As for money required to finish game is hard to predict because SC internals are not known that well.
But they will need considerable money to keep servers running and continue development.
I just don't see how.
Neither do I.
Not without either massive cuts or efficiency savings.
The problem is two fold.
First....CIG appears to have a monthly spend of about $3 million. Even allowing that "The 400" contains a higher ratio of artists and other staff to devs doesn't affect the bill that much...they still require PCs and software licenses, buildings still require rent and power, they still have pension rights and more. It may even be worse...a lot of devs seem to say a big bottleneck is art and artists are in demand.
Unfortunately for CIG, the average month of fundraising takes in less than $3 million and that's been true for some time. Meaning, CIG are eating into their reserve. They'll perhaps be able to cut staff in Germany once their engine is complete....but theiŕ engine isn't AND they need decent networking and server and AI specialists.
The second part of the problem is that they have raised an impressive $160 million and more and climbing...but their financials and other information suggest a total spend approaching $110 million. That gives CIG a reserve of $50 million, less refunds.
As any dev will tell you, game development is expensive. ESPECIALLY developing an AAA game. That $50 million sounds like a lot of money. But in terms of AAA game development?
It has to cover the monthly fund raising shortfall for at least three or four years. Currently, that seems to be about 0.5 - 0.75 million a month.
If that were just the only output, it might get by.
BUT...it also has to pay for marketing...also has to pay to publish the game...also has to pay hosting and maintenance costs.
Now.....SC could get buy with a minimal marketing campaign and rely on press interest and word of mouth. However, it has already had those in spades over the past few years. Anyone those aspects could reach who is likely to pay likely already has done so. CIG need sales, they need new blood and they need more people to pay into the game...meaning they need a marketing campaign that reaches beyond magazine articles and word of mouth. That requires money.
It could opt for a low key publication...but they've already made promises, they need the marketing and it'll cost money to do so regardless.
And hosting is expensive. However, they might be able to work out a deal with Amazon to reduce their costs. But a single universe where everyone is present and which handles instances of up to 1000 players? There are ways in which the data can be optimised. But that will still require pretty hefty server hardware, strong networking links with certain bandwidth requirements and decent netcode and server meshing technologies. Technologies which CIG do not appear to have even started to develop. Nor do they seem to have even considered intercontinental lag or other problems
And that isn't forgetting the impact on the users end systems. How much bandwith will an EUs PC require?
In short, all of this requires money. Bit if we assume the best case scenario that CIG needs to set aside just $15 million for marketing and hosting, has a current buffer of $50 million and needs to cover a shortfall of 0.5 million a month, it still has sufficient reserve for nearly 6 years.
But being blunt, CIG could spend that reserve on marketing alone and without knowing what their actual requirements are...which will require knowing what their net and server code can do...CIG can't really plan on how much they need for hosting. A game optimised to run on three servers and require 1 network link will be far cheaper than a game which requires 100 servers and 30 links.
And it doesn't appear likely that CIG can voluntarily reduce its spending by cutting costs. Getting rid of staff will simply cut the monthly bill but at the expense of duration. Removing a development site will simply cut power and rent costs. Hiring out to third parties is dangerous until the game engine is finalised.
The bright spot is that there is nothing on CIGs feature list that is new or impossible. Much if not all of what they promise can be done....assuming players PCs and network links are strong enough. If CIG simply connected the modules they have now and expanded it into a single system, they'd have a decent beginning.
It wouldn't be the game we were promised, but barring something drastic or news that the financial analysis is wrong because the devs are literally code monkeys workings for peanuts, the game we were promised seems dead.
If only because CIG doesn't have the money it needs to fund development AND market the game AND publish the game AND host the game.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
