‘Star Citizen’ Crowdfunding Now Past $63 Million

The game that already owns the world record for largest crowdfunded project ever just keeps getting bigger. Star Citizen, the still unreleased game from Cloud Imperium Games, has hit yet another major funding goal and is now above $63 million and counting.

The current total unlocks a pair of new ships that will now go into development: the Genesis-class Starliner and the MISC Reliant. The Starliner will give players the option to buy “a next-generation passenger ship at a price that won’t break your budget,” and the Reliant is a starter ship powered by “Xi’An technology”, according to Cloud Imperium.

The game’s director Chris Roberts recently unveiled in a letter to players that Star Citizen‘s next major stretch goal will be to add pets to the game once funding hits $64 million. Pets in outer space? Roberts claims it’s not that unusual, citing Jones the Cat in the movie Alien and Daggit from Battlestar Galactica.

Star Citizen has come a long way since the game raised a little over $6 million in 2012 between the game’s official site and a Kickstarter campaign. Chris Roberts was already well known for his work on Wing Commander, but it’s clear the vision for Star Citizen tapped into something else as the game’s audience and popularity expanded.

Other games have let players take to space together, perhaps most notably EVE Online, but there has never been a game with the scope that Roberts and his team envision for Star Citizen. Gameplay can vary widely from starship battles to traditional first person shooting to space and planetside exploration.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of Star Citizen‘s success is that fans of the game continue to funnel money to the developer, even though the title likely won’t see full release until 2016. Cloud Imperium has raised its funds by selling starships and other items on the game’s official site.

To be fair, the dev team has released several modules like a hangar where players can view their starships and an early release of the game’s dogfighting module, dubbed “Arena Commander.” Cloud Imperium has made adjustments to the already released sections of the game based on public feedback and it’s likely this community involvement that has helped keep so many people feeling passionate about the game.

But with every new stretch goal that’s added to the developer’s plate, it’s understandable if those watching from the sidelines are a bit skeptical. Maybe it’s a little bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison, but gamers were once told by another beloved developer that a space-based game called Destiny would be as epic as franchises like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. And we all know how that turned out. At the very least, it looks like Star Citizen‘s development will continue to drive headlines for some time to come.

Star Citizen has no official release date but is expected to launch by 2016.

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Source: Roberts Space Industries

Follow Jason Gallagher on Twitter @MuckrakerJG

‘Star Citizen’ Crowdfunding Now Past $63 Million