A cringe-inducing livestream for Star Citizen has broken containment and is giving non-fans an unflattering look into how the developer works.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re at all familiar with the name Star Citizen, it\u2019s likely because you\u2019ve heard it described as the most expensive video game ever made. As of this May, the budget has exceeded $1 billion thanks to crowdfunding, which could make it higher than even GTA 6\u2019s estimated budget.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, you\u2019ve heard of Star Citizen because of its negative reputation. After its early access launch in 2017, a damning 2019 report alleged developer Cloud Imperium Games was beset by \u2018incompetence and mismanagement on a galactic scale.\u2019 It\u2019s still yet to see a proper launch and yet it continues selling microtransactions (well, we say microtransactions, the most expensive spaceship is over $1,000).<\/p>\n
Now, the game and studio\u2019s notoriety have only worsened thanks to a disastrous livestream that demonstrated how buggy an upcoming mission is and the uncomfortable tension amongst staff members.<\/p>\n
For context, Star Citizen is meant to be adding a new mission called Siege Of Orison (though it\u2019s technically a revamp of an older mission from a few years back) but it was postponed because of technical issues.<\/p>\n
No doubt in an effort to get fans excited, Cloud Imperium Games opted to host a livestream featuring some of its own team members playing through the mission to show, as content director Jared Huckaby says, \u2018the intended design\u2019 and \u2018how it\u2019s supposed to work.\u2019<\/p>\n
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If you\u2019re averse to cringe, we\u2019d recommend skipping the stream because it is borderline uncomfortable to watch, since the gameplay is very glitchy throughout, despite running on a private server, and it doesn\u2019t look very good anyway.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s worse is the hostility between team members. Perhaps some of it is born out of frustration with playing a clearly buggy game while being livestreamed, but the general vibe is that nobody seems to like one another.<\/p>\n
The YouTube comments single out one team member named Elliot as having an aggressive attitude and taking potshots at content manager Oliver Hull, who only joined the team in June.<\/p>\n
By the end of it, the team isn\u2019t able to complete the mission and are forced to wrap up since their time has run out. It\u2019s at this point that Huckaby, despite being the one to introduce the stream, approaches Hull and tells him \u2018It\u2019s your show, wrap it up,\u2019 leaving him to very awkwardly make some closing remarks about what a good time they most certainly had playing the game.<\/p>\n
The stream aired earlier this month and we\u2019re honestly shocked Cloud Imperium has left it up, since it provides a very unflattering insight into the studio and its work culture.<\/p>\n
While nothing can be completely scrubbed from the internet, doing so might have helped keep it contained to the Star Citizen community, but it\u2019s now broken out and is being shared and discussed by prominent YouTubers such as MoistCr1TiKaL.<\/p>\n
\u2018Go easy on the dev team, it was probably the first time they\u2019ve actually played the game,\u2019 reads the top comment by tomsbasement4884.<\/p>\n
\u2018Incredibly awkward, cringe, forced, slightly sinister feeling at times, and the local server gameplay was still terrible. No one was having fun here. Felt like a hostage video,\u2019 says tomato6460.<\/p>\n