A disastrous Star Citizen livestream has gone viral for all the wrong reasons, showcasing buggy gameplay and uncomfortable tension among staff members. The stream, which aired earlier this month, was intended to showcase a new mission called Siege Of Orison, a revamp of an older mission, but technical issues plagued the demonstration.
Buggy Gameplay and Hostile Interactions
Cloud Imperium Games, the developer behind Star Citizen, hosted the livestream to show fans the intended design of the mission. However, the gameplay was glitchy throughout, even on a private server, and the visual quality was poor. The stream became even more uncomfortable to watch due to apparent hostility between team members, with one staff member named Elliot singled out by YouTube commenters for an aggressive attitude toward content manager Oliver Hull, who joined the team in June.
By the end of the stream, the team failed to complete the mission and had to wrap up due to time constraints. Content director Jared Huckaby, who introduced the stream, told Hull, "It's your show, wrap it up," leaving Hull to awkwardly make closing remarks about the fun they had playing the game.
Community Reaction and Fallout
The stream has since broken out of the Star Citizen community and is being shared by prominent YouTubers such as MoistCr1TiKaL. Viewer comments have been harsh, with one top comment joking, "Go easy on the dev team, it was probably the first time they've actually played the game." Another commenter described it as "incredibly awkward, cringe, forced, slightly sinister feeling at times, and the local server gameplay was still terrible. No one was having fun here. Felt like a hostage video."
Cloud Imperium Games has not issued a comment addressing the stream's content, but it has announced its presence at Gamescom next week, where it will hold a community event. The game, which has raised over $1 billion through crowdfunding since its early access launch in 2017, continues to face criticism over its prolonged development and microtransactions, with the most expensive spaceship costing over $1,000.
