Star Citizen has been in development for six years and it still doesn’t have a release date – but the money keeps flooding on in.
The space PC game, which has so far raised nearly $200m, recently held CitizenCon, a gathering of fans and developers for all things Star Citizen.
Off the back of that, the release of a new update, a flashy new trailer and the sale of some new spaceships, developer Cloud Imperium Games saw $379,254 flow into its coffers in just one day.
The following day, on the 11th October, CIG brought in around $320,000. And yesterday, 12th October, around $200,000 came in. Based on this trajectory, by the end of this week, around $1m will have been made.
This marks a giant jump in revenue for the Star Citizen norm. Each day this week prior to the 10th, the game pulled in around $21,000.
One of the things that’s unique about Star Citizen is it makes public its revenue, which it’s still calling crowdfunding, on its website, so you can see how much money is being made on a monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly basis.
Star Citizen makes the bulk of its money from the sale of virtual spaceships, some of which you can fly now, some you can’t. At CitizenCon, CIG released a new spaceship available for a limited time only. The Valkyrie 2948 Liberator edition is only available until 14th October, and it costs £264. There’s a bundle with the ship and a raft of extras, including lifetime insurance, for £536.
Some ships are considered so special you can’t just buy it, you have to register your interest first. One of these is the Kraken, an enormous capital ship with enough room for 10 players that was revealed this week. Here’s the in-universe explanation (when it comes to Star Citizen, pretty much everything’s in-universe):
“Interested in commanding a flying fortress and redefining freedom? The Kraken is poised to take the stars by storm, but due to high demand, an extreme and unique production process, and specialized materials, Drake anticipates a limited quality of hulls will be available. Use the form below to register your interest in adding a Kraken to your fleet and changing the universe for the better.”
“We offer pledge ships to help fund Star Citizen’s development,” CIG explains. “The funding received from events such as this allows us to include deeper features in the Star Citizen world. These ships will be obtainable in the final universe, and they are not required to start the game.”
Star Citizen is a controversial project and its trials and tribulations are well documented. Still, there are enough people still willing to invest even now, six years after the project launched and with no release date in sight, that hundreds of thousands of pounds are made in just a single day. Fans, clearly, get it. Everyone else? Well, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher.
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