Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen has racked up an amazing $55 million in funding thanks to crowd-funding but despite the immense budget the game has, one shouldn’t go thinking that Cloud Imperium Games is getting anything out of it. All of the money is going into the game’s development according to an open letter from Roberts himself.
“I have a lot of industry friends pat me on the back and say, Wow, it must be so great to be operating in profit even before you ship! Their look usually turns to incredulity when I explain that my intention is for all the money we bring in before launch to be spent on development.
“It is the community, from the existing backers who continue to support the game, to new members who join every day who are setting the level of ambition and budget for Star Citizen. Every effort is about enriching the game’s vision. Funding to date has allowed us to go so far beyond what I thought was possible in 2012. You’re still getting that game, no question, but it will be all the richer and so much more immersive because of the additional funding.”
“I now look at our monthly fundraising and use that to set the amount of resources being used to develop this game. We keep a healthy cash reserve so that if funding stopped tomorrow we would still be able to deliver Star Citizen (not quite to the current level of ambition, but well above what was planned in Oct 2012).
“If you combine our in-house staff and outsourced developers, we now number more than 280 people. Your support has created a significant number of jobs in the gaming industry.
“If we had raised the original amount and no more, we wouldn’t be able to deliver involved capital ship systems or the level of FPS gameplay that we are now planning for planets in the Persistent Universe. Nor would have the time or budget to continually upgrade the game with new features like Physically Based Rendering (PBR), or continually strive to make the art assets better.”
Roberts also emphasized that all the bonuses offered to backers can be earned within the game. Despite micro-transactions, you won’t need to spend any additional money on ships if you don’t want to. “The new ships add interesting new gameplay and populating the future Persistent Universe with a range of different ships, flown by players pursuing all kinds of professions, will only add to the richness of the game once it’s fully live.
“That’s what Star Citizen is about: the creative freedom to build something unlike anything that has been done before and the ability to do it with the support of a community that is as passionate about this game as I am. We want to make the Best Damn Space Sim Ever, and with your continued support I know we will.”