Star Citizen has garnered considerable criticism during its long production process, both for the lack of a clear date for the end of early access and for the challenges backers have faced in getting a refund after abandoning the project.

[11][9] In addition to the initial crowdfunding and later early access sales, marketing is funded through external investment, having received US$63.25 million as of March 2020[update].

[14] Star Citizen combines features from space simulator, first person shooter, and massively multiplayer online genres across its four playable modes.

[20] A racing game type, set on a specifically designed map with three courses, allows players to fly through checkpoints and attempt to beat each other's time.

[21][19] Game types like Battle Royale and Team place players in direct opposition of one another, gaining points for destroying enemy ships.

Elimination is a free-for-all game type; unlike the team-based "Last Stand", players work individually to gain the highest kill-count before the match ends.

[29][30] The Persistent Universe, initially referred to as Crusader, combines the gameplay aspects of the Hangar, Arena Commander, and Star Marine modules into a single multiplayer platform.

[39] Squadron 42 is a story-based single-player game set in the Star Citizen fictional universe described by the developers as a "spiritual successor to Wing Commander".

"I have decided that it is best to not show Squadron 42 gameplay publicly, nor discuss any release date until we are closer to the home stretch and have high confidence in the remaining time needed to finish the game to the quality we want".

[21][43] The player's actions will allow them to optionally achieve citizenship in the UEE and affect their status in the Star Citizen persistent universe, but neither of the two games has to be played in order to access the other.

[56][46] In addition to space combat simulation and first-person shooter elements,[46] reported features include a conversation system that affects relationships with non-player pilots.

Completed under a new lead and numerous staff replacements, the finished game was well received, but criticized for lacking the extensive features Roberts had planned.

[69][70] Several contractors and outsourced development companies such as CGBot, Rmory, VoidAlpha and Behaviour Interactive were hired to build an early prototype of the game and concept art.

After hiring Ortwin Freyermuth, Ben Lesnick, and David Swofford, Cloud Imperium Games was formed with the intention of building the initial campaign.

[81] As development continued, Chris Roberts announced in August 2013 that they would be releasing the "Hangar Module", a way for players to explore an enclosed space and some of the ships that have been completed.

[96][97] During development in 2015, a game type called SATA Ball was announced, an in-game sport where players would be split up into two teams and would fight each other in a zero-gravity environment.

[100] When December arrived, Cloud Imperium Games made a surprise announcement that they would be migrating Star Citizen to the Amazon Lumberyard engine.

The developers noted that a server-side implementation would alleviate existing limitations with the project and said that, if completed, it would be "one of the biggest technological milestones this game has seen to date.

[120] Comparisons were made between Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous, another crowdfunded space flight simulation game announced at about the same time and released in 2014.

The goal of this two-week crunch period was reportedly to finish the 3.24.2 update for the Persistent Universe and a gameplay demonstration of Squadron 42, which was shown on stage at CitizenCon 2954 on 19 October.

[129][137][138] In January 2017, when asked about the financial situation of Star Citizen, Chris Roberts said: "I’m not worried, because even if no money came in, we would have sufficient funds to complete Squadron 42.

"[139][140] For contributing to the project's funding, backers receive virtual rewards in the form of tiered pledge packages, which include a spaceship and credits to buy additional equipment and to cover initial costs in the virtual economy, like fuel and rental fees,[141] but according to the developers, players will be able to earn all backer rewards in the game itself, with the exception of certain cosmetic items and Lifetime Insurance (LTI), without having to spend additional money.

Cloud Imperium Games made changes to the project's "gifting system", announcing, "In order to eliminate the middleman scam, packages will be giftable only once before they are locked to an account."

[162][163] After Roberts wrote a scathing response to the articles, Cloud Imperium Games threatened the site and its owners with legal action which never materialized.

"[185] In August 2018, Cloud Imperium Games attempted to monetize the live stream broadcast of the project's annual CitizenCon event, eventually backing down due to online protestations.

According to Polygon, "an internal survey posted on the Star Citizen message boards revealed as many as 25 percent of the game's backers expressing an interest in a process for getting their money back.

A hoax perpetrated by an anonymous Redditor in September 2017 claimed that they had worked over the course of five weeks to procure a US$45,000 refund was reported by Ars Technica and forced the outlet to retract the story after it was disproven.

Site changes were designed to more clearly communicate the state of the project, define the purchase as a "pledge", and “inform potential buyers there may be product delivery delays and to check the roadmap site before they choose to click the final OK box and provide payment.” The new terms of service opened refund requests to a 14-day "cancellation period", but Cloud Imperium Games claimed that they also maintained a company policy to refund backers within 30 days.

In court, Cloud Imperium Games argued that the backer's involvement in an early tester program called "Evocati" proved that they were actively providing a product to him.

The same report noted that a Freedom of Information Act request had shown that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission had received 129 complaints concerning Cloud Imperium Games.