Cloud Imperium Games’ stream showing off Star Citizen’s Siege of Orison mission went so badly that its own host ended it with “It’s your show. Wrap it up” — and the recording is still online for everyone to see.
The August 5 episode of the weekly Star Citizen Live was meant to restore some confidence. Siege of Orison, a co-op mission, had been delayed by a month, and its build on the public test server was struggling with performance problems. So the developers played on an internal build instead.
“What we decided to do today is show you the intended design,” said content director Jared Huckaby at the start of the stream.
What happened on the Star Citizen stream
The intended design did not cooperate. Over roughly 90 minutes, the developers struggled with their own weapons, failed to swap them, lost inventory items and worked through a string of bugs, per IGN. The low point came at the end: after the party wiped, the room fell silent, one developer told a teammate to “kill himself” — amended, after a beat, to “in game” — and Huckaby walked over to Olli, the developer running the stream, with “It’s your show. Wrap it up.”
How fans reacted
The audience noticed. Comments under the stream described it as “incredibly awkward, cringe, forced, slightly sinister feeling at times,” with one viewer adding “felt like a hostage video.” A Reddit thread that broke down the bugs the team hit thanked CIG for the exposure: “You accidentally gave the community the most honest look at Star Citizen in months.” Kotaku reports fans were baffled that the studio left the VOD up.
A game still in early access
Star Citizen has been in development since 2012 and has raised more than $1 billion through crowdfunding, the first game to pass that milestone. It remains in early access, with no launch date — a state that has drawn its own backlash before. The build the developers played on stream, the one that was supposed to work, still has not reached the public test server.
What is the Siege of Orison mission in Star Citizen?
Siege of Orison is a co-op mission where players retake Crusader’s Orison platforms from the Nine Tails gang. Cloud Imperium reworked it with a new instancing system, but the remake was delayed by a month over performance problems.
Why did the Star Citizen developer stream go badly?
The developers played an internal build on a private server to show how the mission is ‘supposed to work’, but still hit weapon and inventory bugs, wiped after about 90 minutes, and the host ended the stream abruptly with ‘It’s your show. Wrap it up.’
When will Star Citizen be released?
There is no launch date. Star Citizen has been in development since 2012 and has raised more than $1 billion in crowdfunding, but remains in early access.
