The headlining additions are several new locations, including a large derelict settlement on Daymar, many new racing locations into Stanton, and a race track into the Orison Vision Center on Crusader. The update also adds plenty of new gameplay features, quality of life improvements, balancing changes, and more, in addition to a bevy of bug fixes and technical polish. You can check out the full patch notes for the update through here.

In November last year, Cloud Imperium Games announced that Star Citizen had crossed a whopping $526 million in crowd funding.

Even so, Cloud Imperium Games has continued to show off bits and pieces of the game here and there, and recently showed off another extended look at the massive space simulator. A new behind-the-scenes development video shows in-development footage of the game’s previously announced underground sections, which, according to the developers, will entail all manner of gameplay activities and mechanics. As is clear from the footage, there’s a lot of work still to be done on these sections, but the video does offer solid glimpses of how they’re shaping up. Check it out below.

In October last year, it was revealed that Star Citizen has sold 1.7 million units so far.

The uptick in funding may be due to IAE 2952, and since it ends on November 30th, we could see the crowdfunding total increase again. It makes some sense, considering this is the game’s biggest event each year and marks the year 2952 in the game’s universe. Along with being free-to-play for the event’s duration, there are different in-game manufacturers players can check out and potentially purchase ships from with real money.

Star Citizen is still in development for PC, after being announced over a decade ago. There have been some controversies, from various delays to rumors of toxic work culture. For more details, check out our feature here.

But all jokes aside, Cloud Imperium Games’ space sim is a fascinating study. It began with the promise of being a space sim unlike any other – a massively multiplayer online game where players could explore the universe, indulge in trading and piracy, and much more. With Chris Roberts of Wing Commander and Freelancer fame at the helm, it truly seemed like the space sim of many a genre fan’s dreams. Star Citizen began production in 2011 and subsequently launched a Kickstarter campaign in October 2012, initially amassing over $2 million.

Nearly 10 years later, crowd-funding for the game – which is now done through the sale of in-game ships – has exceeded over $444 million. The total number of “Star Citizens” is over 3.6 million but controversies have cropped up again and again. There is a decently sized portion of the community that’s satisfied with what the game has provided, even if there’s a ways to go yet. But the question remains – what exactly is the deal with Star Citizen? Why is it so controversial and what’s currently going on with it?

To answer that, we’d have to go back to the beginning. After its Kickstarter campaign concluded, Cloud Imperium committed to releasing Star Citizen in 2014. Alongside the Persistent Universe, which was the massively multiple online component, it would also release a cinematic single-player title called Squadron 42. The latter was developed by Foundry 42 under the supervision of Erin Roberts (Chris’s brother, who previously worked on Starlancer). With space combat and first person shooter elements, not to mention a star-studded cast that included Mark Hammill, Gary Oldman and Gillian Anderson, the scale of Squadron 42 was set very high. It’s also apparently going to have 70 missions for over 20 hours of gameplay…and this is only Episode 1. Subsequent episodes would be coming later.

From 2013 onwards, Cloud Imperium began releasing parts of the game that later came to be known as “Modules.” Hangar Module was first but it was Arena Commander in June 2014 that attracted the most attention. It offered ship combat and racing, though most had to play against the AI. Then there’s Star Marine, a first person shooter module that promised multiplayer modes and Zero-G. However, due to development woes, it would eventually release in 2016 and offered only two modes – Last Stand and Elimination – along with two maps at release.

Even throughout its initial years, Star Citizen saw its share of delays for numerous features (including Squadron 42, which we’ll come back to). It wasn’t long before some players started asking for refunds and while they would receive the same, Cloud Imperium would change its terms of service to prevent any further demands of the same. Now, refunds would only be granted if the project was abandoned, which hasn’t happened (contrary to popular belief).

