And opponents of Star Citizen tried to say there was no market for a PC-only space simulator...

We all knew that Chris Roberts' Freelancer spiritual successor, Star Citizen was a big deal, but did you know that it has now sailed past $55 million in crowdfunding? This milestone means that not only is it the most crowdfunded video game, but it is now officially in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most crowdfunded anything, ever.

Roberts, in a blog post on Robert Space Industries responding to the new world record, tries to ascertain just where all this money is coming from, and why people keep dumping more and more into the still unreleased title.

"The answer is that Star Citizen isn't a normal game," he said. "It's not being developed like a normal game and it's not being funded like a normal game. I've had to toss aside a lot of my knowledge from the old way of developing and embrace a completely new world. There is no publisher. There is no venture capitalist wanting a massive return in three years."

"There is no need to cram the game onto a disc and hope we got it all right." He continued, "Star Citizen is not the type of game that will be played for a few weeks, then put on a shelf to gather dust. Instead of building a game in secrecy we can be fully open with you as a community who have made this game possible."

Roberts also announced that the team building Star Citizen has now increased in number to 280, which is quite a sizable team to be working on the game.

From the sounds of things, Roberts is definitely in it for the long haul, and Star Citizen will most likely be the game to look out for this generation. Backers can already alpha test the dogfighting module of the game, and the FPS module is expected to be revealed at this year's PAX Australia expo in November.

Just don't hold your breath on the title coming to next-gen consoles, as it is apparently too big of a game for Sony and Microsoft's machines to handle.

Source: Roberts Space Industries via Games.on.net