It's official: Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium Games' multiplayer sci-fi sim, has now topped $1 billion in crowdfunding. The milestone popped earlier today courtesy of the 6.5 million players who have donated over £743 million since the game was announced in 2012. It remains in early access. CIG says that "as a crowd-funded project, Star Citizen's scope is based directly on the support provided by our backers. Money pledged goes directly to the game's development". As our friends at IGN point out, the milestone comes as the game launches a new $5000 (£3700) spaceship, the Anvil Odin capital ship, which is not even available yet. It went on sale as a "limited vehicle concept pledge" with no firm release date. Owners will get a loaned Idris P until it's ready. On top of the $5K, players had to write an essay to apply to join the Odin Founders Club. CIG said it received "applications from captains all over the world, each sharing their stories, organisations, experiences, and visions for what commanding a battlecruiser in Star Citizen means to them". "Now, you may complete your Odin Founders Club journey by pledging for this inaugural debut of the Anvil Aerospace Odin battlecruiser during DefenseCon 2956," CIG explained. "The Odin represents a meaningful milestone for us internally, as its introduction closes out the final remaining vehicle stretch goals established at the very beginning of the project’s journey more than a decade ago." Once such player defended his purchase on the game's subreddit in a thread he entitled "I just bought a $5000 Odin JPEG, [Ask me Anything]", writing: "I measure my happiness with a game based off of how many hours I've played it, despite the game being buggy and broken at times, I play this game more than anything else in my limited free time. So for me, as long as things keep improving and they keep adding content then I will be happy with my purchase". In an interview with Variety, CIG founder Chris Roberts said: "I think that the