Why is Star Citizen going free-to-play?
Star Citizen is one of the most expensive games in history. The space flight sim, which has been in development since 2011, is as controversial as it is popular. On one hand, players continue to flock to the game and throw money at its developers. On the other hand, Star Citizen still hasn’t been fully released yet and it might never even “come out”. This is despite Star Citizen already making it past the $350-million mark in crowdfunding earlier this year. If you’re curious to find out what the fuss is all about, now is the best time to do it. According to the game’s official website, Star Citizen will be free-to-play from November 19 until December 1. One of the main pain points when it comes to Star Citizen is its premium pricing. To help attract both new and old customers, Cloud Imperium Games holds free-play days for the game. It just so happens that the latest free-play period coincides with the game’s Intergalactic Aerospace Exo 2951 event, which will see the studio reveal several new ships that are coming to the game. Normally, a starter pack for Star Citizen would cost players at least $50 and as much as $1,320, making the ongoing free-play promotion the perfect way to find out if it’s still worth backing Star Citizen in 2021. Interestingly enough, Star Citizen’s ongoing event is the longest free-to-play period for the game yet. Last year, Star Citizen was also free-to-play for 2020’s Intergalactic Aerospace Expo. However, unlike this year, which lasts around two weeks, Star Citizen was only available to freely play for 48 hours. Even in that short time, Star Citizen saw a massive surge in players, many of which decided to stick around. A longer period of free days of play should have a more significant effect on Star Citizen’s numbers.
