Hacker News Reader

Comment by vunderba | Hacker News Reader

There's not a lot of transparency around their funding - and the only indication that they've raised $700+ million is... their own website.

They also claim around 5 million backers which puts the average donation at around 150 dollars. That seems really high.

From the wikipedia article, the next highest game is Prison Architect at a comparatively paltry 20 million.

It's still possible. On the other hand, it could all be completely PR bull crap since there's no way to audit them.

View on HN

They have to file accurate statements with the UK government re some R&D tax incentives they claim; you can have a look at those filings on companies house. They lag the website but broadly align.

+ the $750m only includes ship sales. If you include other revenue (subscriptions) and investors, they are likely at $900m+ now.

The only thing I could find in their filing history was from 2022 for their full accounts - revenue at that time as hovering around 50mil USD.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c...

EDIT: From Companies House Next accounts made up to 31 December 2023 due by 31 December 2024.

So I guess we'll find out in roughly a month.

> average donation at around 150 dollars. That seems really high.

Check out the store, its absurd what they are able to charge for completely digital assets that don't even exist in game yet

DCS has the same model, and I think it's a fair price considering how much work goes into these assets.

they sell virtual spaceships for thousands of dollars, i know a guy who bought several of them like 8 years ago. if he represents the average star citizen supporter (in the sense of being willing and eager to pay more money into a game you've already paid for, for rewards that don't actually exist, in a game that shows absolutely zero promise of ever actually releasing), i believe it.

I think this really illustrates how the scale of the gaming community is hard to reason about. $750 million sounds like a lot but when there are individuals willing to spend thousands of dollars apiece that only needs a core community measured in the hundreds of thousands, whereas AAA games sell tens of millions of copies in a given quarter. That’s still far from easy to do, but it suggests that we’ll see this happen periodically when someone hits the right combination for an underserved niche.

I guess never underestimate the whales of a game. Reminds me of how virtual real estate in Linden Labs metaverse game of Second Life has sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Just absurd.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com