It is no secret that games are expensive today, with AAA titles averaging $70 a pop (not to mention microtransactions). According to Dexerto, Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has taken its ship pricing to a new level. It recently updated its infamous Legatus pack for 2023/2024 with the game's latest ships, boosting the price to $48,000. The pack is designed for the most hardcore Star Citizen enthusiasts. It is only unlockable after gamers have spent considerable money on Star Citizen packages and standalone ships.
The Legatus pack is the Cadillac of all Star Citizen ship packages; it includes every single ship in the game, including fighters, bombers, tanks, buggies, freighters, airliners, Alien ships, and more, as well as all of their associated paint schemes. It also includes all of Star Citizen's limited edition/special edition ships that are virtually impossible to buy otherwise, like the Anvil F8C Lightning (Star Citizen's F22 Raptor) and Aegis Sabre Raven - to name a few.
To the average gamer, it may seem ridiculous that Star Citizen would offer a $48,000 package. Still, ironically, the Legatus pack was initially inspired by the Star Citizen community, not its developers. The Legatus pack was born due to high demand from several Star Citizen backers, many of whom utilize their ships across corporations (the game's version of a guild). These corporations can often include hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
The package also serves as another method for whales to expend exorbitant amounts of money on the game purely for backing the game.
It's worth mentioning that Star Citizen's ship packages and standalone ship listings are not required to play the game. The primary purpose of these products is to back the game and support its development.
Financially, Star Citizen is in a perfect state, the game gathering in a whopping $113 million in 2022 and $104 million in 2023. Most of this revenue comes from Star Citizen's ship sales (unsurprisingly) and from Star Citizen's intergalactic Aerospace event that it puts on every year. The event is a virtual convention held in one of the game's cities that allows everyone to play the game for free and to fly most of the ships in the game for no additional cost. Star Citizen also features ship sales during the event, further incentivizing gamers to buy ships.
Much of the revenue goes back to the game and Star Citizen's development studios. Cloud Imperium Games (Star Citizen's developers) is constantly expanding, with the company recently opening a monster 1000-person game studio in Manchester to house additional staff. The company has amassed into an entity with over 1100 employees with several studios in America and Europe.
The game is consistently getting quarterly updates, which often include new ships, content, gameplay mechanics, and quality-of-life updates. Star Citizen's single-player sister game, Squadron 42, recently hit a huge milestone and is now "feature complete," according to CIG's CEO Chris Roberts. Release dates have not been announced for either game, but many expect Squadron 42 to arrive as early as Q4 2024 as the game enters its final polishing phase.
Star Citizen is still nowhere near complete. However, CIG has several severe features planned for 2024, like server meshing and a standalone replication layer service that will bring the game closer to beta testing. These two features alone will finally enable Star Citizen to open up more star systems in the game, considerably expanding the game's fidelity and gameplay.
