Star Citizen Raised $35 Million In 2017

Star Citizen raised a lot of money in 2017. According to data collected by Polygon, the super-ambitious PC space sim raised $34.91 million last year, which is down from $36.11 million the year prior. In total, Star Citizen has raised an astonishing $175.9 million, according to the game's own publicly available funding data. Note that these figures do not include money given back via returns, but even with those accounted for, the number is surely still huge.

To put the $34.91 million in perspective, it's more than double the money ($17.25 million) that the more than 700 Kickstarter video game projects brought in, combined, in 2017. It's been two years running that Star Citizen's own yearly funding tally has more than doubled the combined efforts of every video game project on Kickstarter.

Star Citizen launched on Kickstarter in 2012 and made its original funding goal of $500,000 in a week. The campaign ended with $2.1 million. Developer Cloud Imperium then shifting funding to its own website where it has brought in millions and millions through the sale of ships and, more recently, parcels of land throughout the in-game universe.

The game's development is being led by Chris Roberts, who designed the Wing Commander games (and directed the 1999 Freddie Prinze Jr. starring movie of the same name).

In other Star Citizen news, Crytek is suing Cloud Imperium over breach of contract and copyright infringement claims. Crytek is suing based on the claim that the the Star Citizen studio did not live up to the promises it made for using Crytek's CryEngine. Cloud Imperium says the lawsuit is "meritless" and that it is prepared to fight "vigorously" in court if it has to.