Chris Roberts' Star Citizen doesn't show any hint of stopping or even slowing down its crowd funding cavalcade. The game has now shattered the mind boggling barrier of 27 million dollars pledged by its fans.
As a result, the Banu Merchatman starship will be playable in the game, as you can read in the official description of the stretch goal that has just been achieved.
Banu Merchantman Unlocked – Banu traders are renowed for their merchant prowess, traveling the spacelanes and trading with everyone from humans to the Vanduul! Their sturdy, dedicated trading ships are prized beyond all other transports, sometimes passing from generation to generation of Banu. At $23 million we dedicated additional resources to making Xi’An spacecraft a unique experience. At $27 million, we will expand that same thinking to the Banu! Starting with the merchant ship, the design team will expand Banu technology to offer players a completely different way of experiencing their universe.
As a bonus, Cloud Imperium Games released a new piece of artwork of a Xi'An capital ship, that you can see above, and issued a new stretch goal for $ 29 million, that will bring more resources to the single player portion of the game.
Enhanced Mission Design for Squadron 42 – The team at Foundry 42 has big plans for Squadron 42, and we’re going to provide extra funding to make it a true spiritual successor to Wing Commander! Squadron 42 can go above and beyond anything you’ve seen before. From opening with an epic battle instead of a training patrol to missions that seamlessly combine boarding and space combat, we aim to put you right into the action! Additional funding will let the team realize this, with enhanced mission design and more resources and animations to enhance fidelity.
Considering the funding pace, there's little doubt on the possibility of that goal to be achieved as well, probably together with many more. I'm also quite sure that right now a few publishers' executives are bashing their heads against a wall for missing out on this one.