dsmart
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Quite a few people have contacted them and have heard back. They’re probably swamped. Anyway, when did you apply for the refund, and when did they say you could expect to receive? Catch me on my Discord channel if you don’t get it; and we’ll go from there.
They are charging $35 for a tee shirt that cost about $5 to make because they can. Whether they sell or not, is a whole different story.
Major Tom weighs in on the new $35 (!!) tee shirts
Star Citizen – They’re building a movie set!!
So AroundTheVerse had their 100th show yesterday. Today they had another ReverseTheVerse as well. These, along with the 104TC nonsense, are supposedly “paid for by subscribers”. Which doesn’t make one lick of sense when you consider the fact that EVERYTHING at CIG/RSI is paid for with backer money. And the people on the show, are all staff with paychecks. So what exactly are the subscribers “paying” for in order to host these shows?
And just as they announced that “subscriptions are up” (they would be, since they were using it as a way to get people to download the 2.4 patch if they didn’t want to wait), they just started sending this email out to backers.
It’s the usual CIG branded bullshit. Moving along…
In case you didn’t watch it, AtV was the usually rubbish. For a milestone show, it was as flacid as the character models in this $116 million train wreck.
Interestingly enough, Chris was showing off the LA office. Again. And in what we believe was an edited section where they probably removed it, they not only didn’t even show the space door entrance, but they took great pains not to show the rumored 20K espresso machine.
Last I heard – and as claimed by CIG two weeks ago – this week was supposed to have something special. In fact, I was expecting them to follow through on what sources told me was an attempt to necromance Star Marine – again – and “prove” that it’s not dead. Though Chris has gone on the record as saying that what was planned for SM was already in the PU.
Yeah, we’re still laughing at that one.
Seriously, there is simply NO GAME. Word is they’re still trying to build a CryEngine fps level to pass off as a new FPS (aka Star Marine Necro) “coming soon” as part of their usual begging drive which goes on during August (Gamescom in Germany) and Oct (CitizenCon). Thing is, they’ve done that many times in the past, and all that Cinebox created content never made it into ANY version of the game. And only the truly gullible backers are going to fall for that one now.
Yes, Chris was showing the LA office, instead of, you know, showing off the game they’re supposedly building. I’m guessing this is a play on that whole “how can it be a scam if they have offices and staff?” <—- if you’re thinking, let alone saying this, congrats, you’re an idiot. With a pulse.
As I said in my latest blog*, I believe it to be totally a money-grabbing scam now.
What Chris didn’t mention was that while furious backers are wondering where the money has gone, even as CIG/RSI comes up with every trick in the book to deny refunds, Chris is reported to now be building a GODDAMN MOVIE SET at Imaginarium studios in the UK where they’ve done some mocap work. If you know anything about that place, then you know it’s one of the most expensive studios in the entertainment world. And this one is said to be for Mark Hamill’s performance in SQ42. And they’re also shooting at Ealing Studios.
Meanwhile, five years and $116 million later; not a single in-game footage of SQ42 has been seen by backers or the media.
And it’s already July and no official word yet that BOTH projects have in fact been delayed and will NEVER release (I called this one months back. You’re welcome) in 2016.
Even as key dev staff are bailing (several in June, more coming in July I’ve heard) on the project, he’s off making a movie. With backer money.
And as if the recent ToS fiasco wasn’t bad enough, now they have a new form letter (scroll down to the July 1st comment) for denying refunds; even to those who haven’t agreed to the new ToS.And in one other recent response to a backer, they are now saying that CIG is not the “correct” entity to address grievances to; that is should be RSI. This despite the fact that they only made that company liability change (it’s in my recent blog) in the latest ToS…which this person hadn’t even agreed to.
Yes, you heard that right. They’re now actively saying that CIG is no longer the entity with the Star Citizen liability in the US, and that RSI (just a shell company up to the 2.4 ToS change) now is. Even though this particular backer, and thousands of others, have email receipts that clearly show they purchased goods from CIG…which still happens to be an active entity.
Something is amiss. Just trust me on this.
More soon.ps:
fyi in case u thought I was making shit up when I said they were going to start faking things to show internal progress, watch Lando here admitting to why the Chris & Sean show didn’t take place this week. They couldn’t create B-Roll (aka more staged crap) for it. There is simply no magical internal build. It’s all lies designed to scam backers to keep the gig going. They’re basically doing the same shit they’ve done before: create great visuals in Cinebox or in a CryEngine editor and try to pass it off as coming soon.
In case you missed it, Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare is poised to be the Wing Commander successor that Star Citizen will never be. Hear the words, straight from the devs.
…and Major Tom’s take 🙂
Yup. JPEGs are tanking.
Well that’s new. This is what just started going out to backers.
So following the new ToS update, according to this poster, they now have a form letter that CS sends out to people inquiring about, or requesting a refund:
“Thank you very much for contacting us.
I am very sorry to hear that you no longer wish to back Star Citizen, however we have reviewed your account status and we regret that we are not able to accommodate your request for a refund since it was received outside of the statutory 14 day period. I understand that this may seem unwelcoming, but unfortunately we are now obligated to send over the following information as protocol:
You made your pledge to the crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the development of “Star Citizen.” When you contributed your pledge it was applied to the building of the game and the team and resources needed to make it happen. The funds are not idly maintained in a bank account for months or years in case someone wants his/her money back. Cloud Imperium Games has been working diligently on the development of the game and has published extensive information on the development process on its website at robertsspaceindustries.com. We are very serious about accomplishing what we set out to do, which is to build a great game. We endeavor to keep everyone informed and educated on the progress of game development and what is accomplished with their support: reports, updates and web shows have been made available regularly, and our first gameplay offerings came online as early as fall of 2013. These offerings have been progressively and incrementally expanded over time to share access to the work in progress. We have created a substantial foundation for the game, and early release versions are currently available (see further detail below).
As noted above, your payment was a deposit to be used for the “Game Cost” as defined in your crowdfunding pledge agreement (see Sec. 4 of the Commercial Terms, and Sec. IV.A of the subsequent Terms of Service, as applicable,https://robertsspaceindustries.com/tos), and the deposit has since been “earned by CIG and become non-refundable” since it was “used for the Game Cost…” You also agreed to “irrevocably waive any claim for refund of any deposit amount that has been used for the Game Cost and Pledge Item Cost ….” The only exception would be a return of unearned funds remaining in case of an abandonment of the project; this exception does not apply as we have not abandoned development. If you pledged on Kickstarter, you agreed to these terms when you transferred your pledge account to robertsspaceindustries.com.
Terms to this effect have been in the Terms of Service and/or Commercial Terms ever since Star Citizen’s crowdfunding began. They are consistent with the specific nature of crowdfunding and the foreseeable use of your pledge –it would not be appropriate to use current backers’ development pledges to refund an earlier pledge which has already been used for Game Cost. Put simply, “takebacks” are not in the spirit of crowdfunding, the effect would be to pull the rug out from under a team that is working hard to build what the crowd has asked them to build with their pledges.
While quite a lot of the promised gameplay is now available, we acknowledge that delivery of some game elements has been delayed. This is a direct result of the community’s declared desire to have the initial release version of the game developed to a much greater depth, detail, and fidelity than contemplated originally upon start of the campaign. It is inherent to the nature of crowdfunding that such an adjustment to the project may occur. We acknowledge that some individual backers may find the additional wait undesirable. However, as per Sec. VII of the Terms, you did “acknowledge and agree that delivery as of such date is not a promise by RSI since unforeseen events may extend the development and/or production time.” Ultimately, this evolution of development will benefit all backers including yourself, since every backer will be receiving a much greater value for his/her pledge, but it may – as in this case – cause an extension of the delivery dates.
Star Citizen is a project for gamers, by gamers. By financing the project using crowd funding, our team is not beholden to a publisher who would insist we ship a game unfinished, de-featured, or broken to meet a particular schedule. Thanks to continued backing of our community, we have the needed creative freedom over the project to push the boundaries of what is possible in gaming technology and to create a unique game with a unique approach. We feel the results such as unparalleled immersion and fidelity which have been highlighted in many reviews and community reactions, are already speaking for themselves!
Please try out, if you haven’t already, the significant gameplay which is now available (seehttps://robertsspaceindustries.com/feature-list) and we encourage you to download the installer from this url:https://robertsspaceindustries.com/download to patch up and play the latest version of the game.
Again, we regret that we can’t comply with your refund request for the above reasons and sincerely hope you enjoy the updates both current and future in the Star Citizen ‘Verse.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter, and if there is anything else we can assist with please let us know, thanks.“
-
AuthorPosts