Too much greed? Star Citizen players make it clear what they think of devs' latest idea
Flight Blades in Star Citizen have caused consternation among gamers, who see a dangerous precedent in the new microtransactions.
Star Citizen fans are frustrated with the new type of microtransactions in Chris Roberts' still unfinished space simulator.
Is SC the most expensive game in history? Even if, the $800 million contributed by the players alone is impressive. Similar to the development time: an early version of Star Citizen became available in 2012. Although the developer said earlier this year that the project is "closer to completion than ever before," there hasn't been any specific launch date announced yet (Squadron 42 is expected to be released in 2026).
Pay-to-win in Star Citizen?
In the history of SC so far, there are two constants: free weekends and huge amounts of money spent by Roberts' fans. You can try out Star Citizen for free until May 27th. As for player spending, well, the mentioned $800 million speaks for itself.
However, many Star Citizen fans were annoyed by Cloud Imperium Games' new idea of upgrading ship performance with purchasable in-game store items (currently without the option to buy them with in-game currency).
Flight Blades were announced yesterday as a way to change the "behavior" of units in players' hangars. So far, there are two types of upgrades available (one improves the ship's maneuverability, the other increases flight speed) for eight models, but in the future, there will be more of these upgrades and for a greater number of units.
The devs assure that FB only provides "tuning flexibility, giving more control over the spaceship," so they don't give "competitive advantage" to buyers.
Pandora's Box
However, most players didn't receive these explanations well. Just take a look at the comments under the official article, and the posts on social media don't exactly radiate optimism. Only a few players argue in favor of the creators, for example by pointing out that maybe FB will eventually make it into the game itself ("in 6 weeks"), and also that these are not "improvements" per se, because the "improvement" comes at the expense of other ship stats.
Most players don't agree with such statements. In their opinion, these are exceptionally bad (to put it mildly) and expensive microtransactions, because FB has to be purchased separately for each ship. The most expensive ones cost around 30-43 dollars each. This is by no means the only content locked behind a paywall. Weapon kits, including bomb racks, also cost money. The argument that hiding those items behind the game store was just temporary doesn't really convince most people.
Even if the impact of Flight Blades themselves is minimal, fans see their presence in the store as a dangerous precedent. Until this moment, only ships required purchase, which still annoyed some players. CIG has now started selling ship components, and it's certainly not for nothing. Some people ask ironically, what will be "taxed" next.
The players' moods in Star Citizen are clearly reflected by a parody graphic that's trending on Reddit. It shows a fictional store in the game, with tokens for logging in and adding friends. Besides, this is not the only such "suggestion."
Cloud Imperium Games inspired players. Source: u/bprichfieldtrading / Reddit.
What's even more annoying for players is that this situation happened during a game promotion event, which includes not only a free week with SC, but also the opportunity to try out various machines for 48 hours and the debut of a new unit (Aegis Idris Peacekeeper). Thus, as fans claim, CIG once again annoyed them after gaining perhaps not enthusiasm, but at least slight approval.
Players eagerly express their dissatisfaction and, as usual, want to vote with their wallets. The real question is whether this boycott will actually make a difference. It's not uncommon for big statements to not really impact the profits of devs and publishers.
