Elite: Dangerous announced as sequel to 1980's space trader - Kickstarter

[Slimebeast]

SvennoJ said:

I dunno, 2 million isn't all that much.
Star Citizen is already at 3m (I forgot about the original funding, thanks Zarx) and they're using it as proof of concept to get extra investor money.

Roberts hopes to raise somewhere between $2 million to $4 million to convince angel investors to fully fund the game.
http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/23/3545926/star-citizen-reaches-500000-goal-in-kickstarter-funding-nearing-2

So 2 million for Elite Dangerous doesn't seem all that much, certainly not if he wants his team of 235 to work on it.

Braben won't say how many people are working on Elite: Dangerous right now because he expects to ramp up staff as the Kickstarter takes shape. But we do know 235 people work for Frontier across two studios, one in the UK, the other in Canada.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-06-elite-dangerous-screenshots-and-video-are-coming-braben-says

It should make it now I see Star citizen raised over 3 million in a month.

I just realized Frontier Developments have made Kinect games and stuff and like you say, they're a company with over 200 people!

So now I'm asking how can this David Braben have the stomach to come to Kickstarter and ask for $2 million, and make it all sound like he has this dream of re-creating Elite but it is up to the gamers, when in fact he heads a big company that could easily launch a project of this size without asking anybody.

I imagined David Braben as a true indie guy hiding in a small cellar office, not to be a corporate king with an army of 200 employees.