Star Citizen Adds Disclaimer to Ship Pre-Orders After Fan Complaint
Simulation of the future MMO SpaceStar CitizenFans has been promised a lot over the years. Now, one bold marketing strategy appears to be backfiring. A disgruntled fan complained about the lack of transparency to the UK Advertising Standards Authority. Star citizen disclaimer has been added to its promotional emails.
Star Citizen is setting crowdfunding records despite the game still not having a concrete release date set. Cloud Imperium Games sends out marketing and promotional emails to raise money for the game. Redditor Mazty became fed up with delays and misinformation and reported the Getac railing promo email to the UK Advertising Standards Authority. The email didn’t mention the ship’s cost or that it “doesn’t exist and might never exist” in actuality.
Star Citizen allows players to buy pledge ships. These are currently in-progress vessels that will be sold to help fund development. The ships were not in usable condition at the time they were sold. This is why the ASA reprimanded the developers. Star Citizen will now have to be more transparent with their promises, even though it comes in the form of a disclaimer.
Matty was informed by the ASA that they would take action. The developers quickly modified the promo email to include a disclaimer clarifying this situation. All concept ships available for purchase will now include a disclaimer letting backers know that the Star Citizen ships are still in development but not yet ready to be used. According to reports, the preorder ships are expected to be added to the game in a later patch.
This development was greeted with dismay by other fans as of writing. Star Citizen is already one of the most expensive games ever made, and it seems that many fans have grown disillusioned with the lack of progress made. One user called Mazty their hero for taking action against misleading marketing materials for Star Citizen. Another user suggested Mazty contact the ASA about Star Citizen’s promotional videos. Still, they didn’t mention any particular offenses or omissions in the videos that could require the ASA to know.
