Star Citizen raises $48 million, future stretch goal promises "alien languages"

Ah, I remember the days when Star Citizen's expanding warchest felt like a miraculous and important thing. "Gee willikers, mister," I'd write , my face yet to be blemished by months of deleting iOS press releases, "Star Citizen has raised $9 million!" "Wowzas!" I'd later exclaim , not yet driven pallid and sickly from the mysterious substance pouring out of PC Gamer's coffee machine, "$17 million is a lot of money!" Only a year later, and that growing total is no longer a surprise. It simply is —a universal constant that weathers the chaos and turmoil of indifferent mathematics.

Er, by which I mean Star Citizen has raised $48 million.

But rather than that, and the user-voted "Retaliator" ship commercial the milestone has unlocked, the big news is in the game's newly announced $50 million stretch goal. When, as it inevitably will, the game raises that total, Cloud Imperium will create and add "Alien Languages" into the game.

"We will work with real-world linguists to create distinctive and realistic alien languages for Star Citizen's three biggest alien races, the Vanduul, the Xi'An and the Banu," writes Chris Roberts in the latest crowdfunding update. "No universal translators, no garbled animal noises: Star Citizen's aliens will be speaking their own authentic languages!"

"I'm excited about this one," writes Roberts, "and looking forward to meeting the first fan who learns to speak one of our languages! As always, thank you for your support."

For more on Star Citizen, check out our E3 interview with Chris Roberts .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

Latest in Sim
A citizen of a city
A lot is going on for Cities: Skylines' 10th anniversary—from freebies to new creator packs—but there's still a big ol' elephant in the room
Staring eyes in a face covered in oil
Death Stranding 2's PS5 release date is in June, let's hope it doesn't take 8 months to hit PC this time
Cities: Skylines 2 screenshot - street level at night
Cities: Skylines 2's asset editor remains a distant dream: Colossal Order is still working on it but says it's 'proven more technically challenging than initially anticipated'
Town in Tales of Seikyu with two townsfolk sat on the stairs
Tales of Seikyu is just your regular farming simulator, apart from the fact I've got shapeshifting abilities and I'm engaged to a pretty persistent kappa
A spacecraft flying near the sun in Elite: Dangerous
Elite Dangerous just implemented an entire system colonisation mechanic, in case you really want to get off this planet
Birds in a garden in Birdfull
This cosy birdwatching idle game has me leaving behind my binoculars and enjoying the hobby from the comfort of my desktop
Latest in News
Pedro Pascal as Joel in a coat in winter looking unhappy
'Don't you know what he did?': The truth comes out in The Last of Us Season 2 trailer
Aloy
'Creepy,' 'ghastly,' 'rancid': Viewers react to leaked video of Sony's AI-powered Aloy
Split Fiction trailer still - Zoe and Mio standing side by side, wearing glowing neon sci-fi jammies
Split Fiction sells 1 million copies over 2 days
A soldier looks out over the Verdansk map, as a single tear rolls down his cheek.
The original Verdansk map is returning to Call of Duty: Warzone, to celebrate which we get a soldier crying to Nat King Cole
More than 5 years after launch, Control gets a surprise patch that lets everyone play the Hideo Kojima mission
Swen Vincke
Swen Vincke stamps seal of approval on Stardew Valley mod that yoinks the Baldur's Gate 3 cast out of D&D and into a cosy pastoral life