Star Citizen is currently free-to-play, but not for long

techradar.com:

Star Citizen, the in-development space simulator from Cloud Imperium Games, has launched its first free-to-play “Free Fly” event of 2024, giving players the chance to try the game out without spending a penny. 

The latest Free Fly event kicked off yesterday (February 8) and is planned to run until February 15. Free-to-play players can try out five different ships, including the Prospector (a mining vessel) and the Origin 400i touring ship. If you’ve not played since the last Free Fly event, it’s worth noting that more content was added to the game in December, including some new open-world settlements, hairstyles, and expanded PvP content.

In case you were unaware, Star Citizen has had quite an interesting developmental story, to say the least. It was first announced all the way back in 2012, and although it’s been playable in an alpha state for a while now, there’s still no release window for its full launch in sight. 

The original Kickstarter to fund the project smashed its initial goal of raising $500,000 (roughly £395,700) and surpassed $2 million (around £1.69 million). Even so, the game continues to earn money through the sale of “starter packs,” in-game ships, and other packages, many of which are exceptionally pricey. Right now, for example, one particular package, named Legatus 2953, costs a whopping $57,600 (£46,080).

While it’s not clear when the game is expected to release in full, it continues to get new content updates regularly. If you’ve ever been curious about it, there’s no doubt that this free-to-play period is an excellent chance to see what it has to offer.

Looking for some new games to dive into? You can find some excellent recommendations on our list of the best PC games. You can also find more games that you don’t need to spend a penny to play on our roundup of the best free games.