Star Citizen, a video game that exists as a Forever Promise, was first revealed to the world back in 2012 via a Kickstarter campaign that raised $2.1 million. In the decade since, through the announcements of spin-offs, modules, in-game economies and countless other features and half-baked ideas, the game seems no closer to an actual release.
One thing it has accomplished, though, is make some money. Lots of money. As pointed out earlier today in this post, the game’s official “funds raised” tracker on its website just ticked over the $500 million mark, and at time of posting stands at $500,089,473 raised, from 4,096,539 backers.
Half a billion dollars. For a video game that has been in development for over a decade. Were this five years ago this is the point where I’d start questioning the game’s future, or wonder how close it is to being “finished”, or make some jokes. But it’s 2022, and the whole thing now is just…sad. They could have concluded a whole damn trilogy of these games by now if there had been an ounce of proper management, someone on the team able to separate the game’s unchecked ambition from what was technologically possible then, or even now.
Star Citizen is what it is, though, so instead I’m just going to remind you of this trailer, which was released in 2015, while Obama was still President and this website was owned by Gawker Media:
And now, to help put the passage of time into further context, I’m going to list some other video games that were announced in 2012
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- SimCity
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- The Elder Scrolls Online
- ZombiU
- Company of Heroes 2
- Dead Space 3
- FIFA 13
- Resident Evil 6
- Crysis 3
- Gears of War: Judgement
- NBA 2K13
- Pikmin 3
- Rock Band Blitz
