With multiple studios under its wing, Cloud Imperium Games has now been developing Star Citizen for over a decade now, with almost every development cost being covered by its fans. The total amount raised for the title via crowdfunding has now hit another record-breaking milestone, with another $100 million being added to the total in less than a year.
The company’s own funding tracker has been updated to show that the community has now raised over 800,000,000 dollars. It was in late May of 2024 that Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign reached $700 million.
The tracker’s built-in timeline also shows a sharp uptick in funds raised during the past week. This is also around when the title received its Alpha update for backers, kicking off the studio’s 2025 update schedule by bringing missions involving orbital lasers, mini sandworms ahead of the big ones, and even its first alien NPC for players to interact with.
Compared to previous years, the project has been hitting major development milestones lately. The persistent universe Alpha that backers get access to advanced to version 4.0 late last year. This colossal update added the long-time-coming Pyro star system to the universe, bringing with it five new planets to the experience with their own fauna, fresh resources, and even Server Meshing V1 for enabling thousands of players to be present in servers together.
Even the long-awaited Star Citizen single-player campaign, Squadron 42, received a new launch window last year. Cloud Imperium Games now expects to release this half of the massive project sometime in 2026. After being announced to be feature complete, Squadron 42 is now said to be in the polishing stage prior to launch. The sci-fi storyline is slated to run for 30 to 40 hours and also feature stars like Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, and Henry Cavill in its cast.