Star Citizen game to reach $ 100 million funding milestone

Early artwork for Star CitizenImage copyrightRoberts Space Industries
Image captionThe ambitions coders behind Star Citizen expanded as it grew Development Fund
Star Citizen Crowdfunded video game grossed more than $ 100 million (£ 66m) from fans and patrons.

The drive funding for space exploration, trade and combat games began in 2012 on Kickstarter.

Since then, the game continues to raise cash from people who have signed up to play and test early versions.

The milestone comes as a virtual reality Oculus developer confirms that Eva space combat game: Valkyrie will be the name of the launch of his headset.

crowded space

With its Kickstarter campaign is over, Star Citizen continues to raise money through pre-orders, as well as through the sale of spaceships that players can fly and fight in the virtual universe of the game. In October it was announced that over one million people have signed up back and play the game.

This week saw the release of the second test or alpha Star Citizen. It's starting to tie the separate elements of the game developed into a more coherent whole.

So far, players have access to the absolute value of the hangar, where they keep their boats and dog fighting arena. It will also eventually have a first-person element that allows them to take on other players in the ships and space stations. All these elements will exist in a constant universe that players can explore and trade in.

Also under development is a single-user mode called Squadron 42, which allows people to carry out the mission as a rookie space pilot of the Navy. Actors including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson have all signed up to provide a voice for the role of non-fiction, as shown in this campaign.


Development of the game is conducted under the supervision of veteran developers Chris Roberts, who was responsible for a series of Wing Commander games.

No firm launch date for Star Citizen has not been announced. Until now, Roberts Space Industries developer only said that the game will be launched at some point in 2016.

Star Citizen has competition in the form of two other spacecraft and fighting games - Elite: Dangerous and Eve: Valkyrie.

Elite: Dangerous and got going by raising cash on Kickstarter and was released in March 2014 Big expansion for the game, called Horizons, which allows players to put ships on some planets, due to be released this month.

Eve: Valkyrie is set to be available in early 2016, when the headset Oculus Rift becomes public. A copy of the game is given to anyone that pre-orders for the headset.

China Postal Savings Bank has attracted $ 7 billion ahead of IPO

Postal Savings Bank outletImage copyrightAFP
Postal Savings Bank Image captionChina has branches in remote rural areas of China
Postal Savings Bank of China raised $ 7 billion (£ 4,6 billion) of 10 domestic and foreign investors ahead of an initial public offering (IPO) in the next year.

National Bank has sold 17% stake to investors including UBS, JPMorgan and Investment Board Canada Pension Plan.

The deal is estimated China's sixth largest bank by assets to $ 41 billion.

The bank said the sale of the shares was the largest private collection of funds Chinese financial institution.

Its Chinese investors include Ant Financial Unit Alibaba, Tencent and China Life Insurance.

The banking giant has more than 40,000 branches in China and nearly half a billion customers. It is a subsidiary of the Post Group China, which belongs to the Ministry of Finance.

His public listing in Hong Kong in the next year could rise to $ 15 billion, according to analysts, but the bank did not reveal the time or the size of its IPO.

The placement of shares would make a second Chinese bank Japan Post Bank publicized in Asia after record IPO Japan Post in November.

According to analysts, this move will help the Chinese bank to raise funds at a time when the economy slows down, and bad loans are growing.