As it rapidly approaches $1 billion in player funding, Star Citizen goes free to play until May 27

While there’s a lot of speculation about when, if ever, Star Citizen will actually be finished, Cloud Imperium Games’ massively ambitious space sim has been in a steadily-growing playable alpha for a long time. And if you want to check out how far along the game is without investing hundreds of dollars in virtual spaceships, the game is free to play until Wednesday.

This is all part of Star Citizen’s annual DefenseCon event, a very normal virtual military convention which allows both new and existing players to try out the biggest ships in Star Citizen’s fleet. For regular Joes like myself, this means we can cut about in ships that would normally be available to only the most dedicated players, while also checking out what Star Citizen’s galaxy has in store.

To play Star Citizen for free, you just need to create an account and download the launcher. The DefenseCon event is being held in-game at the Bevic Convention Center in the city Area18. New players will receive a loaner Aurora Mark 2 ship so they can fly to the event. Alternatively, you can just spawn at Area18, then take a shuttle (Star Citizen is the kind of game that has virtual public transport) to the Bevic Convention Center. Apparently there are 100 ships available to fly, with each loanable for a total of 48 hours.

The free week comes hot off the heels of a major update to Star Citizen that implemented an extensive game wipe. This was done primarily to address players abusing various exploits within Star Citizen’s economy, but it also means that, if you’re new to the game, you’ll be rolling into a relatively fresh-feeling universe. The update also introduced a bunch of extra mission types to Star Citizen, including a new type of refuelling mission that you might be able to try, and a high-level Tactical Strike Group mission that you probably won’t get access to in the time allotted.

Star Citizen is free to play from now until May 27. Chris Roberts’ sci-fi magnum opus is rapidly closing in on raising $1 billion in crowdfunding. Indeed, judging by its current trajectory, it’s only a matter of weeks until it crosses the threshold. While the full game is unlikely to be finished before 2028 at the earliest, its single-player component, Squadron 42, is still theoretically due to launch sometime this year.

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