Here's what Star Citizen backers' $44 million has bought so far

Star Citizen backers have coughed up a hell of a lot of money on faith, and Cloud Imperium has finally rewarded them with a substantial bit of gameplay.

Although backers have been able to "play" Star Citizen for some time, they've largely been restricted to exploring hangars and looking at ships. With the launch of Arena Commander v0.8 yesterday, that all changed.

The work-in-progress dogfighting gameplay currently allows backers of the appropriate level to try the Vanduul Swarm and Freeflight mode. Currently, only the Aurora, 300i and Hornet ships can be used, but if you're eligible for the alpha test Cloud Imperium will provide a loan vessel.

Battle Royale and Team multiplayer modes are also available, but are being rolled out slowly to participants. Cloud Imperium still has a long way to go, and has provided a road map along with some thoughts about open development.

In a blog update, Chris Roberts revealed that Arena Commander has attracted over 33,000 players, and chewed through more than 820 TB of data, since launching.

The trailer below gives a look at the space sim in action.

Thanks, Kotaku.