Star Citizen Blasts Through the $24 Million Mark

Many publishers only dream of having a game that could continually rake in the cash like Star Citizen has over the last year. And it’s not even close to release yet.

The ambitious project from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts has once again shattered another of its stretch goals, breaking the $24 million mark last night. And as of this writing, it’s already 17% of the way to $25 million. The latest shattered stretch goal ensures that a new public transportation system will be available to players in Star Citizen.

Public Transportation System – Need to get from one place to another but don’t have a starship? We’re building a galactic transportation system. You can travel via transport from system to system in Star Citizen and even ship items (like a ship you need moved to another hangar.) With this stretch goal, we’ll expand this system: star liners, long range transports, charter ships and flyable shuttles!

If Star Citizen breaks its $25 million goal, and there’s no reason to think that it won’t at this pace, it will unlock an enhanced alpha.

Enhanced Alpha – We will use additional funding to build a wider alpha test than we had originally intended for the first phase of Star Citizen’s launch. The initial plan was to first launch servers in North America and then expand to areas such as Europe and Australia to decrease latency in these areas, perfecting the game as we improve the experience around the world. This funding will allow us to invest in a wider infrastructure for our early testing, spinning up remote servers earlier. Hitting this goal will also allow us to increase the number of remaining alpha slots. Extra alpha slots not only means more Star Citizens will travel the ‘verse at launch, but that we will receive more feedback and more stress testing. This in turn will allow us to better balance and enhance the Star Citizen experience!

There is one other tidbit of news by way of the latest Letter from the Chairman in Chris Roberts also announced the $26 million stretch goal to add an enhanced capital ship system.

Enhanced Capital Ship Systems – In addition to the command and control systems we’ve already outlined, we’re going to expand capital ship functions! Lead a damage control team to fight fires and repair key systems during battle, control internal bulkheads to slow boarders and man a number of consoles, like navigation and engineering, that will make commanding a capital ship feel even more immersive.

Source: Letter from the Chairman