6 Jahre später stecken Fans noch immer irre viel Geld in Star Citizen

The CitizenCon 2018 was a complete success for Star Citizen, at least financially. Instead of big promises, smaller goals were set. Fans seem to appreciate it: With 1 million dollars in 4 days, more money came in than usually in weeks – and that 6 years after the start of the crowdfunding.

This is how much money Star Citizen made in 6 years: Development of Star Citizen began in 2011, and in 2012 a crowdfunding campaign was launched. Players “pledge” money here and get virtual ships in return. Most of them are still not in the game, but will come in the distant future.

Highlights are always “big sales”, when special ships are offered.

In total, Star Citizen has raised over 195 million US dollars in crowdfunding. But most of that still comes from the golden age when ambitions and stretch goals made Star Citizen soar. The initial release date, 2014, was pushed further back and the crowdfunding dimensions kept rising (via StarCitizen-wikia):

On September 26, 2013, it reached 20 million US dollars
On August 15, 2014, Star Citizen had raised 50 million US dollars
On December 13, 2015, it surpassed 100 million
On May 19, 2017, it reached 150 million
On December 28, 2017, it was at 175 million
Now in October 2018, it stands at 195 million US dollars

In recent weeks, cash flow had significantly cooled down. In the week before the CitizenCon, Star Citizen made only 171,582 US dollars.

This period of “ever greater ambitions” has earned Star Citizen the reputation of building a castle in the air that will never be released. For its most vocal critics, CEO Chris Roberts is a fraud, for its fans a visionary.

This is how the vibe around Star Citizen has changed: At least for a long time, Star Citizen was a project that had to face accusations of having lost its way and suffering from feature creep. Some fans have simply grown tired of waiting and want their money back.

But that was the Star Citizen of the past. In 2018, things are relatively quiet around the game. The schedule for the previously three alpha releases in 2018 has been kept quite well, but so far little spectacular or controversial has happened this year.

Immediately before the CitizenCon, there was trouble over a live stream.

This is how Star Citizen raised 1 million dollars in 4 days from fans

This is how much money Star Citizen made in the last days: Since the new convention, the virtual donation bucket has been ringing:

On Wednesday, during the trailer, there was 380,000$
On Thursday 325,000$
And on Friday and Saturday each 190,000$

This leads to Star Citizen earning more than 1 million dollars in just 4 days through microtransactions or “crowdfunding pledges”, even though the game is still far from release. Currently it is in alpha 3.3.

“Castle in the air brought down to earth”

This is how the CitizenCon was: But how did Star Citizen convince its fans to loosen another million US dollars 6 years after the crowdfunding phase? With ever greater promises? No.

Compared to the past, the CitizenCon was solid – just like the year 2018 so far. Instead of presenting new features and ever greater ambitions, CIG seems to be meticulously working on implementing the plans made.

As GameStar reports, Chris Roberts and his team have succeeded in finally bringing his “castle in the air from the past” down to earth.

Instead of big promises and wild future visions, they focused mostly on presenting what is about to enter the game or has just come into the game with alpha 3.3. Now players can use microphones and webcams to transfer their voice and expressions to the avatar in the game.