However, in December 2015, the biggest and most significant module finally – the Persistent Universe. Leveraging the existing modules, players could finally explore the system, walking across four different planets and nine different moons. Zero G movement, a law system that would track criminal behavior among other players, procedurally generated biomes on planets – it was all available at last…with its share of technical and performance issues. Sure, it was rough but for many that had been along for the ride – and poured significant amounts of money, either through crowd-funding or purchasing in-game ships – it was a long time coming. Progress, as they say.

This isn’t to say that the controversies suddenly ceased, however. Before the Persistent Universe launched, anonymous and unnamed employees at Cloud Imperium spoke to The Escapist about development troubles in a report that’s since been pulled. A toxic work environment, racism, and concerns over the project’s massive scale were only some of the concerns that some had faced (with plenty of criticism levied at Chris Roberts himself). At the end of the day, Roberts officially stated that there was a “very strong vision for Star Citizen” and he had no doubt about what could be achieved.

Another major hurdle came from Crytek, which filed a lawsuit in 2017. It alleged that Cloud Imperium had used and modified CryEngine without its consent. In December 2017, Star Citizen was announced to be migrating over to Amazon Lumberyard. The continued use of CryEngine even with this fact was one of the complaints included in the lawsuit. As it turns out, however, Crytek provided the rights to CryEngine for use in Lumberyard as far back as 2016 to Amazon. The lawsuit was to be dismissed with $500,000 in legal expenses paid by Crytek but in February 2020, the two parties filed for a joint dismissal of the same with a settlement being reached.

The Persistent Universe continued growing through the years, becoming more stable and receiving some more features. Roadmap changes and delays became commonplace. In-game ships cost thousands of real money and continue to be a strong source of funding for development. An attempt to monetize the livestream for CitizenCon was met with significant backlash. Pay-to-win concerns arose following the removal of caps for United Earth Credits in August 2018 (because this being an MMOG, trade can be affected by such moves).

Roberts would dismiss these concerns, noting that there was no “specific win state” and that “you win by having fun, and fun is different things to different people.” “[It] isn’t some race to the top; it’s not like Highlander where ‘There can only be one!’—it is an open-ended persistent universe sandbox that doesn’t have an end game or a specific win-state.”

In that same year, one backer tried suing Cloud Imperium, having supported the game since 2012 and wanting their money back. Due to the changes in the terms of service, however, he would subsequently lose the lawsuit.

In 2019, another report came out from Forbes which talked about mismanagement, specifically about Roberts micromanaging things to an insane degree. Mark Day, a producer whose company was contracted to work on Star Citizen in 2013 and 2014, said, “As the money rolled in, what I consider to be some of [Roberts’] old bad habits popped up—not being super-focused. It had gotten out of hand, in my opinion. The promises being made—call it feature creep, call it whatever it is—now we can do this, now we can do that. I was shocked.”

One of the senior graphics engineers reportedly spent months at the behest of Roberts simply trying to nail the visuals of a ship’s shields. David Jennison, who served as lead character artist before quitting in 2015, reportedly worked on only five characters in 17 months. He noted that Roberts would often change approvals on characters but more importantly, “All the decisions for the character pipeline and approach had been made by Roberts. It became clear that this was a companywide pattern—CR dictates all.”

In March 2020, Cloud Imperium Games announced a change to its roadmap format. It noted that, “When we first embarked on this Roadmap journey two years ago, our goal was to make communication more transparent, specific, and insightful for all of you who help make Star Citizen and Squadron 42 possible.

While this goal remains unchanged, we’ve found that the format in which we’ve attempted to visualize our progress linearly does not match the approach we’re taking in the development of Squadron 42.” It noted that the roadmap “does not and cannot accurately represent development on a AAA chapter-based, story-driven game like SQ42.” So it sought to go back to the drawing board, creating something “more in line with our internal scheduling.”

Development progress would be shared in other ways but the idea was to offer more regular updates on Squadron 42. By this point, a beta was planned for Q2 2020. It would be delayed to Q3 2020 before Roberts declared in December 2020 that no gameplay would be showcased, nor a release date discussed “until we are closer to the home stretch and have high confidence in the remaining time needed to finish the game to the quality we want.” As you might imagine, many fans weren’t happy with this.

