---
title: 'I Can''t Believe They Streamed This'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1OYU38dGlBI'
video_id: '1OYU38dGlBI'
date: 2026-08-18
duration_sec: 1148
channel: 'penguinz0'
---

# I Can't Believe They Streamed This

> Source: [I Can't Believe They Streamed This](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1OYU38dGlBI)

## Summary

This video analyzes a disastrous live stream by Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), where an unscripted playthrough of a mission showcased the game's severe bugs and instability. The creator highlights the toxic atmosphere among the developers, the game's 14-year development cycle with over $1 billion in crowdfunding, and the community's continued financial support despite the game's broken state.

### Key Points

- **Star Citizen's Development Hell** [00:14] — Star Citizen has been in development for over 14 years, raised over $1 billion in crowdfunding, and is still far from complete. The game remains a broken mess, with a community that oscillates between hope and frustration.
- **The Disaster Live Stream** [01:28] — CIG hosted an unscripted playthrough of a mission, which lasted about 1.5 hours. The stream was riddled with bugs, progression-halting issues, and passive-aggressive interactions among the developers, culminating in an awkward ending where the show was abruptly wrapped up.
- **Optimal Conditions Still Fail** [03:49] — The stream was meant to showcase the game under optimal settings, but even then, it was unplayable. The creator notes that this was the best possible scenario, yet the game still failed to function, highlighting the severity of its issues.
- **Toxic Team Dynamics** [05:10] — The developers displayed poor chemistry, with constant bickering and passive-aggressive remarks. The creator compares the experience to watching friends' parents fight, emphasizing the discomfort and unprofessionalism.
- **Squadron 42's 10-Year Anniversary** [11:07] — A Reddit thread humorously celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Squadron 42 being 'completed' by a senior QA dev in 2016, yet the game is still not released. This highlights the ongoing delays and lack of progress.
- **Funding Continues Unabated** [15:12] — Despite the disastrous stream and years of negative publicity, Star Citizen continues to raise millions monthly. For example, $500,000 was raised in a single day shortly after the stream, and $44.6 million was raised in a single month two months prior.
- **Why Star Citizen Remains Captivating** [17:42] — The creator finds Star Citizen fascinating because it defies logic: it generates more money than many polished AAA games, approaching GTA 6-level budgets, while delivering inexcusable quality. This paradox keeps the topic engaging.

### Conclusion

Star Citizen's recent live stream was a catastrophic display of the game's broken state and internal dysfunction, yet it continues to rake in millions from backers. The video underscores the bizarre phenomenon where financial support persists despite overwhelming evidence of failure, making Star Citizen a perpetual source of intrigue.

