Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium Games’ crowd-funding record-breaker, has been playable in one form or another for seven years now. Over that time, the developers have considerably expanded what’s available for Star Citizen’s backers, and as a result, the crowd-funding has continued to pour in.
Recently, Cloud Imperium Games have begun offering periodic free weekends to allow non-backers a chance to see the progress that’s been made. The latest of these events is longer than most, running from May 22nd to June 1st, giving those interested plenty of time to explore the current state of the title.
This includes the arcade-style modes Arena Commander and Star Marine, which offer ship and first-person combat respectively, allowing backers a chance to use the shiny toys they spent real money on. As well as these modes, the alpha also offers private hangers for players to view their ships, and the Area18 city to explore. Finally, these modes are all tied together by the Persistent Universe, which allows players to meet up with friends, run missions, and engage in ship or FPS combat, all in a small solar system sample of Star Citizen’s eventual galaxy-scale map.
Star Citizen is now the highest-funded crowdfunding video game of all time, raising over $280 million through both Kickstarter and the sale of virtual ships by the end of 2019. As you’d expect, this amount of investment from fans into a title that has been in alpha for almost a decade has caused more than a little controversy. Despite this, Cloud Imperium Games have remained confident that they can deliver what was originally promised in their original 2012 Kickstarter campaign.
Star Citizen is in development for PC.
