Cloud Imperium Games has updated its backers on the next big update for the massive space sim Star Citizen. As it turns out, it’s update 3.1 and it’ll be out in late March. The developer also said that there would be a “lot of content and enhancements” for the rest of the year.

It remains to be seen what update 3.1 contains but the quarterly release cycle for Cloud Imperium has been fairly beneficial. Alpha 3.0 arrived right before Christmas and brought its own share of new features and enhancements to the game.

Perhaps more amazing is the fact that Star Citizen’s crowd-funding total continues to increase. On December 23rd, it was a little over $174 million. Now, the total is over $176 million ($176,157,353 to be exact). Whether it’s due to the game’s selling of expensive ships for potential pilots or more players throwing their lot in for Chris Roberts’ magnum opus, it’s certainly nothing to scoff at especially in this age of blockbuster budgets.

Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has received some new screenshots and videos showcasing some of the newer content coming to the game.

The screenshots showcase update 3.0, which shows off the planetary technology that can be expected. A video looking at the various development studios of Cloud Imperium and how they work has also been released. It’s worth noting that the estimated release for update 3.0 is on June 29th so mark your calendar.

Around the Verse has also received a new episode which showcases the Javelin class of destroyers in-game. They’re quite imposing and can deal out massive damage.

Star Citizen has a lot in store this year, including the first chapter of Squadron 42 – the single player campaign of the game. What are your thoughts on the screenshots and the overall progress of Star Citizen? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.

Cloud Imperium’s Star Citizen has crossed a new milestone in its funding. According to the developer, it’s managed to raise more than $100 million in funding. The game began its crowd-funding campaign in October 2012 on Kickstarter and has since been in development, accepting donations through PayPal and such.

It’s interesting to note that creator Chris Roberts was aiming for this figure before development would be wrapped. At this point, Star Citizen has entered Alpha 2.0 and development continues on the game’s various features.

Star Citizen has gone from you typical space sim/MMO hybrid to incorporating first person shooter elements among other things. Though there’s been criticism heaped on the game for its long development time, the development is indeed progressing at a slow but steady pace.

What are your thoughts on Star Citizen crossing $100 million in crowd-funding? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Games outlet The Escapist recently ran a piece on Star Citizen and its development, outlining a toxic work environment, and an arrogant management, and tying it all together to the game’s protracted development cycle.

As much as one might be tempted to latch on to these reports, however, it appears they are unsubstantiated- Chris Roberts, Chairman of Star Citizen development studio Cloud Imperium Games (and also the man behind the classic Wing Commander games), has issued a response to the report posted by The Escapist, dismissing the sources the site used as a basis for their piece; he has also questioned the ethical integrity of the site.

It’s a very scathing and damning email, and it appears Roberts may have reason to be angry- for instance, it has now come to light that some of the sources used in this report were in fact lifted from company review site Glassdoor, which allows anonymous users to post unverified reviews of businesses online. The interesting part here is that these reviews on Glassdoor all seem to have gone online just a few days before The Escapist published its piece.

Roberts’ response also takes issues with other allegations made in The Escapist’s report, allegations which do not source back to Glassdoor. These allegations, Roberts says, come from Derek Smart, President of independent game developer 3000AD, who appears to have a vendetta against CIG and Roberts, owing to him being behind a similar game as Star Citizen.

“[Derek Smart] is the same person who wrote a letter to Origin and me after Wing Commander was out claiming that we were infringing on his game and we had to cease publishing it or he would sue us. We told him we never heard of him and good luck with that. He never sued. His game was, of course, the now infamous Battlecruiser 3000AD that would take many more years to come out (I think I shipped four Wing Commanders before his game came out).”

Roberts says he has proof of this too, in spite of any claims The Escapist might make to the contrary- a lot of the things that are in the report seem to be quoting rants made by Smart before outright.

“I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up.”

Roberts continues: “We are a company of 261 employees spread across two continents and four development studios. With a company our size there will definitely be a few unhappy ex-employees – the same would be true of any large organization – we have built up quickly and not everyone is a superstar or fits in with the culture. We have parted ways with a few people over the past couple of years, not all of them amicable, and it is alarming to feel like there is a one sided piece that will be filled with complaints of people who aren’t part of the project for a reason. As long as I’ve made games, especially on large projects this has always been the case and it shouldn’t be news.”

What a mess. I am not even sure why this is news in the first place. Yes, this is a big game, and a massive undertaking, and yes, such a project may lead to stressful work conditions. This is not new, and nor is it reflective of what the quality of the game will be- remember, Red Dead Redemption was apparently developed in an environment of constant crunch, and yet is was one of the best games of last generation.

Star Citizen will launch exclusively for PC.

Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has reached exponential levels of success since it entered into the crowd-funding realm. It’s close $73 million overall but creator Chris Roberts believes that he far more potential beyond space sim fans.

