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It's official: Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium Games' multiplayer sci-fi sim, has now topped $1 billion in crowdfunding.
The milestone popped earlier today courtesy of the 6.5 million players who have donated over £743 million since the game was announced in 2012. It remains in early access.
CIG says that "as a crowd-funded project, Star Citizen's scope is based directly on the support provided by our backers. Money pledged goes directly to the game's development".
As our friends at IGN point out, the milestone comes as the game launches a new $5000 (£3700) spaceship, the Anvil Odin capital ship, which is not even available yet. It went on sale as a "limited vehicle concept pledge" with no firm release date. Owners will get a loaned Idris P until it's ready.
On top of the $5K, players had to write an essay to apply to join the Odin Founders Club. CIG said it received "applications from captains all over the world, each sharing their stories, organisations, experiences, and visions for what commanding a battlecruiser in Star Citizen means to them".
"Now, you may complete your Odin Founders Club journey by pledging for this inaugural debut of the Anvil Aerospace Odin battlecruiser during DefenseCon 2956," CIG explained. "The Odin represents a meaningful milestone for us internally, as its introduction closes out the final remaining vehicle stretch goals established at the very beginning of the project’s journey more than a decade ago."
Once such player defended his purchase on the game's subreddit in a thread he entitled "I just bought a $5000 Odin JPEG, [Ask me Anything]", writing: "I measure my happiness with a game based off of how many hours I've played it, despite the game being buggy and broken at times, I play this game more than anything else in my limited free time. So for me, as long as things keep improving and they keep adding content then I will be happy with my purchase".
In an interview with Variety, CIG founder Chris Roberts said: "I think that the goal that everybody is supporting is pretty ambitious and huge, but also a pretty exciting one.
"A lot of people want to spend time adventuring out in the virtual world of something that's like Star Citizen, and that's really what's helped get us to where we are, because the dream so big that it's something that you don't get in any other game. It's not something that would be able to be done under a traditional big game publisher funding it, or private equity.
"They usually wouldn't have the time and the patience, but with what we're doing, people just want to see the biggest, best world possible, and they love the idea of the dream. And as we're going along and they see more of it, it reinforces itself, basically. I fully believe that we've still got a long time, even after we've got what we call 1.0 out, and we're not considering an alpha anymore, that we'll be adding and building on the universe and the world, and it will be a place for people to adventure together and meet up together and have fun together. Not too different than, say, World of Warcraft, which has been going on for 20-plus years after it released."
This time last year, Cloud Imperium Games responded to players unhappy about the recent introduction of "pay to win" flight blades in Star Citizen, admitting it "missed a step".
While Star Citizen's community doesn't typically shy away from financially supporting the game's 12-year-old early access period, on this occasion, players took umbrage that even though the blades give an undeniable in-game advantage, they had been introduced as a premium item that could not be earned organically through gameplay.
The fallout was so intense, CIG has now posted a statement, stressing to players that they will be able to obtain flight blades through the in-game currency aUEC "in our next patch this June" and said that "for future gameplay kit introductions, we’ll ensure these items are obtainable in-game on day one".
If you're curious about what the fuss is about, Star Citizen is running a free trial between now and 27th May.
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