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Despite already earning a whopping $168 million from its crowdfunding efforts, developer Cloud Imperium is looking to expand its income for Star Citizen. Now, it is offering plots of in-game land to try and generate more money, acting almost like the players own base.
These microtransactions are claim licenses in which owners are entitled to a small section of land on a planet, moon or asteroid controlled by the UEE. These cost £48/$50 for a 4km x 4km or the bigger 8km x 8km for £96/$100.
Each plot of land comes with a ‘Geotrack Marking Beacon’ that allows players to easily make their way back home, while also alerting them to intruders that have entered the territory. This hints that there will be some form of raid and protection needed for bases, however just how much maintenance that will be required is yet to be revealed.
It is hinted that maintenance will be lesser for those owning a base than those who have unofficially claimed a plot of land for mining, as an example, as those that hold claim licenses will be protected by the UEE. Anyone that chooses to commit the serious crime of trespassing, mining on your land or destroying your beacon will have to face the security sent out by the protecting body. This helps keep any outpost you build safe.
There are currently “billions of kilometres” available to purchase across “millions of locations,” and while this might stir fears of pay-to-win elements, Cloud Imperium assures players that licenses to land hold no advantage over those who choose not to buy into it. These licenses can also be bought with in-game currency, which the developer touts will be on “equal footing,” provided the player has enough UEC in the first place.
It is difficult to tell what implications these licenses hold for the game aside from the generation of a lot more money. On one hand, it seems like a well thought out system for the ease of players but on the other hand, that’s a lot of money and usually expensive microtransactions would be a complete grind to achieve with in-game currency.
KitGuru Says: Part of me has trouble agreeing with more microtransactions this early on in development, particularly when access to what players would be buying is restricted until the feature launches properly. How do you feel about pumping more money into Star Citizen?
In the previous test phase of the game (2.6.3) i made 100.000 ingame credits in just 2-3 days of playing. Since CIG sells 1000 ingame credits for $1, we can assume i couldve bought 2 small or 1 large land claim with that. That is 2-3 days of doing missions and dogfighting, not actual ‘grinding’ (though admittedly, due to the limited amount of missions in 2.6.3, you couldve considered it such). If things stay like that, you can earn one of these claims after a couple days of having fun, and save yourself $100.
I’m not cool with this. It adds to that bought elitism that a lot of people feel the game has, as well as creating yet another round of (justified), “Where is all our money if you need this?”, questions. Now add on rthat they call £96 a “micro”…transaction, and it all stinks a bit.
They don’t NEED to make these. They want to because they know they can make money.
ah, they realized there was another way to be a scummy publisher.
ah, they realized there was another way to be a scummy publisher.
I cashed out most of my investment at the start of this year. Just kept the initial pledge and starter ship (about 40USD for the exchange rate at the time). Increasingly it’s become a game that I’m no longer massively interested in, but live in hope there’ll be enough of what I like to keep me entertained; but they’re not getting any more of my money.
That is kinda my secondary point mate.
Nothing that can be obtained by ingame money can be available by microtransactions and nothing that is available by microtransactions can be obtained by ingame money – If it hapens is the end of pleasure on any game, just like what is hapoening at an ridiculous fast pace on GTA V online – It’s pure logic – You can’t sell by microtransactions if players are happy enough with the ingame income vs products value ratio – The only way you get people to buy into microtransactions is to make their lifes miserable by grinding too much to get too less – Simple market logic – You just can’t bring a hungry cat and a fluffy hamster on one same transport box – No rocket science, any other speculation about this is pure illusion