Originally Posted by Kazius

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The multiplayer game was not promised in the original kick starter program. This is an additional game promised to be made after the single player game. So in a way we shouldn't expect the multiplayer universe to be out until probably 2023 or so.


Multiplayer most certainly was promised in the original Kickstarter:

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The people who pledge for their spaceships will get to test-fly them long before the general public. 12 months in, we will allow the early backers to play the multiplayer space combat Alpha, and then 20-22 months in they will get to play the Star Citizen Beta, adventuring around the huge open galaxy, well before the general public. We are going to limit our alpha slots to 200,000 as we want to stress test the game with real users, but will not be ready for the full load until we have finished Beta.


That was 2012. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen