Hhow much does it cost to create a video game? Development expenses for blockbuster games are closely guarded business secrets, but they have increased more and more over the years to reach enormous Hollywood-style expenses.
Leaks in the industry have exposed how the budgets of major video games explode: 100 million dollars, even 200 million dollars, or even more. One of the best-selling franchises, Call of Duty, has seen its costs soar to a mere $700 million (£573 million). recently revealed when a reporter dug into court records.
There is, however, one game whose budget is anything but secret. Sprawling multiplayer space simulator Star Citizen releases its funds on his website and they are updated in real time. Currently, they stand at $777,145,107 (a figure which will no longer be relevant as soon as this article is published). Soon it will surpass $800 million and, perhaps in a year or so, surpass the ceiling to become the world’s first billion-dollar video game.
Unless you get beaten by another huge match – and there is some of those in productionalthough their costs are unlikely to be disclosed – that would make them the most expensive entertainment ever produced. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the most expensive film ever madecosts about half that price.
The figures for Star Citizen are publicly available because it is not the investors who finance this PC game, but the players themselves.
“Fandom is at the heart of Star Citizen,” says Rhys Elliott, a games industry analyst at London-based market research firm MIDiA Research. “It’s more of a movement than a game. There’s a mutual commitment between developers and players to create something cool and revolutionary – something that’s never been done before.”
Chris Roberts, British-American video game developer – famous for his 1990s Wing Commander spaceship fighting series – launched Star Citizen as crowdfunding project in 2012, promising to create a digital universe so vast and yet so detailed that players would “forget it’s a game.”
It raised its first $2 million on Kickstarter and it’s been growing ever since, fueled by fans willing to put their money behind a plan so ambitious that no profit-driven, deadline-driven publisher could beat it. would consider the risk of carrying it out.
After a few years, an early version of the game became available for fans to test, but it was almost always unplayable, constantly freezing and crashing. It’s only recently that Star Citizen has started to feel like a real video game.
YouTube is full of videos of players navigating the Star Citizen universe together. Their spaceships fly seamlessly from space stations and traverse planetary atmospheres to land in sci-fi-style cities, before heading on foot to caverns deep underground. Warp Holes have just been added to the game, allowing players to jump between two solar systems.
“It’s very easy to get excited about space games,” says Oliver Hull, who runs a games-focused company. YouTube channel with 1.56 million subscribers. “It’s a really pretty game. I think visually, people see it and go, ‘Oh, what’s that about?’ »
Hull, 32, used to play a lot of other games, like Grand Theft Auto, but now mainly posts videos showing himself playing Star Citizen, flying and looking for things to do, whether it’s mining asteroids or attack space pirates. Often, Hull’s videos show him frustrated when things don’t work the way they should. But that’s part of the appeal, he says.
“To be honest, the game is still in development,” he says. “When something doesn’t work out as planned… it doesn’t really bother me because it’s kind of a work in progress. On the contrary, I find it quite interesting from a game development point of view.
It’s the rough edges of the game, the promise of what it could be, and seeing the game slowly move in that direction, that motivates Star Citizen fans. “I can’t think of many games that do what Star Citizen does,” says Hull. “It’s not finished but I think it’s very appealing – the fact that there’s nothing else like it.”
It may not be over, but people have nonetheless been paying for Star Citizen all this time. A starting ship costs $45 and the game now has over 80 pilotable ships. The most expensive ones currently available cost over £500.
The preview release allows the development team, Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), to test how the game works with live players as they develop. But it also gives backers something tangible to play with, a glimpse into the long and complicated processes of developing a game, rather than waiting years for full release.
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Over time, satisfying the community becomes more and more important. Many fans have now donated large sums of money, including through a controversial lucrative scheme in which CIG pre-sales online spaceships they intend to manufacture in the future. Some so-called “superbackers” spent well over $10,000.
Fans, says industry analyst Elliot, “have invested so much money in it…that they’re really emotionally invested.”
The development teams also felt pressure from the community, with allegations in industry media against the management of the IGC for having imposed long working hours. A 2016 survey conducted by gaming site Kotaku cited former employees who described “critical” practices in which development teams are asked to work overtime before a major milestone, such as a gaming convention. Roberts told Kotaku at the time that he did not want a “crisis as a culture”.
CIG describes Star Citizen as “the largest-scale open development game there is,” but that ambition also means the game has been in development for over a decade, with repeated and frustrating delays. In a 2012 interview with Roberts, the Guardian reported that the plan was to release the game two years later, in 2014. Fan forums regularly question whether the game will ever be properly released.
But late last year, there were tentative signs of hope. For the first time, CIG revealed what the eventual launch version will look likeproviding a clear view of what will and will not be included, although no dates have been given.
What they did provide, however, was a 2026 release date for a standalone single-player game, Squadron 42, a story-driven narrative set in the wider Star Citizen universe, with a Hollywood cast of voice actors including Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson and Andy Serkis.
Further delays are certainly expected, but the end may finally be in sight.
No game created in the traditional way, through an established publisher and from which investors expect a return, could have withstood 13 years of development without a finished product. Star Citizen has managed to reverse the trend of the rest of the sector, which is in crisis, with skyrocketing costs and regular layoffs. Its main backers are actors, not investors, and they have different motivations.
“I think the backers of Star Citizen saw this as a direct line to fight corporatization and support an exciting project to the highest degree,” says Elliott. “Success is not just about using spreadsheets, maximizing value and ROI, but also putting fans at the heart of the process. »