Cloud Imperium Games has been developing the exceedingly ambitious Star Citizen and its single player Squadron 42 component for almost eight years and although we're still at least a year and a half away from the game(s) hitting beta, development is progressing. It's doing so off of the back of the most crowd funded haul ever and it will need to continue to do so, as Cloud Imperium has spent most of what it's already pulled in.
According to a breakdown released by Cloud Imperium, via Gamasutra, it's spent $193 million of the $250 million that it's drawn in from pledges, subscriptions, and partnerships. It spent just shy of $50 million of that in 2017 alone, burning through around $4 million a month to create this singular title and its single player side project.
This is of some concern as that's more than the project has been bringing in. In 2017 it raised just shy of $44 million in pledges from fans, subscriptions and hardware and software partnerships. If it were to keep up such a deficit, it would only have a few more years of operation before running into the red.
One positive aspect of these figures, though, is that they suggest that the majority of Cloud Imperium's costs have been on salaries. It previously spent a lot on external developers, but has brought in more full time developers in recent years. Publishing and marketing costs have risen signfiicanty in the past couple of years though, which may be CIGs way of trying to turn around its yearly deficit.
Despite its lengthy development Star Citizen pledges continue to roll in to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a day as players pay for new ships and in-game items for when the game(s) does officially launch. Many people have criticised these charges, which can reach thousands of dollars for the most powerful ships and packages.
How do you feel about Star Citizen's continued crowd funding efforts?