Among the events that Star Citizen fans tend to be most excited for, there's the annual CitizenCon, which tends to be when the big news and the exciting demos of future features for the crowdfunded space simulator tend to drop.
For the past few years, the event has been confined to the online space due to the pandemic, but 2023 will see the return of the in-person fan gathering in Los Angeles, California. The date is October 21, 2023.
While we still don't know what CitizenCon 2953 will bring, if past events are an indication, we'll get to see big gameplay presentations, developer panels, and perhaps even the good ol' cosplay contest. Of course, with every CitizenCon there's the hope that it'll bring a release date for Squadron 42, the ultra-cinematic single-player campaign of the game starring famous actors like Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, John Rhys-Davies, Gillian Anderson, Liam Cunningham, Henry Cavill, and more. That being said, that hope has not yet materialized, so we better not expect too much on this font and perhaps be happily surprised.
Incidentally, if you're wondering about the "2953," Star Citizen's "in-lore" persistent universe calendar proceeds in parallel with the real world, so this year is 2953. Basically, it's set to be consistently 930 years in the future. All Star Citizen events follow its own calendar.
Of course, you can expect coverage of the event here on TechRaptor.
Incidentally, we also just got a video in which we hear from the Mission Features Team as they talk about the behind-the-scene happenings of mission creation.
In the meanwhile, Star Citizen's growing crowdfunding campaign is continuing apace, and the game has passed $548 million ($548,343,860 at the moment of this writing) from backers.
The number of registered users is now at 4,398,422, albeit not all of them are paying since many register accounts to access the popular free fly events that provide a chance to test the game without pledging any money. According to the latest information from creative director Chris Roberts himself in October 2022, 1.7 million players are actually paying customers.
Star Citizen recently ended its best year ever in terms of crowdfunding, with a staggering $113 million pledged in 2022, marking a 31% increase over 2021. The tally has been consistently increasing year-on-year since 2018.
Full disclosure: the author of this post has backed Star Citizen all the way back when its crowdfunding was first launched in September 2012.
