Star Citizen's mountain of crowdfunded money surpasses $20 million
Developer Cloud Imperium Games has inched closer to the final frontier by surpassing $20 million in crowd funding for its space sim, Star Citizen.
According to the developer, which is led by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, $10 million was raised in the last four and a half months. Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign employed a number of tactics, including funding via Kickstarter on its own website campaign, which offered a plethora of in-game, class-specific rewards and bonuses.
"Honestly, we never dreamed we'd reach this point so quickly. It's a testament to the passion that our backers have for space sims and PC gaming," Roberts said in a press release announcing the new funding total, which the team collected in less than one year.
In August, Cloud Imperium Games released the first of many modules for Star Citizen: an interactive hangar. The game itself – a hardcore space sim – is expected to launch on PC in 2014.
Roberts told me in an interview during E3 that the vision he had in his head for Star Citizen, before the funding campaign began, was in the financial ballpark of $20 million. "The full game that I want to build that was in my head was always like $20 million ... or 21 or 22. It's in that range," Roberts said. "That's kind of what we're shooting for, right now."
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Chris Roberts' Star Citizen Flies Past $20 Million
in Crowd Funding
PC based space sim from Cloud Imperium Games continues its record-smashing crowd fund campaign; Roberts redefining game development with more than 260,000 supporters on board
Los Angeles, September 26, 2013 - Star Citizen™, the PC based space sim from legendary designer Chris Roberts has crossed yet another major milestone in its crowd funding campaign. Roberts' company, Cloud Imperium™ Games announced today the campaign passed the $20 million mark in crowd funding. It's an amount that's been raised in less than one year - $10 million was raised in just the past 4 ½ months.
"It was not quite a year ago when we began our voyage with this incredible community," said Roberts, Cloud Imperium CEO. "Honestly, we never dreamed we'd reach this point so quickly. It's a testament to the passion that our backers have for space sims and PC gaming. We have the best community in all of gaming and they are literally taking part in helping us develop Star Citizen."
Star Citizen's crowd funding campaign is setting new standards in the way a community participates in a game's development. "We are breaking new ground in community interaction," said Roberts. "The fans are involved through feedback forums, polls and direct contact with our dev team, and all the while they are continuing to back our project even more and helping us put out the word about Star Citizen. Our backers are our sales force. It's really quite liberating for us and for our fans who are helping us create the dream of a true AAA PC game without the restrictions of a publisher."
Ahead for Star Citizen backers and fans are plenty of game updates including the unveiling of more ships, some surprise announcements coming at the one year anniversary of the game's unveiling on October 10 and the highly anticipated dogfighting module scheduled in coming months. More Information on becoming a Star Citizen backer can be found at http://www.RobertsSpaceIndustries.com.
Star Citizen is a crowd funded game that officially launched on October 10 of 2012. Since that time Roberts' company has raised more than $20 million from backers all over the world makingStar Citizen the top ranking crowd funded project ever.
About Cloud Imperium Games
Cloud Imperium Games Corporation and its subsidiary Roberts Space Industries was founded in April 2012 by renowned game developer Chris Roberts (Wing Commander, Freelancer, Privateer) and his business partner and long-time international media attorney Ortwin Freyermuth. Under Roberts' leadership using his long-standing relationships in the game space, Cloud Imperium quickly assembled a top tier development team for the creation of art assets, story elements, and an extensive prototype for its first game Star Citizen. Star Citizen is being marketed and launched viawww.robertsspaceindustries.com. Cloud Imperium's strategy is about customer acquisition through established game designer fan bases. More information about the company, including jobs and contact information can be found at www.cloudimperiumgames.com.
