Star Citizen’s latest VIP bundle costs as much as a real boat

Star Citizen just dropped their ‘Legatus’ bundle at a total cost of $48,000 USD — that’s enough to buy a real boat.

Star Citizen, the open-world space MMO by Cloud Imperium Games, has already earned a bit of a reputation for its price structures. The game’s VIP system, the Chairman’s Club, has an entry point of $1,000 USD ‘pledged’ or spent on the game and caps out at $25,000 USD.

But their latest bundle comes in at almost double that cost, a whopping $48,000 USD. The ‘Legatus 2953’ bundle comes complete with every ship and skin available in Star Citizen to date, it also features some upcoming ships still under development too.

This latest version isn’t even the first time a Legatus bundle has been released either. CGI has been selling the Legatus bundle in some form since 2018, with the first version costing players $27,000 USD.

If these prices sound crazy, it’s worth noting just how long things have been this way in Star Citizen. Still, a new bundle like this wasn’t just cooked up by CGI marketers at random.

Back in 2018 when CGI was first called out over the pricing structure, studio head Eric Kieron Davis said the community itself called for the creation of the bundle: “It wasn’t created in a vacuum.” Going on to explain Star Citizen had many passionate players who saw the game as a “dream project” they’re helping to make happen, rather than a “typical game purchase”.

Users on the Star Citizen subreddit shared their thoughts with one another about how options like the Legatus bundle are received by those outside the game’s community.

“Come on though, Star Citizen deserved to get memed on for having a package for nearly $50,000. That’s just ridiculous,” said one user.

“This is really hard to explain to people when you tell them they can get the game for $40,” said another.

Other users debated the wisdom of these kinds of bundles in general. And how exorbitant prices like these could eventually affect the gaming economy as a whole. “The principle is what people are upset at. Not necessarily the fact that others are spending their money,” one user explained.

Another user provided additional context about Star Citizen’s purchase system which offered a slightly different perspective too, “CIG has a system where ships can be ‘melted’ for store credit and that credit can be spent on other things in the store, including this pack… it doesn’t have to be a standalone purchase, nor a cash purchase.”

Still, even if Star Citizen’s whales want a bundle like the Legatus, a price point that’s equal to a new car, or a house deposit, is no doubt hard to justify for most gamers.