One of the most expensive and successful crowdfunding projects of all time is the space simulation Star Citizen. The grand project of “Wing Commander” creator Chris Roberts has already consumed nearly 200 million dollars in development costs and raised even more.
This is how much Star Citizen costs: The studio behind the crowdfunding giant Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium Games, has disclosed financial reports for the years 2012-2017. In these, it is stated that over the years, 193 million dollars have been spent on development.
Star Citizen – the million project
Where does the money come from? Star Citizen relies primarily on community support for its revenue. Players can help the company through donations or purchase ships in the game for sometimes a lot of money.
On November 17, 2018, Star Citizen announced, that over 200 million dollars have been raised solely through crowdfunding.
In addition to the millions from fans, funds from investors also come in. Recently, Clive and Keith Calder invested 46 million dollars, acquiring 10% of the shares in Cloud Imperium Games. The two own a music business in England.
By 2017, total revenue from all sources amounted to roughly 208 million dollars.
Where does the money flow? The team behind Star Citizen has steadily grown during the time donations were collected. In 2012, the team consisted of only 13 employees. By 2017, 464 people were employed.
The majority of the staff consists of developers, and most of the expenses go into their salaries. In rough terms, this means that most of the revenue flows directly into the development of Star Citizen.
Additionally, there are some employees for marketing and administration as well as general expenses.
This is being developed: The developers are working with the resources on various features of the game. One of them is the single-player mode “Squadron 42”, which is expected to be released in beta in 2020. Squadron 42 has already been postponed 4 times by this point.
Other features of the game are being developed in various modules that make up Star Citizen. These include elements of:
- Trade simulations
- Space exploration
- Space battles
- First-person shooters
What do you think of the numbers?
Do you wonder how the studio is able to raise so much money for a project? That’s how Star Citizen managed to raise 7 million dollars in a week.
