Star Citizen crowdfunding drive breaks $6 million barrier

Guess what secured six million dollars of funding? Here's a clue, it's about space, and it rhymes with Spar Witticism, tenuously. That's two clues actually, but you've got it already because the answer's in the headline. STAR CITIZEN has received a colossal collective thumbs up via its two pronged crowdfunding spree. Kickstarter raked in $2,134,374 and the drive on the Star Citizen site took the rest to form a grand total of $6,238,563. The ticker on the official site has been kept open after a community vote , and it looks like money is still rolling in.

Wow, if I had that sort of money I'd make some sort of ambitious space game with a rich universe focused on epic space adventure with trading and dogfighting in first person. Considering I have no game development experience whatsoever, and Cloud Imperium Games Corporation is helmed by Chris "Wing Commander" Roberts, everything's turned out okay.

"The battle is over and we—PC gamers, space sim fans, WingNuts, Lancers and the rest—have won," says a statement on the Star Citizen site . "You've not only met every goal we set, you've exceeded them. Star Citizen will be released because of your dedication and your willingness to put your money where our mouths are. Our gratitude is immeasurable; we owe you our livelihoods and will not soon forget it."

The drive smashed the final six million dollar stretch goal target, which means there will be "100 star systems to explore on launch," the massive Bengal carrier class will be "unlocked for persistent universe play" and backers will get an extra 16 mission campaign. Star Citizen has leveraged a few lovely CryEngine 3-powered tech demos to encourage donations, but there's still a long way to go before we see anything that looks like final form. Now we just have to keep everything crossed and hope that the team can deliver on all those promises.