Star Citizen raises over $800 million, may become the world’s first $1 billion video game | Technology News

Video games are expensive to make, but budgets for big games are some of the closely guarded secrets in the industry. However, several leaks and court filings reveal that game studios often spend hundreds of millions of dollars on AAA titles like GTA V, Cyberpunk 2077 and others.
Recently, a court filing revealed that Activision spent over $700 million on Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. However, Star Citizen, one of the most anticipated and ambitious games till date, may soon cross the $1 billion mark. At the time of writing, the game maker revealed on its website that it has already received more than $802 million in funding, making it the most expensive game in the world.

 
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What is Star Citizen about and why is it such a big deal?
Developed Cloud Imperion Games, Star Citizen is an open world first person space shooter and MMORPG game announced back in 2012 with the aim of creating a universe so big that players would “forget it’s a game.”
Spread across the universe, players can either engage in a single player mode or enjoy and roam around with friends. The game has four playable modes called modules, which offer widely different gameplay experiences with some common mechanics.
When the company started Star Citizen crowdfunding back in 2012, the studio hinted that the game might be launched in 2014. However, as development progressed, the game makers faced several challenges, delaying the game’s launch.
Finally, in 2017, the developers released Star Citizen in early access. And while the game does receive frequent updates, fast forward to 2025, and the game is still stuck in the early access program with no release date in sight.Story continues below this ad
Starfield is one of the biggest open world space exploration games of all time. (Image Source: Cloud Imperion Games)
How did Star Citizen get so much funding and why is it so controversial?
Star Citizen started as a $2 million Kickstarter campaign which ended quickly. After this, the game studio continued to raise funds selling ships and other in-game content, becoming one of the highest-funded crowdfunding projects of all time, raising more than $170 million in 2017.
Raising $100 million every year since 2022, Star Citizen eventually became one of the most expensive games in the world, with crowdfunding and early access sales reaching $750 million in November last year.
In the last few years, Cloud Imperion Games has repeatedly delayed several game features, such as the single player Squadron 42 mode. When it finally became available for fans to test, the game was plagued issues like constant lags, freeze and crashes, with numerous players saying it was unplayable at best.
Star Citizen also received backlash from people and the public for its pay-to-win like structure and other monetisation practices, with several media outlets labelling it as one of the biggest crowdfunding scams of all time.Story continues below this ad
But despite the negative publicity, skepticism and allegations, Star Citizen continues to receive support from people all over the world. Also, in the last few years, the developers have launched new content and continued to squash bugs and issues, making Star Citizen playable.
While it is still unclear how many active players Star Citizen has, the game has garnered popularity on video sharing sites like YouTube, with numerous gamers playing it on a daily basis, flying around, attacking pirates, looting others, mining asteroids and exploring new planets and solar systems.
It will be interesting to see if Cloud Imperion Games releases a stable version of Star Citizen before it hits the $1 billion mark, or if it will be the most expensive video games ever made.

Anurag Chawake is a Senior Sub-Editor at . His fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows 98. Since then, he has been tinkering with various operating systems, mobile phones, and other things. Anurag usually writes on a wide range of topics including Android, gaming, and PC hardware among other things related to consumer tech. His Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn user name is antechx. … Read More

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