Less than a year and a half after breezing past $100 million in funding, Star Citizen has now reached the colossal $150 million funding milestone. The crowd-funded behemoth has come a long way from its original $500,000 Kickstarter goal in 2012, which it also easily surpassed, and already well on its way to become the largest crowd-funded project ever - currently held by DAO at $168 million.
Right from the beginning, the game has proven to be a hot point of discussion, mainly due to its grand scope, with goals that seem nigh impossible to pull off. Of course, the plenty of missed deadlines also play a significant part in stoking the heated discussions around this game.
Meanwhile, Cloud Imperium Games has continued to slowly chisel away at the game"s development, pushing out updates for the game"s playable Alpha, and publishing regular in-depth videos focusing on various elements being worked on by the developer, with the latest one seen above.
Recent developments revealed the studio"s plans to drop the DirectX graphics API to adopt Vulkan in its place, along with a hopeful June 2017 release date for the game"s highly-anticipated 3.0.0 update. The update is set to bring the famed planetary tech for the game, the impressive technology which will allow players to transition from space to a planet surface seamlessly.
The studio also revealed a brand new ship recently, the Aegis Eclipse, inspired by the real life Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft. The ship is described as a high-tech military bomber "designed to get in and strike before it’s ever even spotted."
As with all ships available for purchase, the funds generated via sales go on to aid development costs. And if anyone is interested in purchasing the Aegis Eclipse, it is available for a cool $250 on the official store.
Keep in mind that getting access into the Alpha, and later the full game, requires only a $45 basic package purchase, and none of the fancy, expensive ships.
Although the official website does say the game"s single-player component, Squadron 42, is slated to arrive sometime this year, considering its previous antics regarding release dates, it may be best to keep expectations at a minimum. In the meantime, Star Citizen"s funding doesn"t seem like it will die down anytime soon.
Source: RobertsSpaceIndustries | Images: RSI 1, 2