Star Citizen adds disclaimer for sales of ‘concept ships’ following ASA complaint

Star Citizen has been in development for a long time, with Cloud Imperium Games continuing to crowdfund the game through the sale of ships, many of which are still ‘concepts' and not actually in the game yet. Now, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has stepped in, forcing CIG to make it clearer which ships exist, and which ones are still in the concept phase.

The complaint was submitted to the ASA earlier this year following a marketing email from the Star Citizen team, which pushed people to buy the Gatac Railen, an alien concept ship that was leaving the store after a limited time. The problem is, the ship doesn't actually exist in-game yet, something that the email failed to make clear, although it was listed as a concept ship.

Due to this, the ASA has stepped in and now, future marketing emails for Star Citizen ships will include a disclaimer, warning potential customers which ships are ‘concepts' and not viewable or playable in-game yet. Since the team is following the ASA's advisory notice, there will not be a full investigation at this time.

The new disclaimer is already in place and reads: “The Crusader Ares (Inferno and Ion), A2 Hercules, Genesis Starliner, are being offered here as a limited vehicle concept pledge. This means that the vehicle is in development but is not yet ready to display in your Hangar or fly in Star Citizen. It will be available as playable content in a later patch. In the future, the vehicle price may increase and Lifetime Insurance or any extras may not be available.”

As pointed out by Eurogamer, Star Citizen is still in alpha and there has been no release date announced. So far, the game has raised over $350 million for development.

KitGuru Says: If some of these ships end up being scrapped and don't make it into the game, then there should be cause for a more thorough investigation, but for now, this new disclaimer appears to be enough to avoid legal issues. 

Become a Patron!