. Did they turn a new leaf lately, or is this a case of the UK branch being more competent than their American counterparts?

Kotaku is still around? Weren't we all joking that they would be shuttered soon?

Anyway, from what I have seen, what they have done in Star Citizen so far is pretty great. But there is NO way they will accomplish everything they have promised.

Is Kotaku really so bad? I use Kotaku daily to read news and other articles I am interested in [like arts from different talented people].
Is there other example of good articles like this one?
For reference, I visit also Destructoid, Siliconera, RPS and Polygon.

They're not bad, but they can certainly be on the more PC side of things.

I was referring to the bankruptcy of Gawker Media, who (I think) owns Kotaku.

 

[Zhukov]

Crikey. That was quite a saga.

It's not quite as accusatory as the Escapist article. This one details a disorganized clusterfuck born of excessive ambition while the Escapist article basically suggested it was a sham and mentioned intentional misuse of money rather than just wasteful spending.

To be fair, when you're constantly asking for money, there's a point where refusing to hire people that say "NO" stops being wasteful spending in every sense of the word. I mean, there's small indie studios eerywhere these days, but most don't/haven't had access to even a tenth of Star Citizen's budget.

Uh... what?

Sorry, you've completely lost me there. I can't tell what you're trying to say.

Care to rephrase?

 

[RedDeadFred]

Crikey. That was quite a saga.

It's not quite as accusatory as the Escapist article. This one details a disorganized clusterfuck born of excessive ambition while the Escapist article basically suggested it was a sham and mentioned intentional misuse of money rather than just wasteful spending.

Not to mention that the Escapist article spent a great deal of time talking about weird personal drama in the company. Specifically, the stuff aimed at Sandi. It came across more like some kind of sensationalist tabloid than something trying to take an unbiased look at the information.

OT: A very interesting read. The author seems to write in an unbiased manner and tries to give both sides of a situation as often as they can. To be honest, a lot of this screams to me that Roberts should not be the director. It's clear that the way he had initially set up the company did not adapt nearly quickly enough and caused them to waste months of time and likely millions of dollars. It sounds like they're on the right track now, so hopefully he's learned his lessons. I get the impression that his brother is a great deal more competent at leading a team.

I don't see how anyone can sincerely call this a scam. It may be overreaching, and it might not ever actually come out (I kind of anticipate it to crash and burn, but I really hope not), but it's pretty clear that there's no intention to just take the money and run. I don't really see how people can still have that mindset.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Crikey. That was quite a saga.

It's not quite as accusatory as the Escapist article. This one details a disorganized clusterfuck born of excessive ambition while the Escapist article basically suggested it was a sham and mentioned intentional misuse of money rather than just wasteful spending.

To be fair, when you're constantly asking for money, there's a point where refusing to hire people that say "NO" stops being wasteful spending in every sense of the word. I mean, there's small indie studios eerywhere these days, but most don't/haven't had access to even a tenth of Star Citizen's budget.

Uh... what?

Sorry, you've completely lost me there. I can't tell what you're trying to say.

Care to rephrase?

Sufficiently advanced incompetence is akin to malice. Dunno what the second sentence is for though.

 

[Redryhno]

Crikey. That was quite a saga.

It's not quite as accusatory as the Escapist article. This one details a disorganized clusterfuck born of excessive ambition while the Escapist article basically suggested it was a sham and mentioned intentional misuse of money rather than just wasteful spending.

To be fair, when you're constantly asking for money, there's a point where refusing to hire people that say "NO" stops being wasteful spending in every sense of the word. I mean, there's small indie studios eerywhere these days, but most don't/haven't had access to even a tenth of Star Citizen's budget.

Uh... what?

Sorry, you've completely lost me there. I can't tell what you're trying to say.

Care to rephrase?

They continually have the same money problems, and do nothing to fix them, therefore I'm asking when you stop saying it's "wasteful spending" bit and actually start the "intentional misuse" line.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Hm, so the scale of the operation became to big to fast and organisation was a huge clusterfuck. Then they had to restructure everything and rewrite a big part of the engine.

Well, this sounds all very reasonable and understandable. A completly diffrent tone from the Escapist article, which basically ripped CIG a new one.
As it seems they're now set on how they need to work to achieve what they want.

I'm pretty sure CS will not be what is promised, but it'll still be one heck of a game. I can't see the same No Man Sky crash right now. The people workin' on the project still are going strong and also even fired people apparently call their coworkers some of the best on their field.
And since they're their own boss i myself don't really care about the release date. As long as they can manage their money they can take as long as they want to, i'm not in a hurry.

Freelancer is already 13 years old. So i'm used to waiting.

 

[Michael Navas]

Part 2 is now up:

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/09/26/the-24-year-feud-that-has-dogged-star-citizen

With direct backing of the Escapist article.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Holy Jesus, that particular part is pretty damning of CIG. Pretty much nailed my thoughts about the whole fiasco in the final few paragraphs.

And there's still three more parts to this. Aye yi yi.

 

[pookie101]

i hope squadron 42 is eventually released and is decent. thats the thing that initially caught my eye when everything was first announced. its also what i will throw money at.

but with all the feature creep warning bells started ringing and i havent spent any money and honestly at this point im relieved.