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Cloud Imperium is OK with Star Citizen's grey market
If you think Cloud Imperium charges a lot for Star Citizen's spaceships, you should see what some of the "rarer" ones are going for on the game's grey market. Eurogamer has published a look behind the curtain of the space sim's secondary item sales, including interview snippets with a couple of middlemen who have made significant amounts of real-world money by facilitating digital spaceship swaps. In many cases, the perceived value of a Star Citizen spaceship is tied to whether or not it has lifetime insurance, which was originally offered to backers during the game's early crowdfunding days. Cloud Imperium says that the insurance will function as a convenience item instead of a must-have in the final game, but that hasn't stopped speculators and collectors from paying a premium for LTI-equipped ships, even though some of them can't be used in Star Citizen's currently available hangar and dogfighting modules. Eurogamer reports that CIG and Chris Roberts have "no desire" to interfere in the trading of pretend spaceships for real cash.
Stick and Rudder: What if Star Citizen fails?
As Star Citizen's crowdfunding totals spiral ever higher, so too do the cries of the naysayers, negative nancies, and the ne'er-do-wells who seemingly exist to rain on the space sim sandbox's parade. Some of this hand-wringing is probably justified since with each new stretch goal, fan expectations for SC increase exponentially. Regardless, what the game has already accomplished is worth celebrating, and two of the most common reasons I've seen cited for remaining skeptical simply don't make sense.
