Cloud Imperium Games has now raised more than half a billion dollars to develop Star Citizen, including $100 million since last November.
Report as EurogamerThe space trading and combat sim – which has been in development for over a decade – now claims to have raised $500,111,757 from backers.
Star Citizen’s initial Kickstarter campaign for $2 million began in October 2012, but that was just the beginning. Cloud Imperium Games has raised more and more money over the years, surpassing $400 million in total just ten months ago.
Despite this amazing amount of money, however, the game is still in an alpha stage of development, with no release date in sight. For context, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt cost $81 million and took nearly five years to develop. Red Dead Redemption cost between $80 and $100 million and took five years.
Star Citizen creator Christopher Roberts said in 2020 that the various gameplay elements promised over the years were not pipe dreams and would not take decades to materialize. A year later, however, an advertising watchdog warned the studio about its concept ship’s marketing, saying it needed to make clear it was selling products that didn’t yet exist.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He would talk about the Witcher all day.
