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posted by mrpg on Thursday July 19 2018, @01:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the 200-million???? dept.

Motherboard:

Back in 2012, developer Roberts Space Industries (RSI) launched a Kickstarter asking for money to fund Star Citizen—an ambitious space game in the mold of Wing Commander. It's 2018, and while parts of the game are playable in various forms, it's far from achieving what it set out to accomplish. So far, it's collected more than $200 million in funding from fans eager to play it.

Ken Lord was one of those fans, and an early backer of Star Citizen. He's got a Golden Ticket, a mark on his account that singles him out as an early member of the community. In April of 2013, Lord pledged $4,496 to the project. Five years later, the game still isn't out, and Lord wants his money back. RSI wouldn't refund it, so Lord took the developer to small-claims court in California.

It's a simple case of an investor who's upset he didn't get his money back, isn't it?


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  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday July 20 2018, @02:53PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday July 20 2018, @02:53PM (#709945) Journal

    You may side with him. I'm sympathetic, slightly, to him. But failure to deliver an advertised product only applies to an investor if the investor has promised certain specifications absolutely and has no out clause. "But depending on the funding levels reached, we may have to limit the experience for the initially released game version." The experience won't necessarily be as promised. That's their out. Sucks, but maybe the investor should have asked for more specific promises, in writing, before investing any considerable sum.

    Also, a reasonable investor might expect that a produced product does not necessarily match the initial specifications. Whether the current product was an apple when they were promised an orange, or an Apple when the were promised a PC, or an Apple when they were promised a rocket car may be a matter for a court. It's arguable, but it doesn't automatically hold up that they don't have it.

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