Star Citizen is a game being develop unlike any way we’ve ever seen before. Instead of going through investors and publishers to get the money to be developed, Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) has instead turned to the people to get funding. By doing this crowdsourcing route instead of using the usual channels, they’re able to create the game they want to create, and so far they’ve managed to make $17.5 million.
Why have so many people spent so much money on funding Star Citizen anyway? It has to do with the company’s openness about the whole development process, warts and all. Just last week they released the first bit on content of the game, the Hangar Module, where people who have pledged for ships will actually be able to go and see their ships in the hangar, and walk around and even interact with them a little bit. Chris Roberts, the man in charge of CIG has said in the past that the Hangar Module is at a level of development where he wouldn’t normally show to investors and publishers, so the fact that they’re willing to show the people pledging for the game anything at this point just goes to show just how differently they’re treating this game.
With fundraising, the ultimate goal is to get to $21 million. At that point, Chris Roberts and the rest of CIG will not need to count on any outside investors to get the level of funds they want to develop the exact game that they want to develop. And judging from the fact that ever since the Hangar Module was released last Thursday they’ve managed to raise almost a million dollars, I don’t think they’re going to have to worry about getting to $21 million, especially when the Dogfighting Module is released later this year.