Another incident occurred in February 2021. Texas had faced several power troubles due to heavy snowstorms, which led to days of no heat or electricity (not to mention food and water shortages on top). Many studios based in the state had chosen to shut down. However, sources speaking to Kotaku revealed that Cloud Imperium expected employees to work through it at the studio (assuming “roads are clear”) or make up for it later, taking the time out of their vacation. On the surface, however, the company said that its staff’s “safety and well-being are a priority to us at all times” and reportedly offered flexible working hours.

However, the behind-the-scenes message was to figure something out, come what may. One source said, “In response to further expressions of concern, we were told to work directly with our managers for help. Yet, managers were facing the same crisis as the rest of us, and some lacked any method of communication for days.” Another source added, “I think people are just tired of how this company can be. It’s just about the money and not about their employees. They don’t really show they care when it matters most, and they have failed with this time and time again.”

In February 2022, Cloud Imperium would announce plans to significantly reduce the Release View of its progress tracker. This is because many features listed beyond the most immediate update would tend to slip to later dates (or abandoned altogether). Again, every time this happened, there was criticism because the project is almost ten years in development at this point and still not quite there yet. Cloud Imperium stated that the current state of the Release View “put too much attention on features that had a high probability of shifting around.

“It has become abundantly clear to us that despite our best efforts to communicate the fluidity of development, and how features marked as Tentative should sincerely not be relied upon, the general focus of many of our most passionate players has continued to lead them to interpret anything on the Release View as a promise.”

While it acknowledged that not everyone saw it the same way, “there still remains a very loud contingent of Roadmap watchers who see projections as promises. And their continued noise every time we shift deliverables has become a distraction both internally at CIG and within our community, as well as to prospective Star Citizen fans watching from the sidelines at our Open Development communications.” So going forward, anything beyond patches coming in the next quarter was removed.

So back to the original question – what is going on with Star Citizen? According to the Release View, patch 3.17 has a tentative Q1 2022 release date with new locations like Lorville Hospital and Space Station Clinics, AI “Vendor” behavior for the Coffee Shop in Area 18, and the addition of selling items to shops, ship-to-ship refueling and mining gadgets. Rivers will also be deployed within the Persistent Universe.

The last major update, released on December 23^rd 2021, saw a new dynamic event “Jumptown 2.0” added to the Persistent Universe, along with a rework of Gravlev Physics and improvements to the Dying Star Map with new areas, cover options and assets added. And yes, in both cases, new ships are also included.

It’s hard to predict where Star Citizen goes from here. It’s endured through nearly a decade’s worth of rough development, controversies, major events and seemingly endless scope. When it will be “fully” done is hard to say but it remains an anomaly in the games industry. A project unlike any other that still promises to be the “ultimate” something, one update and several millions of dollars at a time. Regardless, it’s there and you’re either out or way too deeply in.

Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has been in development for quite a long time, and recently passed $218 million in crowdfunding. It’s had some pretty big updates over the years, including the recent alpha 3.5 version which adds an enormous megacity called ArcCorp. If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, then there’s good news – a free trial week is currently ongoing.

Until May 8th, anyone can try out Star Citizen for free. You simply need to enter the access code provided here and download the alpha version. Players can test out a variety of different ships and vehicles for free during this time. These include the Avenger, Arrow, Prospector, Cutlass Black, and Dragonfly.

You can also try out your dogfighting skills in Arena Commander or partake in multiplayer FPS gameplay with Star Marine. As for the full game and its single-player component Squadron 42, an alpha is coming for the latter in 2020. A beta is also expected in the same year. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Ambitious space-faring title Star Citizen has been part of the zeitgeist for so long, as it has continued to break records for crowdfunding. It’s now passed another milestone, having crossed $218 million in crowdfunding with a total of over 2.24 million registered users.

