CIG is still at it. They haven't given up. They have however said that old-timer backers - typically concierges - doesn't need to keep spending. There are enough new players coming in. Think about that. We are providing 650 people with jobs. I have fun playing as it is.
We saw with Cyberpunk that these big new games are much, much, much more difficult to develop than anybody had antecipated. Google gave up on their Stadia efforts. Amazon are struggling with their releases.
CIG is doing their best. They might not be the most effectively run company in the world, but they are definitely making progress. Their development efforts are a beacon of hope for OASIS-scale projects in the future. If they some day get to a successful release other studios will see that it is possible and maybe attempt something similar. But unless technology like server meshing kan be open-sourced and shared, these new projects will take equally long time.
We are looking at 10-years development as a new normal for larger projects. Having "players" as "testers" during development is probably a way this can work without excorbitant investor capital.
I develop myself, and I am just begtinning to understand how massive this undertaking is. By all means - do vent your frustrations every now and then. I do so myself, but don't point the scam finger at CIG. That is really unfair. It's OK to be impatient, but not to spread rumours about the motives and intentions of the employyes at CIG. They are obviously invested in this project as both future players and believers in what can be achieved.
Remember - server meshing might not work. It's a theory. A possible solution. It might have to be scrapped and a new solution invented. Which might easily add another 5 years of development time. This is the soone age of computing and lartge scale VR-worlds still. Don't knock it. It kinda already works.
