Star Citizen's new $400 ship is all about luxurious space travel

The developer of Star Citizen is currently selling a $400 ship called the Genesis Starliner, a spacecraft aimed at the player who's interested in pursuing an in-game career in transporting other players through the game's universe in total luxury.

The Genesis Starliner, which is available for pre-purchase for a limited time and is being sold to help fund development of the game, holds up to eight crew members and up to 40 passengers. It comes in a variety of potential configurations, with entertainment and beverage options for virtual flyers.

"One of our dreams when planning Star Citizen was to go beyond the typical space sim experience," developer Cloud Imperium said in a post on Star Citizen's official website. "We've built a lot of ships along traditional lines: fighters, bombers, battleships and carriers all have a natural (and fun!) gameplay role in a world at war. ... But with the Starliner, we're introducing something new: a ship that doesn't have a naturally apparent style of gameplay."

The developer said it wants Star Citizen to be a "living, breathing world," and civilian transports like the Genesis help realize that vision.

"Our job with the Starliner was to determine how passenger travel in the ‘verse would be both fun and necessary," the developer said, "and then to build out a ship worthy of that system. Designers have spent a lot of time working on the realism: everything from safety features ... to a plan for how to make passenger travel fun, interesting and rewarding for those who choose to fly the Genesis."

Cloud Imperium goes into greater detail about the new ship in a post that focuses on the Genesis' design.

The developer of Star Citizen has raised more than $84 million in crowdfunding to develop the space sim. Cloud Imperium announced earlier today that the game's first-person shooter module had been delayed indefinitely.