Star Citizen Introducing a $48,000 Ship Bundle, but Only for Players Who Have Already Spent $10,000 - IGN
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Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is releasing a ship bundle for its controversial space simulator that costs an eye-watering $48,000.

Star Citizen Introducing a $48,000 Ship Bundle, but Only for Players Who Have Already Spent $10,000::Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is releasing a ship bundle for its controversial space simulator that costs an eye-watering $48,000.

  • Xavier@lemmy.caEnglish
    505·
    10 months ago

    I wonder if games that require such farfetched amounts of money should be included in the Luxury tax?

    A lot of those “whales” have cognitive difficulties and/or gambling addictions issues. Since many if these game developers/publishers have no qualm blindly milking and profiteering. It should be no surprise if some sort of tax is levied to help societies (à-la-tobacco or sugar tax) attenuate the ravages of gambling addictions.

    Moreover, Star Citizen has been released over 10 years ago while been continually updated.

    At what point is it just senseless greed that has taken over the game?

    • lagomorphlecture@lemm.eeEnglish
      8·
      10 months ago

      It’s one thing to drop a few bucks here and there into a game you enjoy but when you start spending 10k on a fuckin game you have a serious issue. Even if you’re ultra wealthy, do you really have nothing else you could waste that money on? I think it’s time for a serious crackdown on predatory gaming.

    • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      91·
      10 months ago

      It’s been a demo for over 10 years, not a game.

      Games have story, star citizen is a glorified tech demo as far as I am concerned.

        • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          3·
          10 months ago

          I boufh a ship beginning of 2014 just to test it out, worst $200 (supposed to get a usb ship, bunch of squadron 42 stuff)

          And most games have a point, the only point to star citizen is for YOU to spend money

    • CulturedLout@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      10 months ago

      Luxury tax doesn’t apply to dealers/retailers. It would just get piled on the final user. Which would be fine for the “richer than god” types, but not so great for some poor bastard with an addiction who can’t help themselves.

      • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        You’re right, in that the customer would pay the tax. But also its not like they could be charging an extra 20% and be getting more money. They will have put significant effort and research into finding out what the optimal level of pricing is to get the most grift, which means the fall in “sales” from putting things at a higher price would outweigh the increased profit. I’d rather them scam less and let the government get at least a slice of it. Though really, more regulation to stop this kind of exploitation would be better.

          • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Oh look you’re now stalking me though comments and decided I’m a libertarian. In some places more regulation is good, in others poor regulation is bad. For example placing regulations on when unions are allowed to strike is an example of bad regulation, is that ok with you? Or would you rather I just played into your fantasy of techno-bro and just say “government bad, ubermen smash!” more?

    • Heavybell@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      That level of buy-in is not required. You can get a game package with a single starter pack for US$40. The one in the article includes every variant of every vehicle currently in the game or in development or announced as planned. IMO it’s for people who just want to support development because it literally removes a bunch of reasons to even play.

      It’s hard to definitively say if greed has taken over or if they’re just trying to fund development as legitimately as possible without a publisher. They have done some groundbreaking things (64 bit coordinate system, object container streaming, etc) and are working in more (replication layer, server meshing, etc). That is why it has been so long and expensive, why the game is still alpha.