Star Citizen, a multiplayer space simulator, launched on Kickstarter way back in 2012. For context, that’s only a year after Skyrim and Dark Souls released, but it’s still in development and receiving funds from backers, with a staggering $77 million raised in 2020.
For comparison, Star Citizen raised $47.7 million in 2019 from crowdfunding and, in 2018, it received a private investment of $46 million. All of this is documented on their website; in total, Star Citizen has raised a grand total of $338 million which they pledge to funnel directly into the development of the game.
As of right now, Star Citizen sports two ‘modes,’ one being an MMO that is currently available to play, called the Persistent Universe, and another that is not yet available to the community, Squadron 42, which is aiming to enter beta in 2021.
Squadron 42 is different from PU in that it’s a single-player experience rather than a massively multiplayer one. The game will feature the likes of Arkham’s Mark Hamill, Netflix’s The Witcher’s Henry Cavill, and X-Files’ Gillian Anderson, lining it up as an all-star cast.
Star Citizen is a prime example of what crowdfunding is capable of, so much so that the fundraising that the developers have received has made Star Citizen the highest-grossing crowdfunding project to date. This is only made more impressive by the transparency of the developers.
Chris Roberts, the founder of Star Citizen, even spoke about the importance of transparency and the community when it comes to their project, “We can always improve and if you follow CIG and Star Citizen close enough you will notice that we are always trying new things and tweaking existing processes both in our development approach and structure in how we communicate and share information with all of you.”
Hopefully, Squadron 42 will live up to expectations, especially with Luke Skywalker himself making an appearance, and perhaps we’ll even see PU make the leap from pre-alpha to an alpha stage in the coming year. Time will tell but, for now, as backing continues to grow, it’s clear that the community still supports this ambitious startup.
