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🎮️ The $900 Million Alpha That Won’t Stop Printing Money

🎮️ The $900 Million Alpha That Won’t Stop Printing Money

I dove into the Black Ops 7 campaign and emerged with emotional damage - here’s everything else that happened this week.

December 05, 2025

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Good morning!

Between billion-dollar alphas, leaky playtests, and Netflix selling off studios like they’re clearing out a garage, it’s been busy out there.

In this edition, we’ve got:

A space sim that refuses to release but happily accepts your mortgage payment
Big updates, bigger delays, and the biggest “wait, what?” moments of the week
And one truly wild top story about a game that’s raised $900M without finishing

Here’s everything you need to know this week in the world of gaming. Keep reading - it's a good one.

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TOP STORY

🤯 The $900 Million Alpha That Won’t Stop Printing Money

Star Citizen, the space sim that launched in 2012 and promptly decided it didn’t need things like “finishing” or “releasing”, has now raised over $900 million. Yes, nearly a billion dollars. For a game still in alpha. Still no release date. Still adding features like a kid piling LEGO bricks onto a tower that absolutely will collapse.

And honestly? It’s kind of amazing and kind of ridiculous at the same time.

The Dream (AKA Why People Keep Throwing Money at It)

The game is split into two halves:

Squadron 42 – The cinematic single-player campaign starring Mark Hamill and half of Hollywood. Currently “coming in 2026,” which, according to the devs, might actually mean “please stop asking.”
The Persistent Universe (PU) – The live sandbox where players mine, trade, fight, crash spectacularly, and try to pretend their $45 starter ship is just as cool as their buddy’s space-yacht.

To its credit, the tech is incredible. Seamless planetary landings, no loading screens, real rotating day/night cycles, and the truly bonkers Persistent Entity Streaming, meaning you can drop a water bottle on a random rock shelf and come back six months later to find it still sitting there, judging you.

When the game works, it really works. When it doesn’t… well, you get to meet the respawn medbay again.

The Money (AKA The Part Everyone Fights About)

Star Citizen sells ships. Real-money ships.
Like… $700 ships.
Or $1,000 ships.
Or an entire $25,000 account on the grey market.

These ships aren’t cosmetic either, they come with actual gameplay advantages. Players say it’s not pay-to-win, just pay-to-excel, which is a bit like arguing that your Ferrari doesn’t make you faster, just… “excels” better than my bicycle.

And yes, you can earn ships in-game. Until the next server wipe. Oops.

The Cult & The Chaos

Despite everything, Star Citizen raised more money this year than any previous year, over $117 million so far. Which I believe qualifies as “insanely profitable vapor.”

Even the devs now hedge about Squadron 42 dropping in 2026. One said, “I don’t know if we’ll make it.” Which, after 14 years, does not inspire confidence.

But here’s the thing:
Calling it a scam doesn’t land because the product exists. It’s just eternally unfinished. You’re not buying a game; you’re funding a science experiment that sometimes lets you shoot lasers at rocks.

So… Will It Ever Release?

Short answer: Probably not in the traditional sense.
Long answer: Why would they? If you were making a billion dollars selling spaceships, would you ever stop?

But hey, at least it means we get a fresh “Star Citizen has now raised ___ million” headline every year. And a fresh excuse to make fun of it.