The open-world space RPG genre has found itself in the spotlight thanks to Starfield's massive popularity. The Bethesda title has been likened to a Skyrim game in space, and being from such a big name developer and the marketing push that it has had makes it easy to overlook other amazing games of a similar style that came before it. While Starfield has many unique characteristics that make it stand out, there are also lots of other games set in space that offer hours of enjoyment, each with its own distinctive qualities that could set itself up as a new favorite. 4g373o

As the world becomes more fascinated with the potential future of space exploration, games such as Bethesda's Starfield are taking a big leap at creating the next type of expansive open world. If other studios decide to follow suit, players might just find new favorite immersive open worlds to explore in virtual outer space. Bethesda isn't the first, nor only, studio to do this though, as the stage has already been set by some successful hit games, all of which deserve praise for leading the way.

From extremely primitive experiments like Spacewar! to pioneering arcade hits like Asteroids and Space Invaders, space has been a prominent part of video gaming from the very beginning. Perhaps that's due to man's inherent fascination with the infinite, or perhaps it has more to do with the fact that a predominantly black void was less taxing on fledgling computer hardware.

Space exploration game Star Citizen has announced it will be free to play until December as part of celebrations for the game's annual aerospace event, the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE). Star Citizen fans can expect new ship reveals and surprises across the 13-day event, with free flight tests for over 100 of the game's ships.

Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has been forced to add a disclaimer to its marketing materials, which digital starships that can be purchased but aren't actually in the game yet. Beginning in 2012 with the initial launch of its Kickstarter campaign, Star Citizen has been in perpetual development for 9 years with no full release in sight.

In-development space sim Star Citizen announces that its newest Free Fly event is live, giving anyone a chance to play the game while it's still in its ninth year of production for free. Star Citizen has been in alpha since 2015 and doesn't seem like it will exit it anytime soon, despite the game entering production the better part of a decade ago. Still, the ambitious project is in a playable state, so new players can rest assured they won't be playing a rough build of the game.

It still doesn't have a release date 11 years in, but Star Citizen has broken a jaw-dropping $350 million revenue milestone in its never-ending crowdfunding campaign. Star Citizen and Squadron 42, a spaceflight sim and first-person shooter, respectively, Star Citizen is the most expensive game ever made, and it generates the lion's share of its revenue from crowdfunding, selling starter packs and in-game items like a $600 ship. While players who back Star Citizen are given access to its Alpha stage, they don’t technically have the full game and there is no confirmation on when they will.

The curious case of Star Citizen continues as developers from Austin, Texas rise up against developer Cloud Imperium Games ("CIG") after poor handling of the recent Texas snowstorm. Anonymous sources spoke out against the company's upper management, noting how the Star Citizen team was left high and dry and expected to work in a time of dire need.

The never-ending development story called Star Citizen is about to introduce a new way of triggering missions and story content through dynamic events, which have been recently explained by developers in an hour-long livestream. These plans should be easier to implement since Turbulent, Cloud Imperium Games’ partner, shared a desire to open a new development studio last year to help with the process of star systems creation.

Sorry, Star Citizen fans, Roberts Space Industries (RSI) isn't quite ready to share gameplay footage just yet. The spaceflight and first-person shooter game's creator, Chris Roberts, revealed in a recent update to RSI's project roap that Star Citizen and its standalone single-player story campaign, Squadron 42, are not ready to be released yet and there's no word on when they will be ready. The update comes just weeks after RSI missed its projected window for a beta release of Star Citizen.