Greetings Citizens,

Happy Birthday, Star Citizen! One year ago yesterday, I announced the game at GDC Online in Austin. Yesterday, development team members from around the world celebrated a project that has grown faster than anyone could have imagined. We have you, our backers, to thank for this. It has been a great year, with an even better one ahead.

We planned the CitizenCon event to celebrate the anniversary with the team, who were scheduled to meet in Austin for our first company-wide development summit. As the event came together, we realized that we needed to include the community that made this game possible. With only six weeks between the Hangar reveal and the first anniversary, we didn’t have time to book a larger venue that would allow everyone to attend (an impossible task even if we had had a dedicated event-planning team!) We opted to go with a livestream presentation, revealing some of the work we’ve been focusing on in the last year.

But it wouldn’t be a Star Citizen event without a broken website or two. We’re still looking into what disabled the stream. Between the early disconnection, jittery video and the fact that the stream wasn’t available at all in Germany, thousands of Citizens missed out on seeing the Gladiator and Retaliator, the start of The Next Great Starship, the announcement about CIG Manchester, and the Hornet commercial!

If you missed out on the reveals last night, I apologize. We went with YouTube’s event streaming because we are partnering with them for The Next Great Starship. We did not realize that this would block an important part of our audience and result in the other problems you saw last night. We’re looking into the technical issues and until we have the process correct, we will be using Twitch.tv for livestreams. If you didn’t get a chance to see the event yet, you can find it here.

I can tell you right now: next year will be different. Sandi and her team are starting the planning process now with an eye towards creating an event that Citizens from around the world will be able to attend in person. To kick this off, we’re asking the community to choose the venue. Please vote in the poll below on where you’d like to see CitizenCon 2014. In future years, we hope to alternate locations around the world to give everyone a chance to attend.

Thank you for your patience and the last year of incredible support. The best is yet to come. To both the game and the community, I offer an enthusiastic Happy Birthday!

Last night, I showed a preview of the Hornet commercial. I explained that this release wasn’t just coming in hot, it was laser-scorched and burning. In fact, we downloaded the cut of the commercial you saw as I was presenting. I was expecting to release the finished commercial and brochure today, along with a promotion putting Hornet variants on sale. Unfortunately, they just aren’t ready yet. I want the Hornet release to be perfect, with a proper sound mix in the commercial and Hornet variants you can immediately interact with in your hangar. That won’t happen if we rushed to get them out today, so I’m delaying the Hornet release until next Friday. Check back then to learn all about the best dogfighter in the UEE fleet. If you would like to see the unfinished commercial, it will remain available in the recording of last night’s event; an improved version with enhanced audio is coming soon.

With that said, I am not about to leave you without a new ship to enjoy! We have also been hard at work on other commercials and brochures… and one of them is ready today: the 2944 Aurora Legionnaire. The Aurora LN is a new model, first teased in the original brochure. With the success of the 300i video, I knew we had to go back and put together footage (entirely in-engine!) of Star Citizen’s most-purchased ship.

In honor of this release, we’re making the 2944 Aurora LN available in the pledge store. Purchasing an Aurora package or addon will make the ship available in your Hangar after the next patch goes out Saturday. Upgrades will be processed in a future patch. Remember, all ships will be available in the finished game; purchases today are solely to help with the funding campaign.

Aurora LN Package (Next Gen. Aurora)Aurora LN Addon ShipAurora LN Upgrade

At long last, the final ships of the initial pledge campaign are at a stage where we’re comfortable revealing them. Please enjoy this early look at the Gladiator and Retaliator bombers, some of the most powerful fighting ships in UEE service!

The Gladiator is a carrier-based attack plane, inspired by aircraft like the Dauntless and the Avenger. The Retaliator is a heavy strategic bomber, Star Citizen’s equivalent of a B-17 Flying Fortress! These ships create even more dynamics to the game, allowing players to threaten capital ships either alone in the Gladiator or together with a crew in the Retaliator.

To celebrate, we’ve put both bomber add-on ships back in the store. They will be available through Monday, October 14th, so pick one up now if you’re interested!

GladiatorRetaliator

We also have a major hangar update for you this weekend! Starting with Saturday’s patch, you will be able to see the Aegis Dynamics Avenger in your hangar! We’ve also added a number of other features, including the promised fish tanks and the ability to swap into a privateer outfit!

Since the Avenger will be now available in the hangar, we’ve created a much-requested Avenger package for those users who want it to be their primary (or only) Star Citizen ship! The Avenger package is an upgrade of the existing Bounty Hunter package, offering the same extras with an even tougher ship.

Avenger AddonAvenger Package (Advanced Hunter)

Finally, I am very pleased to announce the launch of The Next Great Starship, our contest to let our backers create the first ever fan-designed Star Citizen ship. Building spaceships for Star Citizen is at the core of our development. We spare no expense in ship development, using top conceptual artists and the best designers in the industry. From concept to engine, it costs between $50,000 (for a single seat fighter) and $150,000 (for a large capital ship) to put a ship into Star Citizen… and now we’re letting you give it a try. I’ve been observing the game suggestions and ship models the community has been putting together over the last year… so I’m certain this contest will yield some incredible entries.

You can click here to learn more about The Next Great Starship and to sign up to take part in the process.