Today, Cloud Imperium Games revealed the dates and details about one of the most relevant annual events in Star Citizen, Invictus Launch Week 2955.
Invictus Launch Week is the annual in-lore celebration honoring the UEE fleet as it marks the beginning of a new recruitment year.
If you’re wondering about the 2955, it’s the in-game date for Star Citizen. In the game’s universe, time flows in parallel with the real world, 930 years ahead. Since we’re in 2025, Star Citizen’s date is 2955.
The event will happen between May 15 and May 27.
The event will include a big exhibition of the game’s ships at the Bevic Convention Center in Area 18, the landing zone of Arccorp in the Stanton System, which will all be available to rent for free for a limited time.
The brands featured will be on rotation according to the calendar showcased below, and we can expect launches and reveals of new ships. There will also be a massive Idris frigate docked at the top of the IO-North Tower, allowing players to tour it freely.
The first new reveal will be from Greycat Industrial on May 15.
Speaking of free, during the entirety of the event, the game will be playable with no purchase required, allowing everyone to enjoy the current build and all the available ships until the event ends. Events like this are always a great chance to experience what Star Citizen has to offer on your own, without having to listen to the polarized discourse about the game.
To celebrate, we also get to see the first ship that will launch at Invictus Launch Week, the Starlancer TAC gunship by MISC.
 If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts, who created the beloved Wing Commander series in the days of early PC gaming. It’s a multiplayer sandbox space simulator that has been in development for over a decade and in alpha for several years. It’s available exclusively for PC and has recently received update Alpha 4.1.
In the meantime, the crowdfunding total continues to grow, and it recently passed $806 million. To be precise, it’s currently at $807,611,821. The game also has
5,631,962 registered users, albeit not all of them are paying customers. Many simply create an account to enjoy the occasional free-to-play periods like the one announced today.
The single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in active development, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors, including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can see how Squadron 42 has evolved since its first reveal.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.
