Star Citizen backer contacts California Attorney General for $2,500 refund

One gamer who backed the crowdfunding campaign for ambitious sci-fi title Star Citizen has gone to extraordinary lengths to secure a refund.

As reported by PCGamesN, the backer – known only as Streetroller – is said to have received a refund of $3,000 though evidence of just $2,560 exists. Streetroller first contacted Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium for a refund, but was rebuffed.

They then informed Cloud Imperium that its terms of service entitled backers to refunds should a game not be delivered within 18 months of its release window – initially November 2014. Thus, as of May 31st, 2016, this comes into effect.

After being denied by Cloud Imperium, Streetroller reached out to a number of people, including California’s Attorney General, the Federal Trading Commission and the LA Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.

Cloud Imperium responded to the Attorney General’s request, saying that refunds aren’t fair to other backers, and that the November 2014 release date was merely an estimate.

But, the developer gave Streetroller his refund anyways – at the end of June, the backer received $900 via Amazon Payments, with a subsequent $1,650 and $10 coming earlier this week.

Speaking to Game Informer, Cloud Imperium said: "Any refunds with respect to Star Citizen are made on a discretionary basis. There was nothing special about this situation. The fact that this particular party used a complaint form that is online and openly available, doesn’t make this any different."

This isn’t the first time that Star Citizen backers have been frustrated with how long it has taken the game to come out. In June 2014, developer Chris Roberts said he was frustrated by Star Citizen scam accusations. Then in July 2015, over a quarter of backers said that a publicly available-refund option should be available.

The game has raised $100m in crowdfunding.