Cloud Imperium Games launched a crowdfunding campaign on their website in October 2012 to raise money for a science fiction multiplayer online PC game called Star Citizen. The game is to be released for GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows.
In March they officially received the record for largest crowdfunding project ever from Guinness World Records after they reached the $39M mark and are currently working on reaching $66M. The previous record holder was Ethereum, which raised $18M in September 2014.
The pledges have been steadily increasing, “We’re hitting six or seven-million dollar months as a regular occurrence,” David Swofford, Director of Communications at Cloud Imperium Games recently told The Guardian. This has been attributed in part to the number of stretch goals they have planned and timely updates to backers.
In October 2012 the overwhelming response actually caused the company’s site to crash, so they launched a campaign on Kickstarter while they fixed the problem. That project went on to raise and additional $2.1M. The page’s description of the game says:
“Star Citizen brings the visceral action of piloting interstellar craft through combat and exploration to a new generation of gamers at a level of fidelity never before seen. At its core Star Citizen is a destination, not a one-off story. It’s a complete universe where any number of adventures can take place, allowing players to decide their own game experience. Pick up jobs as a smuggler, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, or enlist as a pilot, protecting the borders from outside threats.”
What’s great about this campaign is that all of the money pledged will go into making the game bigger and better. Robert Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games are doing this in the face of skepticism from publishers who believe that space simulation and PC games are over. Clearly they were right in feeling that gamers would love to play a modern one.
Designer Chris Roberts (Wing Commander, Starlancer) has been excited and surprised by the success they have achieved, and has said that he believes the campaign could reach $100M:
“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.”
Their last two stretch goals ($63 and $64 million) unlocked a new ship and a traditional pet system in the game. Due to their efforts to make this a whole universe that gamers can explore, they are saying that the game will take some hefty system requirements. According to Cinema Blend:
“You’ll need 8GB of RAM, no questions asked. Your CPU? i5 2500, i7 2600, 2700 or better. What about the GPU? … [A]t the minimum – a GTX 670 or greater that happens to be DirectX 11 or higher.”
Between that and the cost of the ships and rewards themselves (which range from about $20 to $15,000!) hopefully the game turns out to be everything the creators are promising. Since the game is online fans will have the opportunity to be involved as it improves, grows, and evolves.
