Star Citizen adds pets as crowdfunding giant tops $65m

Upcoming space sim and undisputed crowdfunding champion of the world Star Citizen has surpassed $65m in total funds received, thanks in part to developer Cloud Imperium’s promise of in-game pets.

In a post on the Star Citizen’s official site, creator Chris Roberts revealed that the dev team would implement cats, dogs and other pets into the game at the $64m mark.

"We have repair bots, we have fish, but we haven’t implemented a traditional pet system in Star Citizen yet," Roberts wrote.

"At $64 million, that changes. From Jones the Cat in Alien to the Battlestar Galactica’s Daggit, pets have a place on board starship and we want to give you that option in Star Citizen."

The announcement has helped spur a surge in excess of $1m for the game over the past couple of days. At time of writing, the in-development title’s funding total has reached $65.07m from more than 666,000 backers – averaging out to just under $100 contributed per supporter.

Star Citizen is expected to officially launch in 2016 on Windows PC and Linux platforms.