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Star Citizen has invented the $12 monthly “development subscription”

Star Citizen

Funny how roles change, isn’t it? In the Roman era, a centurion commanded scores of infantry, earning far more than the average soldier. By contrast, today’s ‘centurion’ pays out every month for the privilege of watching space game Star Citizen become ever larger – and to receive hangar decorations, digital magazines and concept art.

“If you’re interested in going above and beyond to support Star Citizen’s development,” say Cloud Imperium, “there’s no better way.”

UPDATE: Apparently this has been going on for yonks, and we are a bit slow on the uptake. Original story follows.

Subscribers can buy into a $12 per-month plan, or pay out $132 to see them through the next year. Which appears to indicate that Cloud Imperium aren’t planning to wrap up Star Citizen development anytime soon.

They’ll keep delicious liquid floating around Chris Roberts’ beer throne, and also gain regular add-ons funded by subscription fees.

Every month they’ll get a copy of Jump Point – Star Citizen’s in-house digital magazine which functions as both newsletter and fiction serial collection. They’ll get access to The Vault,too,a routinely-updated folder of concept and work-in-progress art.

In-game benefits lean towards vanity rather than utility – from hangar “flair items” like interactive lockers, to an allotment of virtual currency to spend on temporary access to ships and weapons in Star Citizen’s Arena Commander module. And there’s a fancy decal for subscriber ships if they stick around for a year, plus the promise of their name appearing somewhere in the game.

Ship rental was introduced last month – while Cloud Imperium reckon that the eventual finished Star Citizen will weigh in at over 100GB. Will you make room on your hard drive when the time comes?