It was only a few weeks ago when we reported on Star Citizen raking in $550M to date this year in crowdfunding, which was putting it on track to hit the $600M crowdfunding mark. It looks like that milestone has officially been hit as total funds raised so far sits at $600,349,980 at the time of this writing.
Breaking down the funding chart by the day, we see crowdfunding saw a jump upwards over the weekend, which lines up with the release of a CitizenCon digital goodies pack that bundles a number of in-game items for $35. Some of the items in the bundle haven’t even been created yet but will be built “live on the show floor of CitizenCon with [player] input,” and won’t even be delivered until sometime later this year.
While some fans apparently can’t help themselves and bought it anyway, the bundle has lit fires in other corners of the SC community. Multiple threads on Reddit and several more started on the forums are classing the bundle as a greedy move that fleeces the playerbase as well as a test of fan patience, with others calling for “no cash ’til Pyro.”
In addition to this news, a QA tester for CIG has shared on LinkedIn that he was caught in “layoffs that are transpiring at the moment” within the studio. The number of employees affected by this move isn’t immediately clear, but the news has set off no shortage of armchair analysis among gamers. One of the more plausible conclusions suggests that QA developers are being shown the door while their workload is being passed on to Turbulent, which readers will recall was bought up by CIG in July.
