HAS STAR CITIZEN TURNED A NEW CHAPTER WITH IAE COMING?

Chris Roberts and Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) has had a couple of hard years on their games Star Citizen and Squadron 42. There has been a lawsuit settled with Crytek for breaches of contract and copyright infringement. Even though c(CIG) hasn’t released their funding and expenses reports for 2020, CIG has commented that there were some losses in funding during the Covid-19 outbreak. It also going downhill for Cloud Imperium due to the performance of the Alpha version of the game that has been in development for ten years. (See Infographic below for 2012 through 2019 funding).

Things have changed since CitizenCon 2021. Wherein one day they raised two million dollars in funding. Confidence has come back due to the recent performance of the Star Citizen Alpha 3.15 in the Public Test Universe (PTU). Which will be going live sometime in the next two weeks. They have even opened a new studio in Frankfort, Germany.

Excitement has come back, and money is flowing back in. Cloud Imperium is banking on the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE). In a recent chat with SolCitizen podcast creator GriffinGamingRPG. He discussed the importance of IAE.

He said, “IAE is the biggest event of the year. CitizenCon is for the yearly report of current game and what is coming. IAE is the way where people can get very excited of what is coming and invest in the future.”

So, if anything can be said the IAE is the Superbowl for Cloud Imperium Games funding. Which is totally based on a crowdfunding model. The fans and critics of Star Citizen will see how Cloud Imperium will perform during IAE 2021.

IAE starts on November 19, 2021, runs through December 1st. Where all the current available ships and vehicles; along with future ships and vehicles will be on display, and over 100 of them will be free to rent to try out in-game. During the event there be a special ship and vehicle sale, where people can preorder and buy current ships at a lower price. Schedule is pictured below from RSI’s website.

There is a lot of about the IAE which will take place in-game on the planet Microtech. Where over thirteen days many of the in-game companies will show off their line of ships and vehicles. This is usually the biggest event for all year for CIG. They are pulling out all the stops with this year’s IAE. There will be bunch of animated videos will be released to entice the backers to purchase more ships and vehicles. As the companies’ day come up the more ships and vehicles will be added to the sale. Time will show how well IAE will benefit Cloud Imperium Games.