Star Citizen crowdfunding reaches half a billion dollars

As the crowdfunded multiplayer space RPG Star Citizen's development continues, the project's official funding tracker has revealed it has crossed yet another massive milestone. The Cloud Imperium Games-developed title now touts having raised over $500 million from backers in the community.

The funding crossed the $400 million mark in November of last year, with the latest $100 million to cross the half a billion-milestone coming in less than 10 months. Per the funding tracker, June was an especially good month for the studio in recent times, gaining over $20 million just during that timeframe. The studio offers a variety of in-game ships and content as incentives for pledging money for the project's continued development.

While release dates are still nowhere in sight for the complete multiplayer experience nor the star-studded campaign, Cloud Imperium Games continues to steadily deliver on its quarterly game updates. The recent Alpha 3.17 major update brought forth rivers for planets, ship-to-ship refueling in flight, and an updated loot selling system as features.

The next major Star Citizen Alpha update, 3.18, should be releasing quite soon. It will carry a salvaging system for stripping down ships for profit, persistent objects across all servers, sand caves, expanded prison gameplay, and more. A glimpse at how development is progressing can be seen by heading to the studio's own progress tracker here.