Star Citizen: "I Don't Think We're Close to the Addressable Market," Creator Says

Star Citizen, the upcoming PC space simulator from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, has already raised close to $73 million in crowdfunding, making it the most-crowdfunded project of any kind in history. But the game still has a lot of room to grow, Roberts says in a new interview with GamesIndustry International.

"I don't think we're close to the addressable market, just based on the numbers that used to play my old games," Roberts said. "We're getting up there, but we're not there. Also, the marketplace has increased a huge amount since then and there's a huge amount of game players out there who won't back a game until it's done."

Roberts went on to say that he expects Star Citizen to attract a "pretty big and diverse audience" when it's finished. As a result, he says, "I think we're probably only scratching the surface of the potential here," he added.

Roberts has previously spoken about his ambition for Star Citizen to reach $100 million in funding.

The industry veteran also said calling Star Citizen a "space sim" doesn't quite do it justice, in part because the game has other elements such as dogfighting and even a first-person shooter mode. That's why Roberts is now classifying Star Citizen as something altogether new and different.

"We've started to call it a first-person universe because you can fly around in space, but you also walk around on foot in full first-person fidelity equivalent to any AAA title out there," he said. "You can shoot people, but you can also trade with people. There are all these different things you can do, so it's essentially a virtual reality we're building in this future sci-fi universe."

In recent Star Citizen news, developer Cloud Imperium Games has released more than six hours worth of video detailing the game's wormholes, persistent universe, and much more. You can watch all of the videos here.

For more on Star Citizen and Roberts himself, check out part one and part two of GameSpot's interview with the legendary designer.