Ambitious open-world space sim Star Citizen has surpassed the historic $1 billion funding milestone. Much of that funding is going toward parallel development of Squadron 42, the game’s star-studded single-player companion game, which is currently in the final stages of production.
Ambitious open-world space sim Star Citizen has surpassed the historic $1 billion funding milestone. Much of that funding is going toward parallel development of Squadron 42, the game’s star-studded single-player companion game, which is currently in the final stages of production.
As Variety reports, citing an interview with studio management, this financial result is unprecedented for the gaming industry, especially considering that the project has been in active development for 14 years.
The project by Chris Roberts, the creator of the cult 90s computer game Wing Commander, was launched in 2012. The Cloud Imperium Games studio deliberately refused to attract funds from major publishers or venture investors, relying on crowdfunding. The first campaign brought the authors $6.2 million, and later the funding was transformed into the sale of game packs, ships and regular support from fans.
Today, Cloud Imperium Games is one of the largest independent developers in the world. The company employs over 1,000 professionals in its studios in Manchester, Austin, Frankfurt and Montreal. Management assures that every dollar is reinvested directly into the development of Star Citizen and its companion project Squadron 42.
«A lot of people want to spend time traveling in the virtual universe of Star Citizen, and that’s what helped us get to where we are now. The dream is so big that it can’t be realized under the pressure of a big traditional game publisher — they simply wouldn’t have the patience,» said Chris Roberts, who also compared the game’s lifecycle to World of Warcraft, which has been successfully developing for over two decades.
Squadron 42 is being developed as a single-player story-driven space epic. The project has attracted an all-star cast including Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Ben Mendelsohn, and Henry Cavill. Unlike the main Star Citizen, this game is being developed in secrecy. According to Chris Roberts, the story campaign will seamlessly combine cinematic scenes and direct first-person control, providing blockbuster-level detail.
As a reminder, Star Citizen was originally scheduled for release in 2014. Due to regular expansion and the introduction of new technologies, development has been delayed. Currently, a constantly updated alpha version is available to players, and the developers plan to move on to a full release of version 1.0, which will close the long-term testing phase.