## Transcript

thing from back in the day? Spin around in front of your bathroom mirror three times saying her name and she'll appear and steal your soul or something? That was never real. But what is real is if you stand up and spin around three times
in front of your computer screen saying Star Citizen's name, it'll appear and steal your money. Even just invoking its name probably sent people into a sweaty, name probably sent people into a sweaty, frenzied panic. Over 14 years in
development and over a billion dollars in crowdfunding, by the way, and it's in crowdfunding, by the way, and it's still not complete, nor is it even close still not complete, nor is it even close to tinkering around with the notion of
being complete. And it's still a broken mess. This is a game that I still loosely pay attention to, keep my finger on the pulse of because it is just a fascinating environment because it has this these
where the community is sometimes very happy with like an update get that gets and it completely ruins everything where it's an unplayable irredeemable mess that is just rife with greed. There are just so many like very scummy practices
Star Citizen gets away with and it is just a wild ride every time I tune in to the latest happenings in the soap opera. And today I saw Kira uploaded a video called Star Citizen's disaster live stream. And this is this has to be up
I've seen from Star Citizen's development hell. >> Context. They've just played an unscripted version uh like an unscripted playthrough of a mission in the game for an hour and a half roughly. It's been
really bad. It's broken. It doesn't work. They're really passively aggressively interacting with each other because of how broken it is and how frustrating it is. And this is how they end the stream. They've just wiped and
>> Yeah, we have to respawn and go back, right? >> It's uh >> awkward. We we might we might not we might well be locked out here now on this build. Um wait well
>> All right fair enough. >> We lost. >> Wow. >> So we're at time. Uh show rep. >> Uh thanks for watching guys.
>> Those words are like venom leaving his mouth. Big boss comes in. It's your show. Wrap it up. That's That's like the slogan to Star Citizen, to be honest. That basically puts a whole bow on the entire project here. A billion dollars,
entire project here. A billion dollars, 14 years in this developmental hellscape. I was in high school when this started, by the way. Like, holy [ __ ] and then on stream in front of everyone, hitting him with that mic
drop, throwing him under the bus, putting him on the spot to like really awkwardly send it out after this complete disaster. It feels like other. That's what it seems like. Like you're just working with your worst
you're just working with your worst enemies. It's a nearly 2hour montage of bugs that completely halt progression and them just getting frustrated at each other's throats. Like it is more somber than a funeral. This is like a 2hour
it's the first time any of them have ever even played the game and it is like I can't express enough it is buggier than [ __ ] ride the hell retribution and it is felt throughout the entirety of it. They keep getting more and more
hostile to one another and keeps building to this crescendo of like toxicity amongst them. All of it just unfolding live here. And keep in mind what it looks like with the makeup on. like this is optimal settings for them.
This is like supposed to be this is what it can reach. This is what it can look like when we're done polishing it, getting it fixed. This is what it looks like. And then bang, it can't even work under the most ideal of circumstances
for their own live stream to promote it. It's [ __ ] wild. And I again, I can't to hate each other. >> I'll play it for you. >> So, Twitch chat, I'm going to ask you a question. How obviously this is in PTU.
You guys can play this, you know. What's your average time that you get through this and what's your experience? We were talking before how long it's going to you've all seen. >> Ollie, you've just fully opened up to
because it don't [ __ ] work." >> Well, you can know it doesn't. We're it. Yeah, they are. >> Twitch chat isn't going to hurt you, Elliot. It's okay. You'll be fine. Relax. We are just here to discuss and
>> Night ride that is going to have his work cut out through. >> That is such a weird response to that. He's trying to like engage with the community while all this is going on and then having another developer dog pile
on top of him like he's trying to recover a fumble. Like like what was the goal there? Like he's trying to like ask questions and like talk with chat and be like somewhat useful. And then one of the other devs he's playing with is
basically just biting his head off for it and like fighting him on it. And this bickering is happening constantly. Like it's a lot of team killing, a lot of like passive aggressive snide remarks. It's so weird because this isn't like,
you know, CCTV footage here that got leaked. This was a planned stream. Did should be friends first and have some kind of chemistry or even at the very least enjoy each other's company before publicly putting themselves out there
with this product? That also didn't work at all, by the way. But it's made even worse having to watch and listen to all of this arguing and hostility between
them. Like, it made me so uncomfortable just going through the low lightss here friend's house watching his parents fight in front of me. This guy has convinced them to to all all that they've done here, bear in mind, is show
the game as it currently works on an internal dev build in the most perfect scenario possible. And the game is so broken still under the most ideal ideal
