this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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Star Citizen Introducing a $48,000 Ship Bundle, but Only for Players Who Have Already Spent $10,000::Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is releasing a ship bundle for its controversial space simulator that costs an eye-watering $48,000.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I wonder if games that require such farfetched amounts of money should be included in the Luxury tax?

A lot of those "whales" have cognitive difficulties and/or gambling addictions issues. Since many if these game developers/publishers have no qualm blindly milking and profiteering. It should be no surprise if some sort of tax is levied to help societies (à-la-tobacco or sugar tax) attenuate the ravages of gambling addictions.

Moreover, Star Citizen has been released over 10 years ago while been continually updated.

At what point is it just senseless greed that has taken over the game?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

Released is a strong word, lol. Agreed though, it is completely unprecedented

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Luxury tax doesn't apply to dealers/retailers. It would just get piled on the final user. Which would be fine for the "richer than god" types, but not so great for some poor bastard with an addiction who can't help themselves.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You're right, in that the customer would pay the tax. But also its not like they could be charging an extra 20% and be getting more money. They will have put significant effort and research into finding out what the optimal level of pricing is to get the most grift, which means the fall in "sales" from putting things at a higher price would outweigh the increased profit. I'd rather them scam less and let the government get at least a slice of it. Though really, more regulation to stop this kind of exploitation would be better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

It's one thing to drop a few bucks here and there into a game you enjoy but when you start spending 10k on a fuckin game you have a serious issue. Even if you're ultra wealthy, do you really have nothing else you could waste that money on? I think it's time for a serious crackdown on predatory gaming.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's been a demo for over 10 years, not a game.

Games have story, star citizen is a glorified tech demo as far as I am concerned.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Games don't necessarily have stories... But your point still stands. This feels unfinished, empty and unpolished. Not remotely worth 50k

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I boufh a ship beginning of 2014 just to test it out, worst $200 (supposed to get a usb ship, bunch of squadron 42 stuff)

And most games have a point, the only point to star citizen is for YOU to spend money

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

That level of buy-in is not required. You can get a game package with a single starter pack for US$40. The one in the article includes every variant of every vehicle currently in the game or in development or announced as planned.

It's hard to definitively say if greed has taken over or if they're just trying to fund development as legitimately as possible without a publisher. They have done some groundbreaking things (64 bit coordinate system, object container streaming, etc) and are working in more (replication layer, server meshing, etc). That is why it has been so long and expensive, why the game is still alpha.