Star Citizen Becomes the Most Expensive Video Game to Develop in History

Developer Cloud Imperium Games has invented not a game, but an endless source of crowdfunding. Its name is Star Citizen. The space simulator game has raised more than $300 million through crowdfunding, with no end in sight!

At the time of writing, the total amount raised through crowdfunding is $301,153,976 from 2,715,315 people. GamesIndustry.biz reports an additional $63.25 million from private investments, bringing the total development cost to over $364 million.

This makes Star Citizen the most expensive game to develop in industry history. The next two games with the most expensive development costs are Grand Theft Auto V ($291 million) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ($298 million).

The crowdfunding campaign for Star Citizen began in 2012 at Kickstarter, where the creators aimed to raise $2.1 million. Neither the game itself nor its separate story campaign Squadron 42 have made it to full release yet, after eight years of development. No release date has been set.