Today Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games detailed what fans can expect from the upcoming Invictus Launch Week 2953 event.
The event will begin on May 19 and end on May 30, and it will involve the traditional Free Flight Event that will let everyone try the game without needing to pledge any money, while also enjoying the ability to test out pretty much all the flyable starships.
The event will also include the expo that will return to Area18 on the Coruscant-like urban planet ArcCorp, and the reveal of new ships. Specifically, we get the tease of a new manufacturer, Mirai.
This is interesting, as Mirai will be showcased alongside MISC and the logo is similar. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a tuner brand associated with MISC dedicated to creating racing ships, pretty much like Nissan's NISMO brand in the real world.
On top of this, a Javelin-class destroyer will be available to tour, albeit we do not know if it'll include new sections we did not see in previous years.
If you're wondering about the name "Invictus Launch Week," it's unrelated to the actual "launch" of the game. It's actually a celebration of the military fleet of the United Empire of Earth. 2953 is the in-universe date, as it progresses with the real-world calendar, just 930 years in the future.
You can check out the trailer of the event below and another video showing how to reach the expo.
The developer also released a detailed calendar of the event, with different days dedicated to different brands. As usual, Drake will celebrate its own separate "Defensecon" event, since the brand isn't really in the military's good graces so it isn't invited to the expo proper.
Another video released yesterday focuses on a new racing track in the works for the game, for those who enjoy space Mario Kart.
In the meanwhile, Star Citizen's growing crowdfunding campaign continues to make progress and the overall tally has recently passed $568 million ($568,355,6891 at the moment of this writing) pledged from backers.
The number of registered users has also recently passed 4.5 million and it's now at 4,562,352 albeit not all of them are paying since many register accounts to access the free fly events. According to the latest information that creative director Chris Roberts himself shared in October 2022, 1.7 million players are actually paying customers. Of course, that number is a few months old, so it's probably higher now.
At the moment, update Alpha 3.19 is being tested, likely to release ahead of Invictus Launch Week.
Full disclosure: the author of this post has backed Star Citizen all the way back when its crowdfunding was first launched in September 2012.
