The only thing more astonishing than Star Citizen‘s ability to extract funds from its community is the eagerness with which said community has supported it. Across thirteen years, Cloud Imperium Games has raised over $800 million from a convoluted mixture of paid alpha access, subscriptions, merchandising, microtransactions, and selling spaceships that cost hundreds of dollars to players (I suppose you could call these “macrotransactions”).
While there have been controversies and backlashes to the game in the past, such as complaints over changes to the roadmap, the community has rarely revolted en masse at the prospect of paying for stuff. But the recent reveal of an upgrade for Star Citizen’s ships has finally caused to community to raise a finger and say “hold on a minute…”
The upgrade (or upgrades) in question are flight blades. These are designed to make ships faster or more manoeuvrable (depending on which type of blades you pick). Ship upgrades like this can generally be purchased with both real-world money or Star Citizen’s in-game currency (named aUEC) and Cloud Imperium Games apparently planned for this to be the case with flight blades. However, when these upgrades were initially added to the game, they could only be purchased with hard cash, costing between $9.60 and $42 depending on which set you bought.
Combined with the perceived advantage they provided, this led Star Citizen’s community to conclude flight blades were an outright pay-to-win item. The result was an explosive backlash, with CIG’s forum post announcing the upgrade racking up almost 2,000 bewildered responses. “This is a[n] actual joke, there is 0 reason why these should not be in game,” wrote user Lolman345_, while the fittingly named SaltEMike called the introduction of flight blades “the most embarrassing thing I have seen this company do yet”.
More interesting, though, are the responses from players who openly admit they’re generally happy with paying for stuff. Many players replying to the announcement refer to their eagerness for the Greycat MTC, a planetary exploration vehicle that costs $45. “I was gonna buy the MTC. I don’t feel good about it now,” user TagariusKhan. Captn agrees. “I was also looking forward to the MTC, guess we are write going back to voting with our wallet.”
A day later, Cloud Imperium Games responded, explaining why flight blades had been introduced as a purely purchasable item, and stating it was pushing back the upgrade’s release to coincide with their availability through in-game currency. “Throughout Star Citizen’s evolution, one fundamental principle has remained paramount: everything you pledge for to support our development will eventually be attainable through gameplay,” wrote Star Citizen’s community director Tyler Witkin. “Your contribution helps push things forward, but your time in the ‘verse should be equally rewarded.
Witkin then claimed the reason CIG pulled the trigger too fast on flight blades is because they developer is having a busy year. “We’re pushing 11 patches this year instead of 4. We’re crushing more bugs than ever, building more exciting content, moving faster than ever to make the Persistent Universe a better experience for everyone, and in moving that fast, we missed a step.”
“To be clear, the new flight blades will be obtainable for aUEC in our next patch this June. We followed our usual approach by offering early access on the pledge store to help support development.” Witkin pointed out. “But after some reflection, we’ve decided that for smaller components like flight blades or bomb racks, they should be available in-game at the same time they appear on the store.”
In light of the reaction, this seems like the right decision. But it does not appear to have mollified the community, with discussions about Star Citizen’s broader approach to pricing continuing in the comments below CIG’s statement: “The root issue here is that you continue to sell more and more items in the game that have a wider impact on what a player would do day to day,” writes SaltEMike. “Components shouldn’t be on the store AT ALL. Never mind later on. People are angry cos these are being sold in any way shape or form for real money,” adds user Liana.
As things stand, flight blades will now launch as both purchasable and earnable items in June, with Witkin emphasising that “For future gameplay kit introductions, we’ll ensure these items are obtainable in-game on day one.” Meanwhile, the development of Star Citizen and its single-player spinoff Squadron 42 rumble on with no firm release date for either. Last year, Chris Roberts said he was “confident” that Squadron 42 would launch in 2026, while in January he claimed Star Citizen was “closer than ever to realizing a dream many have said is impossible” but was no more specific than that.
