Image: Star Citizen / Robert Space Industries Forums
Sometimes, I just really can’t decide: do I want a downpayment on a house, or virtual items?
That’s the realm of money we’re talking about with the latest combined offering for Star Citizen. Since I’ve only spent $US60 on the game through Kickstarter, I can’t see the package directly myself. But the Legatus Pack was helpfully screenshotted by a user on the official Star Citizen forums and shared for all to see, including the price tag: $35,837 ($US27,000).
“Comprised of over 100 vessels from every noteworthy manufacturer of note, this perfect collection empowers any fleet commander to forge a lasting legacy, leading humanity towards a brighter future,” the package description says.
The package comes with 117 ships and 163 extras, including download codes for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Anyone buying this presumably would probably already have both of those things, although users noted that it’s possible to message the developers directly to purchase the pack if they’re not able to see it.
You could also buy a used car. Or a cheap new one. Or a really long holiday. Or some PCs for your friends so they can play Star Citizen at smooth frame rates. Not too many friends, mind you.
It’s also worth reiterating that every Star Citizen ship, eventually, can be earned through in-game credits. And given that you’d be likely working in a organisation to crew the larger ships in the game anyway, with each member contributing the ships they’ve already purchased, the Legatus Pack seems excessive. Interestingly, it’s not known whether anyone has bought the pack yet, according to our compatriots in the US.
But hey. Some people have more money than they know what to do with. So if that’s you, enjoy.
Comments
49 responses to “A Star Citizen Package That Costs $35,837”
“every noteworthy manufacturer of note”
From the Department of Redundancy Department
Just like I’m a distinctive gentleman of distinction.
🙂
What a rort! This game has already raised more than enough money (150-160 million plus) and it’s still in development.
Try $186,858,843 as of today’s date (according to RSI).
And it will likely never be ‘enough’ money. Roberts has a track record of bad management. He is prone to over-promising and getting caught up in his own hype, a bit like Molyneux. The fact that Roberts has no oversight, which he needs, means that the project will end up running on fumes and will either be squirted out as a travesty of what was promised, or will not come out at all. For Squadron 42, I’m leaning towards not coming out at all. For Star Citizen, they’ll do a few more updates, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t evolve significantly from what we’ve got today.
I hope you’re wrong. I only backed for Squadron 42. The first game i bought with my own money was Wing Commander 2.
I enjoyed the first Wing Commander back in the day but never played any of the others. If Squadron 42 was all they were going to do, then I think they would have succeeded by now. It’s just that Roberts’ vision and ego got way too big once the dollars started rolling in. It seems S42 is stuck in dev hell because parts of it are inextricably tied up in Star Citizen’s development, which is itself stuck in a mire.
Yup. That’s my take too. I think Chris Roberts would be hell to deal with for staff. Much like George Lucas was to Lucasarts.
Is this game ever coming out? At this point it’s the Chris Roberts retirement fund and we’ve all been fooled.
The MVP (minimum viable product) is out, being described by Roberts at one point as ‘we are now in early access’. Therefore, no more refunds for filthy leavers.
Whilst it might seem like a lot of money to those like myself or those on a gaming blogger’s salary – I know quite a few people who have this kind of money to burn. Some people drop a lot more than this on cars, boats or art.
I think a lot of people who came up around the Wing Commander era did quite well for themselves with the I.T/web revolution and this is what they want to spend their money on. I have met countless guys who have said “What this game is offering is what I’ve dreamed about being able to do in a game since I was a kid”; so a lot of people are putting down cash in the hope it becomes a reality.
Some people drop a lot more than this on cars, boats or art.
Art regularly increases in value. So does land. Cars and boats etc, can at least be seen as tangible products that have value. I want to play Star Citizen, but there’s no way this can be logically defended, a 27000 dollar package. How can *anyone* besides those with their fanboy blinkers on, possibly give this a pass, then condemn companies like EA, Activision and Ubisoft for shady practices with Microtransactions?
Sure it’s someones choice to buy it, but the fact they’re even *given* such a choice at all in the first place, is abhorrent. Roberts should know better. Especially given he likes to brag about how much SC has brought in to this point.
Yep. Totally. He seems more chuffed with how much money he’s raised than, you know, actually finishing a complete product.
Burn, Alex.
Don’t worry, I’m sure Alex and Tegan got one of those fancy packages each the moment they became available!
April fools…..oh wait…
I really don’t like what they’re doing with this. They’ve taken it way too far but this? This is just the icing on the cake.
Backed it when it was announced. Now i don’t even care anymore. It’s just been too long.
It’s only 6 years, there are games with smaller scopes and longer development times that people seem to have no problem with. The only difference here is the public has been along for the ride from day one, instead of from three quarters the way through development when companies usually first announce their work.
I wonder how long it took them to make Wing Commander?
Okay. That was a long time ago. But 6 years is too long for the resources they have. And are continuing to acquire very aggressively.
It’s cool that you’re still positive about it but I think it’s almost a joke at this point. How much have they raised now?
What’s more worrying is that Chris Roberts ran into exactly the same problems he is running into now with Freelancer about 20 years ago. Overly ambitious, not enough funds, lengthy delays.
Back then, MS could come in, kick Roberts out of the driver’s seat and ruthlessly cut in order to get the game released.
