First announced more than nine years ago with one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns at the time, Star Citizen continues to draw in more and more funding through its various crowdsourcing methods. This has made development of Star Citizen more expensive than nearly every other game on the market, and this is all still without a confirmed release date.
The extended development time and increased crowdfunding for Star Citizen has earned it both acclaim as one of the most ambitious gaming developments, as well as criticism for a lack of an official release. Acclaim or criticisms aside, this most recent crowdfunding milestone is still an incredible new level for the game and for the indie market that would never have been expected to raise so much money when it was first announced in 2012.
According to the Roberts Space Industries website, Star Citizen's crowdfunding has reached over $400 million, over 200 times larger than the original Kickstarter campaign. Much of this funding comes in the form of pledges on the game's official website, which includes direct donations, purchasing in-game ships and upgrades, as well as branded merchandise. All together, these pledges and purchases have skyrocketed the amount of funding developer Cloud Imperium Games has had to work with beyond what any other game has raised on the path to release.
It should be noted that this is the result of players donating, purchasing, and subscribing in an effort to see Star Citizen's promises through to release. Not many games have been able to raise anything close to $400 million during development, even those with AAA producers backing the majority of the cost. Then again, not many games have been in ongoing development for nine years, all the while offering different ways for fans to pledge towards getting the game released for good.
While this does make for an incredible milestone, it continues to raise concerns among fans about scope creep setting into the game and extending the development time for as long as it has. With developer Cloud Imperium Games always promising new pre-order ships and bonuses for Star Citizen, a lack of release date is still concerning. Game development, especially for a project as ambitious as Star Citizen, is never cheap, but at this point fans have funneled an incredible amount of money into this ongoing project with little promises of release still holding the game in a perpetual limbo.
Star Citizen is available now in Early Access for PC.