Star Citizen faces backlash over gatekeeping new paid Flight Blade kit from PTU players

Star Citizen recently introduced Flight Blades for ships in the PTU, but this was met with overwhelming negativity and backlash. Flight Blade kits are a way to adjust the ship’s flight behavior, increasing straight-line top speed and improving overall. This, of course, means a ship will have some reductions elsewhere, but it is a solid idea, as a way to improve the speed of your ship. Unfortunately, there was a major problem with these when they hit the PTU.

Flight Blade kits were only available for real money, no doubt a major blow to people who had already chipped in to bring Star Citizen over $800M in money to see the game developed. While CIG did make a statement about the Flight Blades backlash, it’s clear that some players aren’t impressed.

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CIG responded to Star Citizen player backlash over real-money Flight Blade kit

Star Citizen, the space-based MMO that has been in development for 12 years, and likely will not receive a full launch in 2025, has once again been the topic of backlash and controversy, thanks to the Flight Blades. While it's a neat concept to see players increase the speed of certain ships this way, the way it was implemented was not ideal.

Making the Flight Blades purchasable with real money and not in-game money did not go over well, as it turns out (Image via Cloud Imperium Games)

Players accused the game developers of adding pay-to-win mechanics with the Flight Blades, as they were available for real money and not through in-game currency in the PTU. The developers pointed out in a statement on the forums that this was a mistake, that they “missed a step,” which came as a result of their planned 11 patches a year instead of just 4.

Zyloh-CIG, one of the staff members on the forums, made an official statement to the fans of Star Citizen about the Flight Blades backlash:

“To be clear, the new Flight Blades will be obtainable for aUEC in our next patch this June. We followed our usual approach by offering early access on the pledge store to help support development. But after some reflection, we’ve decided that for smaller components like Flight Blades or bomb racks, they should be available in-game at the same time they appear on the store.”

Zyloh further said that if you own a game package, you’ll be able to purchase Flight Blades in Star Citizen. You can do it after the June update rolls out with aUEC (standard in-game currency for the Alpha), as will other items when they are added in the future.

The thread is filled with players who aren’t at all shocked by the Flight Blades controversy, having seen many of these things happen over the years.

However, while not everyone was upset about this, a very loud group of players made their displeasure known. From people saying to vote with your time and wallet, as well as “we deserve what we tolerate,” there were a number of disappointed players, including forum-goer XenOpeW:

“Does anyone remember when they said they wouldn't stealth increase prices on ships anymore to quiet everybody, only to then stealth increase prices on ships again. When it was brought up they said they wouldn't do that again, we got radio silence. And that is just one example of an endless list of CIG saying whatever is expedient for them at the time and their words proving to mean nothing when it came down to it.”

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While not everyone was mad about this controversy, many fans are upset. They don’t see the apology as anything more than a band-aid, or even perhaps a smokescreen. Only time will tell how this all shapes up with future updates in 2025.