Money isnt an issue, not as far as developing Star Citizen at least. Beyond, yeah probably if we're talking about SC/SQ42 financing the entire creation of that game, 5-10yrs of support & whatnot, plus their next project... thats a lot to ask. If SC is a success, financing it will be a piece of cake.
The crowdfunding goal wasnt to build a game successful enough to fund a studio to be profitable enough to self-fund a 2nd title and launch them as a company, it was to build the best version of SC possible. So if they want to make Project #2, and im sure they do, i'd be happy with the possibility SC is so successful it funds a 2nd project entirely (esp if our contribution to this was recognised with discounted access etc), but really i'd be expecting that to be largely crowdfunded too, and why not.
I dont really know what the ToS say when pledging, but i doubt many view it as a contribution towards CIG, but as a contribution towards SC.
But theres plenty of sources of income for SC, and the existing sources are far from exhausted as it was oddly implied.
- August was the most successful month outside of the significant sale months, with nearly $4.5m raised (FWIW, those significant months are Oct, Nov & Dec
).
- We hit 1m citizens Oct 2015. We added another 0.5m in the 11mo that followed.
- In that 11mo timeframe, we've had 2.0 and other Mini-PU updates to help explain that spike.
- In whats left of 2016, and in 2017, we've got 3.0 which takes that mini PU and gives us a full-size system and planets we can fly down land on, and we're expecting Squadron 42. Theres absolutely no way we saturated the market on SC/SQ players getting to this point, because so many have been on the fence, waiting for something properly playable, or flat out waiting to see if its for real and achievable. As far as gamers are concerned, theres significantly more to come, we've barely dipped our toe in the water as far as what we have vs even a modest game would give you (i still dont class this current build as a 'game' but as a segment of one, its a very impressive tech demo still).
The next 3 months i'd be very surprised if we didnt see it hit $135, probably 140m, but this is not the community to be implying that because we've already pledged, we wont throw more money at it
We could gain no new members and hit $130m by years end comfortably IMO ($10m in Q4).
In terms of future income sources:
- We've got single player campaign DLC already planned (2 additional 'episodes') and F42UK are moving straight onto that when they're done with SQ42/Ep1. I'd be surprised if most people who'd pledged already and have SQ42 wouldnt be the type to also buy its DLC in the future.
- We already have insignificant subscriptions, optional ways to contribute without getting anything divisive in return. Its not a fixed income from every player, but a trickle that'll add up.
- We already have 'microtransactions', they're all priced in UEC because you'll be able to buy it all in-game using game currency either using the website or in-game. They wont sell something for USD that UEC cant buy you in-game, but people will spend cash in order to buy them im sure, which leads on to...
- To balance the 'cash rich, time poor' with people who are 'cash poor, time rich' there will be the ability to buy UEC (its there now) to supplement your limited ability to earn it in-game yourself, but it'll be limited amounts over a certain time-period.
Hopefully it'll be done with an assessment of how much you've earned lately, so if you've earned say 1m UEC in the last week, and want to buy 50k UEC, *hopefully* the game will say GTFO you dont need assistance. I cant recall if this has been confirmed, but time will tell whether this route exists to maximise income or to support people with busy lives. Rockstar made $500m selling currency in GTA Online though.
- Depending on the success of the game, brand licensing could be a small or huge source of income, CIG have said before they regularly get requests but dont want to commit to anything yet (id imagine because the brand is worth far more if it becomes a huge success). They're already selling physical goods on a very small scale purely because people ask for it, but thats an area to exploit better in the future.
Those are the extra sources of income the game can use to survive beyond release, to support continued development. Im confident there's TWICE the amount of money out there between now and say 1mo after the games release, and that'll easily cover development. Beyond that, it all depends on what they've spent by then, and the sort of income the game is having.
