Star Citizen will "change the way people perceive games for the PC and... breathe new life into space combat games." It was easy to believe the words of Chris Roberts, creator of the Wing Commander series, back in 2012. His ambitious plan to revive the space sim, a genre that had been largely confined to the '90s, was leapt upon a PC audience keen to relive the experiences of their youth. An initial crowdfunding campaign on Star Citizen's site raised $2.6 million (£1.7 million), followed by another $2.1 million (£1.4 million) on Kickstarter.
But that initial enthusiasm has taken a battering of late. Since 2012, the space sim and space combat genres have seen a huge revival. Today, you can play the likes of Elite: Dangerous, and Strike Suit Zero, and soon you'll be able to play Eve: Valkyrie (a launch title for the Oculus Rift), and No Man's Sky. You can play Star Citizen too, of course, but it exists in a very different form—a form that's seemingly no closer to seeing a release date than it was when it was announced back in 2012.
Various parts of the game have been delayed over the years—most recently the first-person shooter portion—but its scope continues to grow. As key members of the development team leave, virtual ships to play in the unfinished game are continuing to be sold, bringing the crowdfunding total up to a frankly amazing $85 million (£55 million) from over 900,000 backers. That's the kind of money that creates behemoths like Borderlands 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Final Fantasy XIII. Different kinds of games, perhaps, but equally ambitious.
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