This time, no publisher is going to touch this wreck with a barge pole. Why? With Freelancer, there was the prospect of sales at the end once the game had released. Now? With over 2 million ‘Citizens’ (according to Roberts’ website) and nearly $190 million in backing/pledges/pre-sales, the number of people who will actually buy the game if it is not Pokemon / WoW / Minecraft level popular is likely to be insufficient to recoup any funds used by publishers to finish the game.
In short, Roberts has pissed away too many dollars on shiny graphics and doesn’t have enough left to make a decent game.
The Emperors new clothes man. The Emperors new clothes. People defended it the first few years, which was fair enough. Three years ago it was ‘it’s only been three years!’ and fair enough it had only been. But now we’re hearing ‘it’s only been six years’.
Yes, it’s *been* six years. Like you said, the same problems have reared their head and the same problems are persisting. I can bet you, in two years we’ll hear ‘it’s only been 8 years man!’
I haven’t been able to find info on Wing Commander’s development time. But for other points of comparison, Diablo 3 and Prey took 11 years, LA Noire and Starcraft 2 (not including expansions) were 7.
I think SC’s fundraising is in the order of about $160-170M at the moment, but I don’t know exact amounts, I don’t think it’s published on their site directly any more.
I’m not suggesting they’ve never mis-stepped, to be clear. I think packages like this one, even if the reality behind them is fairly mundane (ie. it’s just the ‘everything on the store’ bundle) make for bad publicity considering CIG’s reputation for apparent waste. I also think the feature creep, while necessary at the start of the campaign, should have been halted years ago. Maybe it’s just because I’ve worked in gamedev before, but where they’re at for what they’re trying to do just doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, yet. That may change in the future of course.
That’s good info man and thanks. I agree about the feature creep. That and the constant ‘Buy more fake products’ are really what started turning me against the project.
I’m not in game dev but I do make short films and one thing I know about creating stuff is if you keep shooting for the moon, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Gotta get a concise plan and execute. This project is just so big now it seems unmanageable.
Backed it at around $40000 a few years ago with a simple $45 package. I’ve kind of given up caring about it or following it, I’ll tune in again when something interesting happens or there’s news of the game being playable with a framerate greater than 10.
Nuh-uh. The game isn’t even out yet. That’s right. You can buy a US$27,000 DLC pack for a game that is still, at best, in early access.
It’s not DLC, it’s backer funding with a ship thrown in as what other platforms would call a tier bonus. There’s nothing in this package that isn’t available to everyone in-game in the first place. It’s just an ‘everything on the store’ bundle of all the things already available individually. It’s also not new, it’s been around since the start of the on-site fundraising and was just updated recently is all.
Well, I guess you can’t really call it DLC when some of those ships you are ‘buying’ aren’t even available to fly yet.
Chris Roberts must seriously have balls of steel.
He’s not the first person to get rich selling something that doesn’t exist.
It’s not right though.
I don’t really like the idea of open-ended fundraising to begin with, because it leads to feature creep (which has been a constant problem with SC) and poor planning. The only thing I really defend in this story is the development time, which I maintain is, at least to date, reasonable for what’s being done and for the fact they’ve had to basically rewrite the engine in the process.
I mentioned above, that’s not to say my view won’t change in maybe 18 months, but right now it looks on the higher end of normal for the objectives and scope. I’d expect a late 2019, early 2020 release for the PU (8-9 years development time), personally. I know it’s long, but it’s not unusual.
I’m more skeptical, but I hope you’re right.
I can appreciate that this product was always going to take a long time to develop and a tonne of money, but things like this and the land sale are a bridge too far. They are getting too greedy.
Oh yeah, the land sale. I forgot about that. Seriously, they’re just printing money at this point.
Also, mechs. Coming soon to a CIG sale near you.
I dunno if we will get mechs, butmixed land combat has been getting hard pushed for a while and I figure water will be the next target.
Its a shame, because I really enjoy what little is playable even now. I am happy to admit that I have not spent more money since the last SC article.
Looks like a game for rich people that need to stroke their virtual penis
For $27,000 I’d rather employ a LOT of people to stroke my real penis. I’m sure that amount would get me over 100 hours of enjoyment.
Hmmmm would they be full time or part time???
Channeling my inner Ruby Rod: “ALL THE TIME!!!”
The oooooooonly person in the Galaxy who should touch autotune…
<3 Ruby Rod.
Quiver Zambayoshi, quiver!
So Alex backed $60 & that didn’t even get him forum access, How is this game ever going to sell or gain more players if it’s a established elitist club for the have’s vs the have not’s.
Everyone has forum access, including Alex. The thing that’s hidden (and was screenshotted and put on the forum for others to see) is the package store page, which is only visible if your total pledges are $1000 or over.
So they’re only advertising these packages to people who’ve already spent a lot of money?
Easy targets, in other words.
I assumed the main reason was to avoid weird press coverage, but it could be any reason really. I don’t think it’s intentionally predatory, but it can certainly appear that way.
a cheap new car… A CHEAP NEW CAR!?… for $35K?! That’s what my I30 SR cost, and it ain’t cheap mate…
Articles like this are getting annoying as the comments here prove that people think this was a move to rake in more money.
It was literally the higher end concierge backers that asked for this over a long period of time. That’s why they rolled out an entirely new line of high end packages which had concierge member input to create them.
Whale off the starboard bow!!!
And here I thought factual reporting was something people wanted.
You just want something to bag on.
That’s not all. The package also includes about $50 worth of gameplay.
Hahahaha!