In conversation with Games Industry International, Roberts said, “I don’t think we’re close to the addressable market, just based on the numbers that used to play my old games. We’re getting up there, but we’re not there. Also, the marketplace has increased a huge amount since then and there’s a huge amount of game players out there who won’t back a game until it’s done.

Star Citizen is expected to attract “pretty big and diverse audience” according to Roberts. “I think we’re probably only scratching the surface of the potential here.

“We’ve started to call it a first-person universe because you can fly around in space, but you also walk around on foot in full first-person fidelity equivalent to any AAA title out there.

“You can shoot people, but you can also trade with people. There are all these different things you can do, so it’s essentially a virtual reality we’re building in this future sci-fi universe.”

Star Citizen will see the release of the first season of its single-player campaign, Squadron 42, this Fall and a full commercial release next year. What are your thoughts on it thus far? Let us know in the comments.

Cloud Imperium’s Star Citizen is going strong in the new year and Chris Roberts recently revealed the team’s goals for releasing different modules at a recent BAFTA Masterclass.

As reported by Polygon, the surface-side planetary exploration, social elements and FPS elements would be going into beta this Spring while Arena Commander 2.0’s Multicrew Ships would be out in the Summer. The single-player portion of Star Citizen – dubbed Squadron 42 – will see its first episode release in Autumn. Those hoping for the Persistent Universe to be online before that will need to wait as the developer still has it down for 2015 end.

Star Citizen is expected to have its full commercial launch in 2016 though and that will likely mark the time when the game is fully operational for its legions of fans and backers. Will you be willing to wait that long and what are your thoughts on the upcoming features? Let us know in the comments.

When Cloud Imperium Games, led by industry veteran Chris Roberts, launched the crowdfunding campaign for its sandbox space sim Star Citizen, no one could have envisioned it reaching the levels of success that it did. However, since launching its campaign in late 2012, Star Citizen has managed to amass $67,828,789 in crowd-funding from 694,793 backers. It’s been one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in history.

That being said, the expectation is that the next milestone of $68 million will be reached before the year ends. It makes sense considering the anticipation of the game. And really, since we never thought it could go beyond $50 million, letalone $10 million or $5 million, who’s to say that $68 million isn’t possible?

Star Citizen recently received the Arena Commander 1.0 module which adds several options for PvP to backers of the game. What are your thoughts on it and will the campaign hit $68 million before the year is out? Let us know in the comments below.

Cloud Imperium’s Star Citizen is coming along nicely after amassing more than $67 million in funding. The latest update has arrived for the Arena Commander module which adds a variety of new changes.

These include a lobby and friends system, some gameplay tweaks, improvements to graphics and more than three times the number of flyable ships. The focus of the mode is PvP combat as players battle in space combat. It’s only available to backers and is meant to offer a look at how the mode works.

Cloud Imperium president Chris Roberts stated that, “I would like to stress that today’s release of Arena Commander 1.0 is a beginning, not an ending. This milestone does not denote the completion of Arena Commander, it kicks off an even more significant phase of its development.”

Check out the latest trailer for the game “Imagine” which has released as well and let us know what you think of Star Citizen’s progress thus far.

Star Citizen is a wonder and marvel of crowdfunding at this point. It has managed to garner over $50 million in crowdfunding money, and it shows no sign of stopping- truly this, above everything else, serves to stand as validation of Chris Roberts’ vision for a hardcore, high quality, premium PC exclusive game that is not held back or compromised by consoles.

It also helps that the game itself looks so badass. Anyway, the game is now nearing a staggering $63 million in crowdfunding. Take a minute to step back and think about that amount. $63 million. And that’s not even the end of it as the genius behind it all, Chris Roberts, has said that he is hoping to touch $100 million. Personally, going by how this game has been doing on this front, I don’t doubt its ability to reach that amount if it wanted to.

“You guys are literally setting the budget and ambition of the game with your support which in itself is a pretty amazing thing and something I never would have believed possible two years ago,” Roberts concluded.

Keep at it, man. Give us all the PC game we deserve.

Star Citizen will release on PC next year.

Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has been making progress after the initial reveal of its space simulation mechanics. It’s still in a fairly early stage but considering the large size of the game, it’s very understandable. Tomorrow, November 1st, there will be another presentation for the game, this time showing off the first person shooter mechanics of the game.

Working with PAX Australia, the developer will hold a live stream of the presentation here and showcase just how the first person mode will operate. It also promises some other surprises and will be held at 3 AM PDT/6 AM EDT/10 AM UK. If you can’t view the live stream then don’t worry – there will be a video of the presentation available later.

Star Citizen is still a long way off from release but it’s getting there. What are your thoughts on the game thus far? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.