The future of gaming looks bright and gamers looking for a space adventure have never been at a more privileged time to enjoy it. Most Hardcore gamers like myself (with limited time) will continue to play Star Citizen's Alpha and Squadron 42 when released. I like many have enjoyed No Man's Sky among other games and also will look forward to Starfield. Starfield will most likely launch with bugs but it is what it is these days. So to the point. Starfield though may not be a direct competitor to Start Citizen's Alpha, or Squadron 42 (Release TBA), it is however a competitor for time within the genre. Like most entertainment and live service games that Star Citizen aims to shoot for, time is the 1st most important resource it seeks from it's current and future audience followed by pledges/war bonds. I make that point to highlight that the more time players play the game, the more money generated long term rather than short bursts of spending from a temporary marketing campaign that walks head first into bugs. Players want to feel their time is respected will spend more as appreciation and further commitment to the game/project. Squadron 42 needs to launch by Summer or Fall in 2024 to stay relevant and finally pull its own weight in funding the project that is Star Citizen. When other studios see Starfield's success, they will aim to make their own as many did after Skyrim and the whole Battle Royal trend a few years ago. CIG needs to compete for the time of the casual gamer to feed the beast and pay the bills. Hardcore gamers of Star Citizen can't alone keep it a float, there isn't enough of us to do so anymore. CIG has grown a lot and require a lot more backers. Economics 101.You have to spend money to make money, but you also need to make sure you are making enough money to continue. People who see the 500+ million and use that as an argument, don't know how money works. CIG doesn't have 500 million on hand. They might have several millions along with investors and some debt to be sure, but i am also sure they known how important the casual gamer is to their bottom line and long term success. The casual gamer I would argue makes up for 60% or more in most games while the minority being the min/maxers who will set the bar of the most game play loops most players will only witness and aim for. The challenge CIG faces with more competition entering the space game market, is not one of a fully realistic space sim like Star Citizen, but rather space games that scratch enough of an itch for casual gamers. When comparisons made that Starfield is Skyrim in space, it makes me excited and should make CIG a bit worried. I myself like many others still play Skyrim to this day and call it one of the best games of all time. If Starfield is Skyrim in space, it can easily get that title for the next decade too and over shadow Star Citizen not on engineering or scope, but consensus among the community due to ease of use and RPG elements. Casual gamers will also enjoy the fact that Starfield will enjoy countless community mods and official expansions like the other games seriously extending the life and growth of the community. What is CIG's response to that? Time sinks are what will drive my prediction that Star Citizen will be take a hit from Starfield an future space games, yet how much it yet to be determined. If casuals experience Starfield in a positive light and set that game as the bar, CIG will have a hard time attracting them for long term commitment rather than short bursts a few times a year. As a working dad, i only have a few hours to play a day on anything and time management for fun is critical. Starfield is undoubtedly getting me excited to play an unreasonable amount of time. The last time i felt that way was in November of 2022 waiting for Persistent Entity Streaming to be released and telling myself all the cool things that will come from it. Now 8 months or so later, i have been greatly disappointed in the roll out and wasted time/potential to use PES for other key features like 30k crash protections and the potential to spawn back where you logged out from rather than back in a city or space station (like WTF!). The casual gamer will undoubtedly enjoy Starfield and look over to Star Citizen's progress on a check basis to see how things changed, but if they keep hearing about more bugs and more time passed that Dynamic Server Meshing (Not Server Meshing Lite or Static Server Meshing) is not implemented, people will stay away. I wanted to add that when the casual player hears from the ship team that Size 3 components will require dry dock, WTF. I personally as a hardcore player even say, dude just make it doable with the multi-tool. even from the outside the side if necessary. The more time sinks for the sake of time sinks not only pushed casuals away, but also just annoy the core audience. Ship wait timers should be removed, period. Playing a game and being told to wait 45 mins to play the game makes me feel that i am full of "copium" from consent gaslighting and that isnt a good place to have your audience in a a developer. Seems unsustainable. If you rely on your player based to be consistently patient and taking it on the chin. Casuals wont even bother engaging and will just mock the Star Citizen community which presents more problems of its own. Casuals will want to just log in continue where they left off and come back later. If the player is forced to start from 0 every time, no one will engage long term. If a player does not bed log in their ship, they should still spawn in where they left off in their ship. Even if you have to remove collisions till the player moves for the first time when spawned in to avoid other players or NPC being in the way. Simple shit can go a long way in a Space Sim. Not everything needs to be Sim. Simple quality of life brings happiness, and happiness makes for more game time and more commitment. Short term Star Citizen excitement will come from the features highlighted in 3.20 which might release around Starfield's launch timeline, and with that said should put pressure on CIG to released a great patch with minimal bugs to look competitive during that time. Others i predict include: The next short term burst of excitement i see is Pyro's release if it is in fact not tied to Server Meshing as rumors predict. I would prefer it not be tied to it and i am more than happy having a loading screen as i would imagine others would too till something smoother comes along as CIG wants. I dont see Dynamic server meshing released in the next 2 years. Call me salty or conditioned. Persistence if fixed and done right. The release of the Polaris. I personally cant wait for the communities excitement for this ship. We will have a blast spamming size 12 torpedoes at everything that moves. Especially at Jump Town, Zeno Threat (When fixed), and now Ghost Hollow. The Perseus (my personal favorite) and Galaxy will also see excitement in my personal opinion but those wont be out for the next 2 years i bet, but with new ships teams coming on board, i hope it is faster. Shit just takes time :disappointed: Most people who read this will play Star Citizen, SQ42, and Starfield because people on spectrum are of a different breed of players LOL. You are hear because you care about Star Citizen finally being delivered one day, SQ42 being released one day, and will enjoy Starfield in the mean time. All love here and no hate in my statement. We should all be happy to be alive with these great games to play.