{"id":1953426,"date":"2026-05-24T22:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T19:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1953426"},"modified":"2026-05-24T22:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T19:10:08","slug":"star-citizen-tops-1-billion-crowdfunding-milestone-as-5000-jpeg-spaceship-you-cannot-use-yet-goes-on-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1953426","title":{"rendered":"Star Citizen tops $1 billion crowdfunding milestone as &#8220;$5000 JPEG&#8221; spaceship you cannot use yet goes on sale"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/star-citizen\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Star Citizen<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Star Citizen tops $1 billion crowdfunding milestone as &#8220;$5000 JPEG&#8221; spaceship you cannot use yet goes on sale<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Out of this world.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Star-Citizen_bCEvDtA.png?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Star Citizen\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Star-Citizen_bCEvDtA.png\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1533038852.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1533038852.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/vikki-blake\">Vikki Blake<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-24T22:10:08+00:00\">May 24, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"8e64a7a2-b03b-4b22-ab14-9782c49bc197\" data-name=\"Star Citizen\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Star Citizen\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Star Citizen\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Star Citizen\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Star Citizen\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Star Citizen\" title=\"Follow Star Citizen\"><br \/>\n  Follow Star Citizen<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>It&#8217;s official: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/star-citizen\">Star Citizen<\/a>, Cloud Imperium Games&#8217; multiplayer sci-fi sim, has now topped $1 billion in crowdfunding.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/en\/funding-goals\">milestone<\/a> popped earlier today courtesy of the 6.5 million players who have donated over \u00a3743 million since the game was announced in 2012. It remains in early access.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Star Citizen | Alpha 4.8: Tactical Strike\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RWQSxN-ZukE?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RWQSxN-ZukE\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Star Citizen | Alpha 4.8: Tactical Strike<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Star Citizen | Alpha 4.8: Tactical Strike.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RWQSxN-ZukE\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CIG says that &#8220;as a crowd-funded project, Star Citizen&#8217;s scope is based directly on the support provided by our backers. Money pledged goes directly to the game&#8217;s development&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As our friends at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/star-citizen-officially-crosses-the-1-billion-funding-raised-barrier-as-5000-spaceship-you-cant-fly-in-game-goes-on-sale\">IGN<\/a> point out, the milestone comes as the game launches a new $5000 (\u00a33700) spaceship, the Anvil Odin capital ship, which is not even available yet. It went on sale as a &#8220;limited vehicle concept pledge&#8221; with no firm release date. Owners will get a loaned Idris P until it&#8217;s ready.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On top of the $5K, players had to write an essay to apply to join the Odin Founders Club. CIG said it received &#8220;applications from captains all over the world, each sharing their stories, organisations, experiences, and visions for what commanding a battlecruiser in Star Citizen means to them&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, you may complete your Odin Founders Club journey by pledging for this inaugural debut of the Anvil Aerospace Odin battlecruiser during DefenseCon 2956,&#8221; CIG explained. &#8220;The Odin represents a meaningful milestone for us internally, as its introduction closes out the final remaining vehicle stretch goals established at the very beginning of the project\u2019s journey more than a decade ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Once such player defended his purchase on the game&#8217;s subreddit in a thread he entitled &#8220;I just bought a $5000 Odin JPEG, [Ask me Anything]&#8221;, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/starcitizen\/comments\/1tmg6el\/i_just_bought_a_5000_odin_jpeg_ama\/\">writing<\/a>: &#8220;I measure my happiness with a game based off of how many hours I&#8217;ve played it, despite the game being buggy and broken at times, I play this game more than anything else in my limited free time. So for me, as long as things keep improving and they keep adding content then I will be happy with my purchase&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/gaming\/news\/star-citizen-1-billion-funding-squadron-42-release-update-1236757420\/\">Variety<\/a>, CIG founder Chris Roberts said: &#8220;I think that the goal that everybody is supporting is pretty ambitious and huge, but also a pretty exciting one.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of people want to spend time adventuring out in the virtual world of something that&#8217;s like Star Citizen, and that&#8217;s really what&#8217;s helped get us to where we are, because the dream so big that it&#8217;s something that you don&#8217;t get in any other game. It&#8217;s not something that would be able to be done under a traditional big game publisher funding it, or private equity.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They usually wouldn&#8217;t have the time and the patience, but with what we&#8217;re doing, people just want to see the biggest, best world possible, and they love the idea of the dream. And as we&#8217;re going along and they see more of it, it reinforces itself, basically. I fully believe that we&#8217;ve still got a long time, even after we&#8217;ve got what we call 1.0 out, and we&#8217;re not considering an alpha anymore, that we&#8217;ll be adding and building on the universe and the world, and it will be a place for people to adventure together and meet up together and have fun together. Not too different than, say, World of Warcraft, which has been going on for 20-plus years after it released.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This time last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/star-citizen-players-slam-cigs-non-apology-after-space-sim-introduces-pay-to-win-items-that-cannot-be-earned-in-game\">Cloud Imperium Games responded to players unhappy about the recent introduction of &#8220;pay to win&#8221; flight blades<\/a> in Star Citizen, admitting it &#8220;missed a step&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>While Star Citizen&#8217;s community doesn&#8217;t typically shy away from financially supporting the game&#8217;s 12-year-old early access period, on this occasion, players took umbrage that even though the blades give an undeniable in-game advantage, they had been introduced as a premium item that could not be earned organically through gameplay.