I played the beta. I wouldnt call it a good game but it was a game that i enjoyed playing. Maybe i liked it because ever since i was a kid, i was always fascinated by mad max/waterworld. Having your own vehicle, roaming a hostile desert(or sea).
You have a customizable ship, you can build it how you want. And you have a base that can be built and upgraded. And a giant open world with a forgetful story and generic npc. The gameplay was ok, though the world of warships has infinitely superior naval combat. I think it is using similar to war thunder naval combat(same publisher), which is a bit too arcadey for my taste(not that world of warships is a simulator, but it is a more immersive experience).
Their reboot of Unreal Tournament failed. And so did their moba named Paragon. Arguably, their Fortnite Save the World also failed. Gears of War Judgement had poor sales for a Gears game though that may have been mostly developed by People Can Fly.
Generally if we ignore Fortnite and Infinite Blade(a mobile game), their last successful game was Gears 3, from 12 years ago. They basically only have Fortnite, Unreal Engine and the Epic store.
I bought the game in 2013, refunded it in 2017. When i bought the game was because i wanted a spacesim and star citizen was basically my perfect game. I expected the game to be out by late 2016 or 2017, at least the singleplayer story.
Even now, i am still hopeful. I refunded because at that point they didnt need my money and it was ridiculous how the game was still nowhere near release. Also the game run like shit and the fun factor was too low, it was too much of a simulator.
I dont think it is a complete scam. It is obvious there has been an insane amount of effort gone into this game. Maybe part of the funds have been abused but they have been developing this game for over 10 years with 500+ devs and that is really expensive.
Exclusives are a cancer. At least if you made them, i could somewhat understand. But paying third party developers to not sell their game on certain platforms is stupid.
This mmo might become a big hit. It is basically animal crossing/stardew valley/sims but on an mmo setting. The graphics/artstyle are decent and the monetization doesnt seem that bad(only cosmetic and only clothes atm).