Star Citizen alpha 3.0 is still in the thick of its QA phases, and speaking to Eurogamer at Gamescom, project Director Chris Roberts referred to the upcoming demo as an early access experience. He also assured his detractors he’s not scamming his 34,000 backers.
Talking first about 3.0, which now looks like it could be delayed to October, Roberts mentioned the key features the next big update will offer, including universe persistence, basic jobs and a mission system. With these fundamentals in place, it’s essentially the first time backers will be able to get a sense of the gameplay loop they’ve invested in. Here’s how Roberts perceives what his massive team has accomplished with 3.0:
“The term beta in terms of Star Citizen - with 3.0 the game is moving into a phase akin to early access. It'll build and grow from there, and then you could say 'well, it's not really early access anymore'. The price will probably go up a little bit and it will have much more of the features and content going on.”
Roberts says Cloud Imperium Games will increase the price when it makes sense on a business level. Right now, enough funds are coming in through backers and ship purchases that everything is essentially being kicked back into the creative workflow. When the need for larger sums of money arises, the cost will go up to compensate.
Talk of early access and increased prices, however, is exactly the kind of language that fuels Star Citizen’s legion of doubters. To those folks, Roberts expressed a pretty stern message:
“There's a subset of people who say 'this thing is never going to come out, it's a scam'. Which is plainly not true. It would be the worst scam in the world. We're hiring all these people, we're working really hard. We're showing what we're doing every week.”
Roberts’ claims are fairly accurate; the Cloud Imperium Games staff posts constant video updates throughout the week in a series of shows like Around The Verse and Happy Hour. Those who can’t watch those streams are able to read real-time production schedules, and those timelines are supposedly the exact same ones that are shared internally.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the culture of delays surrounding Star Citizen. While CIG was initially apologetic and optimistic that alpha 3.0 would release this month after nearly a full year of delays, production looks like it could push into October. Yes, triple-A studios delay retail games all the time, but Star Citizen was touted for a complete release in 2015. Now, two years later, its vision is just getting its basic alpha gameplay loop with dozens of star systems still left to craft.
While Star Citizen may not be an outright scam, the vision it promises may take quite a long time before it's truly realized. For the true believers, though, any delays are just a small stopgap to the greatest space sim ever made.
Star Citizen is in playable alpha for supporters on PC.
How do you feel about Star Citizen 3.0 being called an early access product? Will this game turn out to be a scam? Tell us in the comments section!
