With all the technical difficulties Star Citizen has experienced so far this year, I'm a little surprised at the financial support customers continue to bestow upon Cloud Imperium Games. True, sales did not increase through the first four months of the year, but they didn't decrease either. Not bad considering 2022, with over $113 million in sales, was a record year for the company. But with technical blocks continuing to plague the developers, has the game peaked?
The world is about to find out. Today is the beginning of Invictus Launch Week, one of the biggest financial events of the year. The nature of the event is even written into the lore:
Dating back to the First Tevarin War (2541-2546), Invictus Launch Week marks the beginning of the new recruiting year of the United Empire of Earth Navy (UEEN) and is publicly celebrated throughout the Empire.
Throughout the event, you can try Star Citizen FOR FREE, along with test drive the ships on display at the show. Different manufacturers take over the Bevic Convention Center every two days, so keep checking back to see everything the event offers.
Visitors also have the opportunity to tour an in-service Aegis Javelin destroyer and marvel at the entire Invictus fleet in flight, including the colossal RSI Bengal! Head over to invictus2953.com and our FAQ for more information about the event.
Through the first 18 days of May, CIG recorded $3.1 million in sales. Pretty impressive for a company with 2 games in alpha and none launched. Impressive, that is, until one looks back to last year and sees CIG sold $5.6 million in goods during the same period in 2022.
This year's Invictus Fleet Week sales need to make up for the shortfall. While we don't have financial information for 2022, I figured sales needed to increase between 13.2% and 18.5% in 2023 to keep up with the company's development plans. If I'm wrong, then perhaps keeping pace with last year's sales will suffice. But either way, sales cannot go down.
How much does the Fleet Week event need to sell to CIG's customers? Last year, the event brought in almost $14.6 million over 12 days. As of right now, Fleet Week plus the following day needs to sell $17.6 million over the final 13 days of May to match 2022's sales performance. Assuming sales on the 31st match the sales of $520 thousand on 19 May 2022, this year's Fleet Week needs to increase sales by 17% to $17.1 million.
Is that increase obtainable for CIG and its incredible marketing team? Not at all. But, this is why the event is a possible indicator for the future. With patch 3.19 freshly installed on the Persistent Universe servers, the way is wide open for a record haul for the event. But if the game has peaked due to all the difficulties surrounding patch 3.18, the sales figures will give us an indication. Either way, we will know on the first day of June.
(Note: As of 1330 UTC on 19 May 2023, the pledge page for Squadron 42 still displays a 404 error.)
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