Star Citizen hits $55 million, and 280 devs, as funding rolls on

- Chris Roberts, in his latest crowdfunding update Funding for Star Citizen keeps rolling in -- the game just hit the $55 million mark, Cloud Imperium Games founder Chris Roberts writes in a new letter to his backers. How has the game raised so much money? In part by selling spaceships to prospective players -- an incredibly lucrative practice. Less than a year ago, the game had raised only $26 million. More interesting is that the ongoing funding campaign has brought major changes to the game's production, as compared to publisher-funded, packaged games; the game is being developed in modular pieces at different studios, which are being distributed to backers in alpha form long before the final launch, when all those pieces will come together. In the new post, Roberts writes about his intention for "all the money we bring in before launch to be spent on development," and the fact that "I now look at our monthly fundraising and use that to set the amount of resources being used to develop this game," a bigger suggestion of just how the game's funding format has changed its production. Notable, also, is that the in-house and outsourced developers for Star Citizen have now reached more than 280. The game is being developed by studios including Roberts' Cloud Imperium and independent studio Behaviour Interactive. For a more in-depth look at how Roberts is tackling development of Star Citizen, you can read this interview from last year. Roberts' tips on crowdfunding, are here.