circumstances that everyone is pissed that this guy has convinced them to show the world how broken the game is. It cannot be overstated just how outrageous circumstances here, this is [ __ ] Ultra Instinct mode build for Star
Citizen, this is still how functional it is. And that's what they're showing. This was an unscripted playthrough of it as it currently is under the best possible conditions you could manufacture. And it
conditions you could manufacture. And it was unplayable garbage. And now the guy was unplayable garbage. And now the guy who proposed it here is getting who proposed it here is getting completely spanked by not only his peers
but also the higherups there at the food chain who are all very upset that this is how this is now happened live in front of their whole community. said at the beginning of the show. Uh we are keenly aware of the instancing
technology performance related problems on the PTU right now. uh we see basically >> it's why the patch the content was delayed from its original July release to August it's why it's still not out
we're very very aware as you are as we are everybody are to have a live stream today where we just show what we're already very aware and you're seeing the same thing you can see on any number of Twitch streams doesn't really serve much
purpose we decided to do today is show you the intended design show you the intended purpose show you the goal show you how it's supposed to work once once the issues with instancing are resolved. Uh we thought that was a much more
valuable use of our time. >> So this live stream was showing you how it's supposed to work. >> And man, did they ever show us how it was supposed to work. A glorious demonstration.
Greener pastures right around the corner. It's so close. And in classic Star Citizen fashion, it's coming. No doubt about it. And when it's there, it's going to be perfect. billion dollars, baby. Worth every penny. So,
context. He believes they were referring to like the ability to even play it in the first place to like get into the mission based on like the comments and stuff. But I think what they really wanted to show is how it can look under
optimal conditions, like once it's fully fixed. But even under optimal conditions, it is nowhere near being playable. And it's already been like delayed apparently, which is again classic Star Citizen. It's just such a
classic Star Citizen. It's just such a disaster. Holy [ __ ] It is the gift that giving is coal every Christmas to the people that put their hard-earned clams >> Happen to have a med gun on my down. But I hope I don't cause a party.
guys know. >> Just loot my body. >> Max. Max. >> Max, no pressure. The clutch,
>> Max, no pressure. The clutch, >> guys. I can't reach. It's broken. Help. >> No, I'm just You carry on. >> No, I've got I can't. My guns are messed >> They're struggling. >> Just uh
a while, guys. >> You can't handle their strongest potions. I saw bugs in this demonstration I haven't seen in any other game. And I play like actual Steam dumpster trash constantly.
dumpster trash constantly. It is wild the poor state that Star Citizen is even under the best conditions for things like this. Like it's just a catastrophe, man. And it still blows my mind that they even did
were convinced that this would be a good look or a good idea to showcase it. It really does feel like they've never even touched the game because if they did for even just 15 minutes, 15 minutes is all it would have taken to know that this is
unplayable and unpresentable. That this is a apocalyptic broadcast this to the community that has invested over a billion dollars into this 14-year long neverending development cycle on this [ __ ] game.
Like, how would they not know? How would they not see all of the glaring issues? They literally couldn't even complete the content. And again, I can't I can't
the content. And again, I can't I can't stress this enough. Why do they have such horrible chemistry amongst each other? Like, they really do not like I had more of a positive experience in public Xbox Live lobbies at the end of a
people screaming into the mic than these four do playing with each other and working together. It's like when you take a dog to a dog park and like some with it, so they start barking at each other. It's so weird. There was a thread
Citizen subreddit because people have been posting very negatively on there lately, which is funny to see. Um, saying, "Happy 10year anniversary to Squadron 42 being completed." On July 22nd, 2016, a senior QA dev at C stated
that he played through every level of Squadron 42. Happy 10 year anniversary. Only two more years of polishing, folks. uh while you wait by an Idris, which is obviously a tongue and cheek joke, to go and spend money in the cash shop because
>> I had completely forgotten how long it had been for Squadron 42 as well, which is another CI game that is now celebrating its 10 years celebrating its 10 years of being complete, but just not quite
ready for release. They still drop teasers on this every now and then. I teasers on this every now and then. I watch every single one. It looks okay. tidbits that we get fed. I don't think it looks like anything groundbreaking,
but even that which is just like a singleplayer like experience, like a singleplayer like experience, like a storydriven experience. Even that is 10 years late and I didn't even remember them saying that they had completed it
10 years ago. They played every mission and yet a decade later it's still not here. That sounds like a lie. Did you complete every mission? Does anyone at CIG play the games that they're working on is my big question now.
quote by Chris Roberts in March of 2015. By the end of this year, backers will lot more. >> I I'm down. max. >> Down.
>> Down. >> I'm not. Is everyone down apart from me? >> You're up. Okay. >> Hey guys, at this point, two of you are down. devs that I've left to die. >> Left to die.
