Star Citizen Has Raised Over $800 Million, Still Stuck in Early Access

Star Citizen’s funding tracker reached past $800 million after 12 years of crowdfunding and early access sales. Despite this, a release date for the game is still missing, with no end to the current early access in sight.

The game was first announced in 2012 and playable by 2017 through early access. After the release of the game’s early access, the developers have slowly integrated microtransactions into the game, allowing them to be able to maintain and further develop the game.

In 2023, TweakTown reported about one of the ship packs available in Star Citizen. It’s called the Legatus 2953 ship pack, and it costs an astounding $48,000. The first Legatus ship pack was released in 2018 and costs $27,000. The developers mentioned that the ship pack is for people who treat the game like a “lifestyle hobby consistent with golf or sailing.”

Squadron 42 is another game that Cloud Imperium Games is developing. It’s a single-player game, in contrast to Star Citizen’s MMO-centric gameplay, and is set to release in 2026. Its initial release date was supposed to be in 2014, but it was delayed multiple times, leading to the 2026 release window the studio is now aiming for.

Star Citizen is an MMO space simulator game for the PC. It’s considered one of the most expensive games to make, even shooting past heavy hitters such as The Last of Us and a number of Call of Duty games.