Star Citizen Studio Calls 'Loud' Fans A 'Distraction' In Very Bad Post

A change to the game's roadmap system could have been messaged better


Star Citizen, a game that has been in development for over a decade and has raised over $400 million in funding, is nowhere near being done. Not even close. And as work continues on the game, recent changes to the way the studio communicates its progress with fans have not exactly been helping matters.


In 2020 we reported on a shift Cloud Imperium Games were making with regards to the kind of information they shared with backers and fans. It was the institution of a new “roadmap” system, a way the team could outline what they were working on for the game, and roughly when players might expect to be able to try them out. The game, while far from being finished, does exist in a roughly playable state that is constantly being updated.


This change came about after fans had grown unhappy with the previous system. Now, after “six quarters” of the new system, it’s being thrown out as well, with CIG deciding that because video game development exists in a highly fluid state, maybe fans need to know less about what they’re working on, in case what they’re working on ends up terrible/broken/doesn’t fit the rest of the game. So from here on, only the things that the team are immediately working on, and which are the next things to be added into the game in a working state, will be disclosed to fans.


It’s a smart move when examined in a vacuum. Development is hell, and most times it’s for the best that fans aren’t given full access to the hellscape’s expansive vistas. Just because some developers want something in a game doesn’t always mean they can get it there, or that it should be, and players should never have been expecting spit-balled ideas to become definite features. But even the smartest moves can be disasters if they’re messaged in an extremely dumb way.


Read the full article on Kotaku