“Star Citizen is in it’s yearly slump before Citizencon. Ships, patches and communication have all been pretty dull this year. I don’t think it has to be this way, but Starfield is probably playing a large part.”
The speaker discusses the current state of Star Citizen, observing a substantial decrease in excitement surrounding the game compared to past years. He posits this is due to numerous reasons; firstly, a shift in approach to ship sales at Cloud Imperium Games (CIG). Instead of focusing on concept ships with grand designs and features, CIG is now focusing on small ships and ground vehicles, which are less appealing to players. However, the speaker also acknowledges that these small ships seem to be a better approach, decreasing the timeframe between concept and release.
Secondly, the speaker reflects on the lack of engaging new patches. Despite new additions such as persistent entity streaming and salvage being a “technical game changer”, the speaker suggests they haven’t transformed gameplay in a significant way. Additionally, he mentions patch 3.20, which appears to be lacking in substantial content updates that could drive player engagement and interactions within the persistent universe.
The speaker also critiques CIG’s communication strategy, noting a significant drop-off in updates about the development progress. Important updates such as information about server meshing and the move to Colo for CitizenCon, amongst others, have been sparse. The speaker conveys dissatisfaction about this lack of communication, which has resulted in players being less engaged and interested in the project.
Then, the speaker speculates about the reason behind CIG’s reserved approach to updates; a possible plan to ride the wave of Bethesda’s upcoming “Starfield” release. In this hypothetical scenario, CIG would wait for the initial hype and interest in Starfield to drop before piquing people’s interest with a large amount of content during CitizenCon to capture the attention of players and potentially gain new followers.
In closing, the speaker expresses dissatisfaction with this ‘feast and famine’ model of marketing and communication. The speaker suggests that the audience would prefer a consistent, measured approach, with a steady pace of engaging updates throughout the year. Despite the success of their current strategies according to key performance indicators, the speaker questions whether this is beneficial for the community.