Star Citizen raises $48 million, future stretch goal promises "alien languages"

Ah, I remember the days when Star Citizen's expanding warchest felt like a miraculous and important thing.

Ah, I remember the days when Star Citizen's expanding warchest felt like a miraculous and important thing. "Gee willikers, mister," I'd write, my face yet to be blemished by months of deleting iOS press releases, "Star Citizen has raised $9 million!" "Wowzas!" I'd later exclaim, not yet driven pallid and sickly from the mysterious substance pouring out of PC Gamer's coffee machine, "$17 million is a lot of money!" Only a year later, and that growing total is no longer a surprise. It simply is —a universal constant that weathers the chaos and turmoil of indifferent mathematics.

Er, by which I mean Star Citizen has raised $48 million.

But rather than that, and the user-voted "Retaliator" ship commercial the milestone has unlocked, the big news is in the game's newly announced $50 million stretch goal. When, as it inevitably will, the game raises that total, Cloud Imperium will create and add "Alien Languages" into the game.

"We will work with real-world linguists to create distinctive and realistic alien languages for Star Citizen's three biggest alien races, the Vanduul, the Xi'An and the Banu," writes Chris Roberts in the latest crowdfunding update. "No universal translators, no garbled animal noises: Star Citizen's aliens will be speaking their own authentic languages!"

"I'm excited about this one," writes Roberts, "and looking forward to meeting the first fan who learns to speak one of our languages! As always, thank you for your support."

For more on Star Citizen, check out our E3 interview with Chris Roberts.