Star Citizen raises $9 million through crowdfunding

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The year is 2053; the world is on the brink of financial and social collapse. It started innocuously enough. Star Citizen - Chris Roberts' multiplayer space sim - took to Kickstarter, making a healthy $2,000,000 from backer pledges. But the money kept pouring in through the game's website at Roberts Space Industries. By the end of April 2013, Star Citizen had raised a staggering total of $9,062,402.
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Star Citizen interview with Chris Roberts - new concept art and in-engine screenshots

Star Citizen is one of the most ambitious games in development—a massive, high-fidelity, multiplayer space combat sim headed by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts. Back at GDC I interviewed Roberts about how he plans to realize Star Citizen's prodigious goals, the latest development update—which details modular ship customization—and how the universe as a whole will be simulated. You probably also want to scroll down for the first in-engine screenshots since the prototype reveal.

Star Citizen's ship customization systems explained

Star Citizen is being billed as a return to form for PC gaming and the space combat genre. It's to be bigger than the rest, more open than the rest, and more detailed than the rest, especially in regard to ship design and handling—the official bullet points describe full rigid body simulation, "Dynamic Ship Maneuverability," and meaningful component decisions. Tasty stuff, but just a sweet glaze of promises on top of the rich, substantial detail filling we're after—and now we have a little more of it.

Chris Roberts: Star Citizen's death system creates "a sense of living history"

Star Citizen's huge ambitions haven't faded since the upcoming space sim warped past the $6 million mark during its twin crowdfunding campaigns. In a lengthy blog post, project head Chris Roberts shares his ideas for creating a "sense of living history" through a permadeath mechanic that underscores a character's legacy.

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.

Star Citizen raises over $4.5 million, is now "the highest crowd-funded game project ever"

Chris Roberts' Star Citizen continues its rocketlike ascent with the news that its crowdfunding drive has passed the $4.2 million mark. Since that story was published on Blues News, it's even raised an extra $400,000 odd - at the time of writing, it's now at $4,605,301 and counting. This means, according to Roberts Space Industries, that Star Citizen is now "the highest crowd-funded game project ever".

New Star Citizen video shows 'AI Test Footage'

Star Citizen announces new stretch goals, could be the largest crowd-funded game ever

With one week still remaining to gather funding, Chris Roberts' ambitious space sim Star Citizen has raised an astonishing $3,385,532, nudging it just ahead of Double Fine Adventure ($3,336,371) and putting it in sight of Project Eternity ($3,986,929). Roberts, best known for creating Wing Commander, has released a video exhorting his pilots to back him for the final push by defeating stretch goals in the quest to break the $4 million mark, all while awkwardly trying to avoid breaking the fourth wall. Bless him.

Star Citizen dev thinks next-gen consoles still won't match current PCs

Star Citizen: RSI campaign extended, new stretch goals announced

Chris Roberts' Star Citizen has reached its 2 million dollar goal, and to celebrate he's added some new stretch goals. If the project reaches $750,000, on Kickstarter alone, every player will start the game with a class 1 repair bot, which apparently acts as a "pilot's best friend". And if both campaigns reach $2.5 million, another pilotable ship will be added to the game: the Anvil Gladiator. This vessel is "a capital ship's worst nightmare." That's right - it's the Freddy Kreuger of the space federation.

Star Citizen reaches $2m funding goal

Chris "Wing Commander" Roberts' campaign to fund sandbox space sim, Star Citizen, has failed. Oh no wait, the other thing. SUCCEEDED. Yes! RPS have combined the donated funds amassed on Kickstarter and the Star Citizen site using the power of maths and the total has indeed surpassed the $2m requested.

Star Citizen now on Kickstarter

Chris Roberts' next big space sim, Star Citizen, is now on Kickstarter. The Wing Commander creator's new project has been gaining capital for a little over a week through pre-orders on Roberts Space Industries, and though it's earned over $1M, Roberts fears that website instability, or something else, is stalling potential backers.

Star Citizen system requirements, modding and potential microstransactions detailed

Star Citizen, the new space game from Wing Commander-creator Chris Roberts, has released a new FAQ which reveals the estimated system specs for the game, clarifies how modding will work - it is, in fact, highly encouraged - and what sort of things may be purchasable via microtransaction. Many of the other questions within the FAQ have already been covered in our substantial preview of the game, but it's good to hear Chris Roberts clarify the fine print on a few points.

Star Citizen warping toward funding goal with nearly $500K raised

Chris Roberts' epic new space combat simulation project is going to take a lot of work and a lot of money to realize. The latter part is coming along: as of this morning, Roberts says Star Citizen has earned $455,590 of its $2M goal through tiered pre-orders at robertsspaceindustries.com.

Star Citizen: pledge your support by reserving an in-game spaceship

If you couldn't tell from our chat with Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts yesterday, we're quite excited about his latest project, the wildly ambitious Star Citizen. To recap, it's a persistent multiplayer space sim, with a single-player campaign that goes by a different name (Squadron 42). If any of those words make you want to throw money at your screen, you can now do so at Star Citizen's Kickstarter-esque pledge page.

Watch the full, five-minute Star Citizen trailer

Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts revealed this morning that he's returning to game development with Star Citizen, a massive, persistent-universe space combat sim which he's crowdfunding at robertsspaceindustries.com. I recently spoke to Roberts and got a look at his prototype - this five minute trailer is a tightly choreographed version of that demonstration, but I can verify that it's in-engine footage representative of the prototype's capabilities. Prepare your spring-eyed gag glasses.

Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts returns to gaming, brings space combat back with him

Actual details are spectacularly thin on the ground, with the actual announcement, as opposed to this pre-announcement-announcement, not happening until the 10th of October. Register for his new site Roberts Space Industries and you'll find some details though, like... wait, he's called it RSI? I wonder how many cheap gags are going to be made about that over the next couple of years.

Oh well. There's at least a little bit to go on behind its front-page countdown curtain.