Star Citizen’s crowdfunding has now exceeded $260 million because nothing in 2019 made sense, so why should 2020 be any different?
Last time we checked in on Star Citizen, the game that seems to be in perpetual development hell, the studio had somehow managed to convince over 2 million people to give up over $230 million of their hard-earned dollars. This, despite having just a barely playable alpha available to show for all that money.
Fast-forward to Christmas and Star Citizen had raised $259,140,174, according to Twinfinite. As of today, January 2nd, that total is now $261,427,592. That means they raised more than $2 million in a week.
We get that Christmas is the time of giving, but Star Citizen still has very little for players to do. Core functionality is still being added to the game, according to their own development roadmap. Ships, weapons, items, and important characters are all still waiting to be added. In fact, update 3.9 will bring (and I'm not making this up) "door system improvements," which will update every door in the game to have improved functionality.
RELATED: Oh, Right, They're Still Making Star Citizen - Here's A Goofy New Trailer
Doors. The development team felt that it was important enough to improve the game's doors in the first quarter of 2020. If you're looking for a reason why Star Citizen is a game that will never actually be released, then here it is.
On the other hand, people still keep giving this “game” money. After more than 7 years of development and over $260 million in funds, we need to stop thinking of Star Citizen as a joke or an elaborate Ponzi scheme and consider the possibility that this is a totally new type of game. A game that’s so ambitious, so relentlessly driven in its continual construction, that all other “service games” pale in comparison.
Star Citizen may just be the first ongoing game that truly takes the term “ongoing” at its literal meaning.
Meanwhile, Squadron 42 is scheduled to tentatively release its beta sometime in Q3 2020 after initially planning for Q2 2020. If the Star Citizen pattern holds, backers shouldn’t expect anything out of Squadron 42 until at least some time in 2021.
Source: Robert Space Industries, Twinfinite