Meanwhile, a new gameplay video for the game has also been released. It shows off quite a bit, but the thing it primarily focuses on is the new vehicle Argo SRV, which is a search and rescue vehicle that can latch on to stranded ships or even cargo with its tractor beam, and then haul them back to safety in rescue missions and operations. The caveat here, of course, is that the ship comes unarmed with no means of defending itself, so if you want to use it, make sure you bring backup with you. You can take a look at the video below.

Meanwhile, on the game’s single player side of things, not too long ago we learned that Cloud Imperium Games had secured a private investment of $46 million for the development of Squadron 42, which is due to receive a beta in 2020. Read more about that through here.

Cloud Imperium’s Star Citizen has recently crossed over $200 million in funding, becoming the most successful crowd-funded project in history. Even if it’s still a ways off from full release, you can try the game’s current build out for yourself. Its free trial is now live and will run until November 30^th.

Along with exploring the first planet Hurston and the first city Lorville, the free week will provide free access to 80 ships. The range of available ships will rotate, and every 24 hours, all ships from a manufacturer will be available to try. Each player who starts the free trial will receive the Cutlass Black ship to start – to access others, you need to head to Lorville and then to the Convention Centre, where the ships are available.

To take part in the free week, you’ll need to make an RSI account. The Star Citizen Installer must be downloaded as well. A fairly beefy system is also required to run the game properly (16 GB of RAM is recommended at the minimum), so consider yourself warned. Both Star Citizen and its single-player campaign Squadron 42 currently lack release dates at this time.

Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen continues to roll onward, with its the single-player space sim campaign Squadron 42 receiving a brand new trailer at CitizenCon. If you’ve never seen the game before, it features an all-star cast of Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Henry Cavill, Andy Serkis, and many more. Check it out below.

Squadron 42 takes place in the year 2945, with the 2nd Fleet battling the Vanduul, a less-than-peaceful alien race. Players will embark on missions to different environments, fighting off the Vanduul (and other enemies like bandits). Some battles will even revolve around massive capital ships, which can be seen in the trailer below.

Squadron 42 will also receive a full roadmap by December, so development is definitely moving forward. It was also revealed that over 2.1 million backers have pledged over $195 million in funding for the game’s development, surpassing its old record. Hopefully, a proper release date for Squadron 42 and the massive Star Citizen will be revealed soon enough.

Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen has been in development for quite a while. However, the developer has been working hard on both the online persistent universe and the single-player Squadron 42. New update videos have been released to inform fans of what’s coming next as alpha 3.2 releases in June. Check them out below.

Squadron 42 has a number of new details talking about the animation and Bengal-class carrier (which can’t be acquired in the recent $27,000 Legatus Pack). We also get a look at the AEGIS Eclipse which is a stealth bomber that can be flown in alpha 3.2. If that wasn’t enough, we also get new information on scanning and how exactly it works.

Having been in development since 2011, Star Citizen’s crowd-funding total continues to rise, crossing $187 million (or approximately $187,027,229) with over 2 million registered users. There’s still no proper release date for the final release but as always, progress has been slow and steady.

It’s not unusual to see players of Cloud Imperium’s Star Citizen to spend hefty amounts on the game. After all, numerous ships can range from $50 to $700. Want one simple place to purchase every single ship, all 117 of them, along with 163 other items for a one time fee? That’ll cost $27,000 with the Legatus Pack.

The Legatus Pack is especially crazy when you consider that its page can only be viewed by those that have spent $1,000 on the game thus far. Of course, you can view all of its contents here. And no, the Bengal is not included.

Star Citizen continues to rake in money from donations, ship sales and virtual land. It was originally slated to release in 2014 but continued to expand in size and scope. Squadron 42, for instance, is the single-player portion that is split into numerous episodes and features stars like Gary Oldman and Mark Hamill providing their voices and likenesses. There’s no release date for either the online or single-player component but the closed alpha is available to try out.