I know this is PR spin, but I like his logic about number of active users vs. install base. The Wii sold 100 million consoles in its lifetime and I'd argue that 75% of those collected dust after the 2nd time they were powered on. By install base, the Wii was insanely successful, but from an active users standpoint, not so much.
@ccgod: I'm not at all saying it's a scam and I agree he has the credibility and he's not going to tarnish that. But the degree of feature creep would be unsettling to someone who backed the game. Heck, I haven't backed the game but I can't wait to play it in its "finished" form. It just seems like there's a lot of "Wouldn't it be cool if we did this!" and those people usually go on to make great games, but often need someone to say "Yes it would, but let's button this up first."
That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying Roberts is a criminal or anything like so many others are.
I'm not sure that Roberts is doing anything differently than what other devs do, but the business model is somewhat untested and therefore untrustworthy. If Roberts wants to have the biggest, most definitive space sim ever, he's going to have to hype the game to get the backers, whereas a publisher already has the resources to fund the devs. Since this project is grown to such proportions (with little delivery but endless alphas), I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to be skeptical.
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