Somehow, 2020 was Star Citizen's most successful year to date

Star Citizen is still breaking crowdfunding records, having now raised over $350 million following one of its most successful years so far.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Cloud Imperium Games passed the latest milestone in February, bringing in an additional $5 million in that month alone. That follows the game's biggest year so far—even seven years after its initial Kickstarter campaign, 2020 netted CIG approximately $77 million. 

Last November was a highlight of the year, with a free-fly event reportedly bringing in $16.9 million by letting anyone try out the game's entire roster of ships. By the end of the month, CIG bought up another studio to create more Star Citizen content.

GIBiz notes that, while the developer categorises this income under crowdfunding, most of these funds come from starter pack purchases and the sale or rental of Star Citizen's virtual ships. 

Of course, Star Citizen is still seemingly no closer to any kind of 'final' release. Much-touted singleplayer campaign Squadron 42 is still nowhere to be seen, and while alpha updates continue to roll out, the ideal of a persistent, massively multiplayer universe still seems a distant pipe dream. In an 8th anniversary video last October, Chris Roberts explained that he "wasn't happy with how effectively we’ve been showing progress on Squadron 42".

Fans aren't the only ones complaining about poor communication, either. Developers at CIG's Texas office criticised management for being slow to respond to the state's devastating winter storms, telling staff to use their paid time off in conditions that saw much of Texas snowed under without power.