As Star Citizen hits $55m, Chris Roberts insists all money goes back into development
"Star Citizen isn't a normal game."
Ongoing sales related to in-development PC space game Star Citizen have pushed revenues through the $55m mark, developer Cloud Imperium Games has revealed.
In a blog post on the Roberts Space Industries website, CIG chief Chris Roberts said Star Citizen now held the Guinness World Record for the largest crowdfunded project of any kind ever.
Star Citizen continues to generate impressive revenue off the back of the sale of spaceships from its official store, as well as the arrival of new players.
"I sometimes get asked why continue to raise money," Roberts said. "Haven't you already raised enough to make the game? The answer is that Star Citizen isn't a normal game. It's not being developed like a normal game and it's not being funded like a normal game.
"I've had to toss aside a lot of my knowledge from the old way of developing and embrace a completely new world. There is no publisher. There is no venture capitalist wanting a massive return in three years. There is no need to cram the game onto a disc and hope we got it all right.
"Star Citizen is not the type of game that will be played for a few weeks, then put on a shelf to gather dust. Instead of building a game in secrecy we can be fully open with you as a community who have made this game possible. We can involve the future player base in the creative feedback loop as we develop and iterate core systems. As a group we are all involved and united in our quest to make the best game possible."
Roberts insisted that all money made by the game ahead of launch is being spent on development.
"Every effort is about enriching the game's vision," he said. "Funding to date has allowed us to go so far beyond what I thought was possible in 2012. You're still getting that game, no question, but it will be all the richer and so much more immersive because of the additional funding."
More than 280 people are working on Star Citizen in studios in the US and UK. CIG keeps a "healthy" cash reserve so that if funding stopped tomorrow the developer would still be able to deliver the game.
"I now look at our monthly fundraising and use that to set the amount of resources being used to develop this game," Roberts said.
Meanwhile, CIG released version 0.9.1 of the Arena Commander dogfighting module. This adds customisable keybindings, so players can customise their controls as they see fit. Also, backers can now select which ships appear in their Hangars.
The patch notes in full are available here.
