The gaming industry is witnessing a turnover of millions of dollars. As of 2023, a significant portion of the games released onto the market are developed with staggering budgets. Of course, behind such games, you usually find giant companies like Rockstar Games, Activision, and EA. These companies, having proven themselves, do not impose any financial constraints during the development process and easily reap the rewards through sales figures. Star Citizen, developed for over a decade, stands in stark contrast to these practices as it operates based on a donation model. The amount of donations collected for the space-themed game is mind-boggling.

The amount of donations collected for Star Citizen reaches $ 600 million

Star Citizen was initially announced in 2012. Cloud Imperium Games’ goal here was to create one of the greatest space exploration games of all time. The developer, lacking the necessary funds for such a massive project, embarked on the journey through donations and initially raised a fund of 2.1 million dollars through a Kickstarter campaign.

In its 10-year development process, as of 2023, Star Citizen is in its alpha phase and doesn’t seem to be releasing anytime soon. Throughout this process, the developer has opted to provide content updates to players, with the latest being Alpha 3.19. It’s worth noting that Alpha 3.20 will be released towards the end of the year. However, the amount of donations collected during this process is staggering. Cloud Imperium Games has gathered over 600 million dollars from more than 4 million supporters to date.

Apart from that, players who have tried Star Citizen commonly agree that the game is quite impressive but not yet at a release-ready level. Additionally, despite having sophisticated graphics and well-thought-out aspects, it’s noted to possess complex gameplay mechanics. Bugs and in-game issues are also present. Of course, such statements raise questions about the game in people’s minds.