Good news: Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is expanding to include its own European publishing arm, helping out us Old World'ers moving forward. Bad News: Now we'll have to pay VAT.
This means prices will be local to Europeans, but we'll also have to pay a little more depending on the local VAT rate. This will help Cloud Imperium ride out those "exchange rate fluctuations" too.
The change comes into effect on February 1st. As of 2015 it is now law that "every seller has to charge the rate applicable in the country of the purchaser." There'll be no tax dodging. What do you think you are, a multi-national corporation?
"This means that in the coming days, the effective rate for European backers will go up depending on the VAT rate of their home country. We know that European backers are familiar with VAT, and likely have already encountered these charges on goods purchased elsewhere online," said the studio.
"We wish there were an alternative to charging the tax, but also believe that it is in our best interest to expand Star Citizen’s footprint to a part of the world that has proven to be truly passionate about space games!" continued the announcement on the website.
They're giving us a heads up so anyone who might be looking to buy something extra from Cloud Imperium to support Star Citizen can do so with the current prices.
"By popular request, we will make a selection of limited edition and wave two ships available again during the week of January 26, in case there’s a past favorite you missed out on and would like to pick up before the international publishing switches over to RSI."
They'll let us know what ships are in the limited edition sale on January 26th.