Much maligned multiplayer space sim Star Citizen blasted through the $200 million crowdfunding milestone this weekend cementing its position as the most successful crowdfunded project ever.
The funding campaign has run since 2012 and though the game was set for release in 2014, players continue to provide creator Chris Roberts and developer Cloud Imperium Games with a steady stream of cash. The majority of funds are pulled from the purchase of the 80 in-game space faring vessels, while the remainder comes from ‘starter packs’, single-player mode Squadron 42
In a ‘Letter From The Chairman’, Roberts was quick to point out that though the amount is ‘impressive’, the value of Star Citizen doesn’t lie in what is a disgustingly large sum of money, but in ‘how a community came together to enable a shared dream to come to life. How gamers from all over the world came together to finance one of the biggest and most ambitious projects ever embarked on. There is no publisher. No big conglomerate. This is all grassroots, funded by gamers for gamers’.
Not content to end it there, Roberts lays it on thick with some choice self-aggrandizing words of about Star Citizen, which are somewhat misplaced for a game with no release date and that has dragged backers from underwhelming update to the next with undue fanfare.
Roberts says’ No other game shares as much information on a weekly basis, and no other game I know of is as focused on listening to and working with its community to make the best game possible. When I look around and see other games, even ones from major publishers, copying our playbook, I know we have had a positive influence on the gaming industry’.
He continues ‘No one is attempting to do what we are doing, in the manner we are doing it, nor being as open about as we are…we’re breaking both real and virtual barriers and boldly going where no gamer and game has gone before’.
If joining the cosmic fray of Star Citizen tickles your fancy, Cloud Imperium are running a free-trial week dubbed ‘Free Fly’ starting from November 23rd running until November 20th where players can sample different in-game spaceships in 24-hour chunks.