>> Pick up your >> All right. So, while they're attempting to resurrect fallen comrades. >> Well, you're not attempting. >> The thing is So, while they're
attempting, >> ain't that the [ __ ] truth? They are promised and so much more. Look at all that awesome game play from the stream.
Like I can't stress enough how unbelievably awful the stream was and how uncomfortable it was. So you have you uncomfortable it was. So you have you have him begging like, "Hey guys, uh you
to you going to pick up your buddies?" Like almost ASMRing it. Like it it reminds me of like almost like PBS programming at this point. Like, "Hey, uh about your buddies? You you going to pick them up, please?" Like it dawned on
everyone how awful this was, but they they just couldn't bring themselves to pull the plug until, you know, it became actually impossible to progress any further at all and it was just coo. But man, it was torturous. Uh, what did you
think of Siege? I good time. I enjoyed it. The cinematics, the immersion was it. The cinematics, the immersion was good. Um, yeah. Jared, can you say goodbye or you say goodbye? No. Okay, Luke,
>> you you you you can you can see it. It's I'm super proud of what these guys are doing here. And you know, it's it's it's helped us get this out. Help us get this out so that you can have the same experience that we had today.
experience that we had today. [ __ ] cinema, man. Like, oh, it's it's [ __ ] cinema, man. Like, oh, it's it's just a beautiful train wreck of a stream, man. I love that. Do you want to come say good goodbye? No. No, you
come say good goodbye? No. No, you don't. Me? Yeah. I continue to just get here [ __ ] slapped around. Okay. Yep. You No, don't want to say goodbye. Okay. Yep. And then the other guy coming up. So, yeah. A lot
of good work here. Really excited. So, you get to have the same experience that you get to have the same experience that we just had today. Best of buds, guys. Yep. Best friends. You got to see it. We had such a blast. So much to enjoy here.
Working hard and you'll get to have this much fun soon, too. It's just amazing. Now, Kira then goes on to show the funding and how it's not slowing the funding and how it's not slowing down. Like Star Citizen has had over a
decade of horrible publicity as more and more people have started to question like well what's going on? When when are these things coming? Like Squadron 42 also still nowhere to be seen on the horizon despite 10 years apparently of
being completed after playing through every level. Uh Star Citizen can't even begin to put the word complete in the same sentence as that game. And yet it
is still getting millions upon millions upon millions upon millions of dollars upon millions upon millions of dollars in crowd backing every single month. But then if you want to understand why social media doesn't matter, just go and
look at the funding and bear in mind that this video came out on the uh the 5th of August and it makes no difference because just 6 days later they raised $500,000 in a single day and then the next day they raised almost $400,000 and
they're still, you know, week by week raising millions of dollars. Uh couple million this month, million this month. It makes no difference. They could show the worst thing you've ever seen and people are still buying at unprecedented
levels. It was only two months ago they raised $44.6 million in a single month. Like they're over over a billion. We're going to start climbing towards 2 going to start climbing towards 2 billion at this rate. unfathomable to me
because again it has been a decade of people showcasing this game is nowhere near complete and many times throughout its lifespan unplayable. Yet people its lifespan unplayable. Yet people still keep ferociously spending
hundreds, thousands of dollars in their game, raising millions of dollars every game, raising millions of dollars every month that just goes who knows where. [ __ ] into the back rooms over there at CI because it's not leading to them
actually getting any closer to making this game functional or playable or complete. Not only just Tharsus, but Squadron 42 as well. And it doesn't matter. Kira is 100% right. It doesn't matter what they
show. It doesn't matter how bad it is. The community is still locked in so heavily financially. They can't stop themselves from forking over all of themselves from forking over all of these dloons hand over fist constantly.
It's wild. And that's why Star Citizen has been such a captivating topic for me that I can never resist the urge to like dive back in and at least take a peek to see what's going on because it doesn't matter how bad all of it is like
objectively is. and many times not even functional. It still makes millions more so than tons and tons of like complete polished AAA games or really successful
games. They get dwarfed by Star Citizen. Star Citizen's crowdfunding is reaching like GTA 6 level budget at this point. Like it's it's getting it's it's Like it's it's getting it's it's comical. Like, it is actually so silly
how much money this game continues to generate despite having, I would say, very inexcusable levels of quality produced with this money. It's It's weird. It's crazy. And that live stream had me hooting and hollering. So, yeah,
There's also a lot of Star Citizen YouTubers who have covered that stream that are really disappointed with the direction of Star Citizen and how things are panning out post1 billion dollars now. But I don't think any of them are
going to stop spending anytime soon. Nor do I think CI is going to be completing anything anytime soon or really fixing anything and getting it rolled out perfectly anytime soon. So yeah, I just had to yap about this. Uh that's really
had to yap about this. Uh that's really about it. Tip.