With Mobility Mods Locked As Paid Upgrades, Star Citizen's 'Pay To Win' Accusations Escalate

A new ship upgrade just released by Star Citizen has fans worried about pay-to-play—at least more than usual. 

Now available in the Star Citizen cash shop are “Blade” kits, which are in-game modifiers to ships, specifically some of the Aegis line of crafts. 

As the description for the Aegis Avenger Titan (the cheapest full-ship pack at $62) reads, players can “[u]nlock the potential of your Avenger Titan with the TSB and PHB Flight Blades from Broad & Rabiee. By reallocating lateral thrust resources with the TSB Flight Blade, you can expect your ship to deliver increased top speeds in the straightaway, or reallocate forward thrust resources with the PHB Flight Blade, your ship will deliver increased precision handling during tight maneuvers.”

In short, these paid extra upgrades make the ship go faster, as well as pitch and roll faster. 

For the sake of factual news writing, it’s worth noting that a lot of items like these are paywalled temporarily as a “head start” of sorts, as many items and ships become available through the in-game currency earned through regular activities. 

That’s not to entirely invalidate prior arguments of Star Citizen being “pay to win.” In its current perpetual “Early Access” and “Alpha” states, you permanently unlock big ships by “pledging”—which is to say, you can essentially pay for all the ships in the game to remain linked to your account, and certain pledges come with “Lifetime Insurance” for minimal respawn pricing. 

Players on both Reddit and the official Spectrum forum are worried that this will be the start of Star Citizen starting to charge for upgrades, though many point out the prior argument that buying a big ship at all is pay to win. 

This extras pack drop is part of the ongoing Invictus Launch Week, which includes a chance to test out a ton of ships and a semi-regular “Free Fly” event that allows non-players in without a pledge.