I’m starting to think that Star Citizen is nothing more than a protracted social experiment to see how much fans and loyalists can endure before they crack. Cloud Imperium’s crowd-funded game has been in development for what feels like a lifetime, with extraneous revenue streams – like expensive in-game ships – helping to pad the company’s coffers. Now they're charging fans to watch the Citizencon livestream

Last week, changes to Star Citizen’s economy created concerns about the game shifting towards becoming “pay to win.” The removal of the UEC cap limit allows players to stockpile in-game cash, causing debates between fans over whether the change will actually have any meaningful impact on the game. In a new “Letter from the Chairman,” Cloud Imperium Games boss Chris Roberts addressed the “pay to win” concerns. The gist of Roberts’ argument is that Star Citizen isn’t a regular game with an end goal, so there’s no traditional “win” state. Players “win” by having fun, and they can have fun whether they shell out extra money or not.

Opinions on Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen generally fall into two camps. You have the loyal backers and defenders who’ve patiently waited for it to come out, who rush into forums and comments on articles to rubbish any claims of the game or its developers’ impropriety. Most everyone else thinks that the world’s most crowd-funded game is little more than a long con; a game so beleaguered by feature creep that it’ll either never come out or will fail to live up to its expectations when it does. It’s become increasingly difficult for those in the former camp to find fault with anything surrounding the game, thanks to confirmation biases and other bits of errors in inductive reasoning. A new change to the game’s economy has, however, riled some backers up.

Star Citizen today is no closer to realising its goals than it was five years ago, and that’s a shame for the people who provided the fiscal ground support for the project. Even worse, Star Citizen isn’t the game that many people backed, as its various modules have created something entirely different to what was originally envisioned and promised.

I’d still err on the side of caution when it comes to taking a plunge in Star Citizen. Or if you feel different, you could just jump right into Star Citizen with a hangar full of spaceships to marvel at…for the low low price of only $27 000.

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli is leaving the company, years after unpaid salaries and financial issues brought the once popular engine and games developement studio to its knees.

Last month, CryEngine maker Crytek launched a lawsuit against Cloud Imperium Games and Roberts Space Industries, makers of Star Citizen and its more narrative-focused Squadron 42. They've hit back.

Crytek, the owners of CryEngine, are suing the developers of Star Citizen for allegedly making use of their engine without notification.