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Crowdfunding for space game Star Citizen has topped $250 million (£193.5m).
As spotted by PC Gamer, Cloud Imperium Games has now been crowdfunded by 2,448,842 backers who funded $9m (£6.9m) in November 2019 alone. The developer has also raised $46 million (£35.5m) via private investment, too.
Star Citizen started development in 2011 and raised an impressive $2.1 million through a 2012 Kickstarter campaign. The additional funds have been donated directly via the website and have helped the project smash through even its most ambitious stretch goal target of $6 million.
Star Citizen has yet to firm up a release date, but another live tracker – this time a development roadmap – sketches out what features are planned and when players should expect to see them, all the way up to six months in advance.
It’s taken a little over a year to raise $50m as Star Citizen hit $200 million in crowdfunding in November 2018. “Two Hundred Million Dollars. Wow,” wrote chairman Chris Roberts, reflecting on the milestone at the time. “The amount is the highest total for any project in the history of crowdfunding and is beyond anything I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.
“While the number is impressive, that is not what sets Star Citizen and Squadron 42 apart. The true celebration is one of how a community came together to enable a shared dream to come to life. How gamers from all over the world came together to finance one of the biggest and most ambitious projects ever embarked on. There is no publisher. No big conglomerate. This is all grassroots, funded by gamers for gamers.
“We are getting closer all the time to having a living, breathing persistent universe and as we close out this year, I look at the technology we must complete to achieve the vision and realize we are nearer to the end than the start,” Roberts concluded. “This knowledge, aided by the continued support and excitement we feel from all of you propels us forward with enthusiasm and a thirst for seeing the universe of Star Citizen become a home for gamers everywhere. Thank you, each and every one of you, for believing in the vision, supporting its development with unwavering commitment and making gaming history.”
