Concern is in the air, which Star Citizen big cheese Chris Roberts decided to address in a new lengthy blog post, describing the game as definitely not being a “pipe dream” that will take several decades to be realised.

Something new is still being added to Star Citizen for 2019 though! Much to the delight of the tens of backers who still exist and defend the game whenever they’re given a chance, the persistent universe will now play home to ship rental, underground caves and more according to recent patch notes.

Over in the land of Gamescom last week, the Star Citizen crew invited some of their most loyal backers to join them for an intimate dinner in Frankfurt, where SC big cheese Chris Roberts would be present for some QnA. The catch? This event was only open to Concierge members of Star Citizen, people who had spent at least $1000 on the game. The seats, or flat pieces of wood that their butts were crammed on top of in sardine fashion, cost $275 each.

Star Citizen isn’t anywhere close to hitting the lightspeed switch and finally crossing the finish line, let alone worthy of its current alpha status as feature creep and too much ambition continues to hobble what could have been the return of the space exploration genre in grand fashion.

I’m starting to think that Star Citizen is nothing more than a protracted social experiment to see how much fans and loyalists can endure before they crack. Cloud Imperium’s crowd-funded game has been in development for what feels like a lifetime, with extraneous revenue streams – like expensive in-game ships – helping to pad the company’s coffers. Now they're charging fans to watch the Citizencon livestream

Last week, changes to Star Citizen’s economy created concerns about the game shifting towards becoming “pay to win.” The removal of the UEC cap limit allows players to stockpile in-game cash, causing debates between fans over whether the change will actually have any meaningful impact on the game. In a new “Letter from the Chairman,” Cloud Imperium Games boss Chris Roberts addressed the “pay to win” concerns. The gist of Roberts’ argument is that Star Citizen isn’t a regular game with an end goal, so there’s no traditional “win” state. Players “win” by having fun, and they can have fun whether they shell out extra money or not.

When news broke that the developer had secured a sizable loan from UK banking institution Coutts, fans began to panic over a perceived financial crisis at the Star Citizen studio. But really,everything is just fine.

If you happen to want to spend upwards of $160 on a new mini-gunship that you can’t use right now in the game, there’s an option for that in Star Citizen. Folks, mee the Anvil Hurrican gunship.