<\/p>\n<p>The fallout was so intense, CIG has now posted a statement, stressing to players that they will be able to obtain flight blades through the in-game currency aUEC &#8220;in our next patch this June&#8221; and said that &#8220;for future gameplay kit introductions, we\u2019ll ensure these items are obtainable in-game on day one&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re curious about what the fuss is about, <a href=\"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/en\/star-citizen\">Star Citizen is running a free trial<\/a> between now and 27th May.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>It&#8217;s official: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/star-citizen\">Star Citizen<\/a>, Cloud Imperium Games&#8217; multiplayer sci-fi sim, has now topped $1 billion in crowdfunding.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/en\/funding-goals\">milestone<\/a> popped earlier today courtesy of the 6.5 million players who have donated over \u00a3743 million since the game was announced in 2012. It remains in early access.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Star Citizen | Alpha 4.8: Tactical Strike\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RWQSxN-ZukE?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RWQSxN-ZukE\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Star Citizen | Alpha 4.8: Tactical Strike<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Star Citizen | Alpha 4.8: Tactical Strike.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RWQSxN-ZukE\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CIG says that &#8220;as a crowd-funded project, Star Citizen&#8217;s scope is based directly on the support provided by our backers. Money pledged goes directly to the game&#8217;s development&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As our friends at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/star-citizen-officially-crosses-the-1-billion-funding-raised-barrier-as-5000-spaceship-you-cant-fly-in-game-goes-on-sale\">IGN<\/a> point out, the milestone comes as the game launches a new $5000 (\u00a33700) spaceship, the Anvil Odin capital ship, which is not even available yet. It went on sale as a &#8220;limited vehicle concept pledge&#8221; with no firm release date. Owners will get a loaned Idris P until it&#8217;s ready.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On top of the $5K, players had to write an essay to apply to join the Odin Founders Club. CIG said it received &#8220;applications from captains all over the world, each sharing their stories, organisations, experiences, and visions for what commanding a battlecruiser in Star Citizen means to them&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, you may complete your Odin Founders Club journey by pledging for this inaugural debut of the Anvil Aerospace Odin battlecruiser during DefenseCon 2956,&#8221; CIG explained. &#8220;The Odin represents a meaningful milestone for us internally, as its introduction closes out the final remaining vehicle stretch goals established at the very beginning of the project\u2019s journey more than a decade ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Once such player defended his purchase on the game&#8217;s subreddit in a thread he entitled &#8220;I just bought a $5000 Odin JPEG, [Ask me Anything]&#8221;, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/starcitizen\/comments\/1tmg6el\/i_just_bought_a_5000_odin_jpeg_ama\/\">writing<\/a>: &#8220;I measure my happiness with a game based off of how many hours I&#8217;ve played it, despite the game being buggy and broken at times, I play this game more than anything else in my limited free time. So for me, as long as things keep improving and they keep adding content then I will be happy with my purchase&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/gaming\/news\/star-citizen-1-billion-funding-squadron-42-release-update-1236757420\/\">Variety<\/a>, CIG founder Chris Roberts said: &#8220;I think that the goal that everybody is supporting is pretty ambitious and huge, but also a pretty exciting one.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of people want to spend time adventuring out in the virtual world of something that&#8217;s like Star Citizen, and that&#8217;s really what&#8217;s helped get us to where we are, because the dream so big that it&#8217;s something that you don&#8217;t get in any other game. It&#8217;s not something that would be able to be done under a traditional big game publisher funding it, or private equity.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They usually wouldn&#8217;t have the time and the patience, but with what we&#8217;re doing, people just want to see the biggest, best world possible, and they love the idea of the dream. And as we&#8217;re going along and they see more of it, it reinforces itself, basically. I fully believe that we&#8217;ve still got a long time, even after we&#8217;ve got what we call 1.0 out, and we&#8217;re not considering an alpha anymore, that we&#8217;ll be adding and building on the universe and the world, and it will be a place for people to adventure together and meet up together and have fun together. Not too different than, say, World of Warcraft, which has been going on for 20-plus years after it released.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This time last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/star-citizen-players-slam-cigs-non-apology-after-space-sim-introduces-pay-to-win-items-that-cannot-be-earned-in-game\">Cloud Imperium Games responded to players unhappy about the recent introduction of &#8220;pay to win&#8221; flight blades<\/a> in Star Citizen, admitting it &#8220;missed a step&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>While Star Citizen&#8217;s community doesn&#8217;t typically shy away from financially supporting the game&#8217;s 12-year-old early access period, on this occasion, players took umbrage that even though the blades give an undeniable in-game advantage, they had been introduced as a premium item that could not be earned organically through gameplay.<\/p>\n<p>The fallout was so intense, CIG has now posted a statement, stressing to players that they will be able to obtain flight blades through the in-game currency aUEC &#8220;in our next patch this June&#8221; and said that &#8220;for future gameplay kit introductions, we\u2019ll ensure these items are obtainable in-game on day one&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re curious about what the fuss is about, <a href=\"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/en\/star-citizen\">Star Citizen is running a free trial<\/a> between now and 27th May.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Star Citizen Star Citizen tops $1 billion crowdfunding milestone as &#8220;$5000 JPEG&#8221; spaceship you cannot use yet goes on sale Out of this world. News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on May 24, 2026 Follow Star Citizen It&#8217;s official: Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium Games&#8217; multiplayer sci-fi sim, has now topped $1 billion in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1953426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1953426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1953426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1953426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1953426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}