When 200 decommissioned Javelin Destroyers went up for sale for $2,500 each, they sold out in less than a minute. For interstellar mercenaries in the United Empire of Earth Navy—or for the avid users roleplaying as them in Star Citizen, the space sim video game created by Chris Roberts—that deal was hard to resist.
But given that the Star Citizen may not be released for years, buyers of the Destroyers—and all those other fans who have collectively donated $100 million on the game’s crowdfunding page—are just supporting a dream. Each donation, whether $96 (the average amount) or $22,500 from superfans like Wulf Knight, allows for new facets of a game world that doesn’t exist yet: a hangar for the imaginary spaceships, distinct alien languages, an interstellar public transit system.
So, is Roberts, who pioneered the space sim genre with Wing Commander in 1990, a snake-oil salesman or the savior of real PC gaming? Is the crowdfunding strategy a viable alternative to the restrictions of big studio productions, or a long con? WIRED’s Chris Baker investigates.
