One. Billion. Dollars
Star Citizen has crossed the red line after reaching $1b USD in crowd funding.
At around 12:45PM on Sunday, May 24th, CIG crossed the one billion dollar mark in crowd-funding for Star Citizen. It was expected, as they had been in the mid $900,000,000’s in the run-up to the DefenseCon sales event.
According to the Star Citizen Pipeline Discord, when the day’s sales window opened at Noon, it only took one hour for CIG to break previous one-hour funding record of $1.44 million, this time bringing in $6.62 million in that one hour. Of the eight highest income days in Star Citizen history, four have been set during this DefenseCon event, including the two highest single day hauls in the game’s development history.
Part (or a good portion, or all) of the boost came from the Anvil Odin, a limited availability ship clocking in at an eye-watering $5000USD. This ship was only made available to a select number of backers, some of whom were chosen through an essay writing contest of all things, explaining why they should be chosen for the opportunity to throw down five-grand for a JPEG. I’ve seen a few of the winning essays, and they are right about in the zone you’d expect from this community at this point in the game’s development; most were probably chosen because they made someone at CIG laugh or at least not feel bad about how the game is turning out in the 4.8 patch. Wave 1 of the Odin sales supposedly brought in more money then the original Kickstarter did in 2012.
While we did get a special “Behind The Ships” video focusing on the Anvil Odin today, it was pre-recorded during the same SCL session we saw at the start of DefenseCon. 4.8 had been released at that point and the troubles were rolling into the Issue Council, but the only mention of respite was that there was a planned hotfix due the following Tuesday (May 19th). We didn’t get that hotfix until Thursday. While some issues appear to have been addressed, such as not being able to reach mission markers, or not being able to take more than one mission, other problems persist — notibly around the Drake Ironclad which is still having enough problems that owners are benching the new ship until CIG can figure out how to fix it. In addition, CIG has added some stop-gap measures for certain pledge items that are falling out of the new insurance claim system, like ship paints which are being permanently lost if applied to a ship that later becomes bricked and recycled.
CIG has been radio-silent on the situation, and it’s been noticed all throughout the community. Folks had been expecting a bumper added to today’s BTS video but there was no such addition. I haven’t dared venture to Spectrum because I don’t want to gouge my eyeballs, but what has come through my Reddit scrolling has been instructional enough: people are pissed moreso than they have ever been in the past, and for good reason. 3.18 had been the high-water mark for absolute clusterfuckery, and while I think it still holds the title, 4.8 is going to want to claim the title, I’m sure. Many of the issues I’ve encountered at the start of the patch have been resolved; I was able to go out and do investigation missions, some delivery missions, and @CakedCrusader, @Mindstrike, and I took a Tiburon gunship out for some missions that were satisfying up until we reached the point where we were outclassed by the ships that we were facing. I haven’t even thought about taking the Ironclad out, or salvaging, or mining, because I’ve heard horror stories of people losing entire cargo loads of stuff to issues that hadn’t been happening in 4.7.
It’s widely agreed that 4.8 was never ready for release, but went out anyway because it prefaced the DefenseCon sale. No one from CIG could convince anyone in the community otherwise at this point, not that I think they’d try. I do expect to see Jared Huckabee on camera once again, issuing an apology for how things went, and how they’ll “do better” next time…which is what they said the last time they completely up-ended the game with a rushed patch.
Considering we’re half-way through 2026 whent this happened, it’ll still be relatively fresh in player’s minds when and if Squadron 42 releases later this year. CIG will probably try to put a spin on the $1b milestone, if they mention it at all, and that would be public knowledge. For those not involved in Star Citizen, CIG should be pressing the flesh real soon to get the word out about Squadron’s release, but expect it to be followed by pitchfork-wielding Star Citizen players who are one dry kindling away from burning their own house down. While Squadron could have a good release, it’s going to find itself under the shadow of the $1b umbrella, and an absolutely abysmal patch cycle for it’s long-suffering sibling.