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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?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ledow on Thursday July 19 2018, @01:47PM (13 children)
If you have $4,496 to waste on a game, you have enough to get a proper lawyer when suing for that back, not walk into court unfamiliar with legal process and how to argue that kind of case.
That's probably enough money to buy every game I've ever owned in my entire life, and I'm quite a gamer.
To waste that amount on a "pre-order" or anything even approaching crowdfunding, for a single product is a significant risk.
And what did you get over someone who paid the minimum? Junk and a gold star and no game.
I've backed a number of things , I was an ED backer. Boy, was that a waste of money. I've literally not played it since the 2nd/3rd day I got it. And they fulfilled all their promises. But I only lost a pittance of my gaming "pocket money" each month. I honestly can't imagine dropping that amount of money on ANYTHING with checking heavily first, and certainly not for a single video game.
People are insane.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:00PM (2 children)
Where is the profit in hiring a lawyer over a matter of $4,500? Unless you know you can get punitive damages, you are better off saying goodbye to that money (or continuing to wait for your overpriced DLC game).
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:27PM (1 child)
Small claims court?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 19 2018, @09:25PM
That's exactly where he went. But GP had said:
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:37PM (3 children)
All the legal arguments CIG applied to Ken Lord apply to me, another Concierge level, Golden Ticket holding, Original Backer, but other than a cursory push-back from support I had no issues getting a full refund of my pledges including those made after the introduction of the arbitration clause, but not of my few years of subscriptions which I think is fair enough since they delivered everything they promised on those. IIRC, a total of six emails were sent back and forth (two of which were to confirm the refund payment details) and done. I don't have MS, but I did make all the other arguments he did; all the change of scope, that the game was no longer what I backed for, etc. The only real difference seems to be that I cited an EU consumer protection law (CIG has two EU offices, so they're bound by this) that, in my IANAL reading, seems to have CIG bang to rites on all refund requests made by EU residents provided that they are made within six years of the original pledge and CIG have not yet delivered what was advertised - and given all the changes in scope, I don't see how they can possibly *ever* meet the latter requirement. No actual threats of court action; just evidence I'd looked into my rights and they caved in immediately. Just stronger EU consumer legislation FTW, perhaps?
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:58PM (1 child)
Or maybe he posted a negative review of the game (so far) somewhere? #hahaonlyserious
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Thursday July 19 2018, @04:18PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @10:43PM
They recently didn't offer refund anymore, though I'm not sure about the order of event on this one.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:41PM
Elite: Dangerous?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday July 19 2018, @04:40PM
> I was an ED backer.
There's a blue pill for that, and it ain't $4496
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:20PM (3 children)
Didn't they promise an offline single player mode? Their complete abandonment of such a feature was enough to convince me to never get that game.
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:36PM (2 children)
Are you thinking of Squadron 42?
I remember when they mentioned they had all these big names a couple years back. There's footage of Gillian Anderson doing some motion capture, and I suppose Admiral Bishop's (Gary Oldman) speech in the UEE senate is worth a watch. News about SQ42 has really gone dark since. afaik, it's still a thing.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:51PM (1 child)
Not heard of that. ED = Elite Dangerous
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:53PM
Ah, my bad.