Star Citizen Developers Plan Changes to Curb Gray Market

Shadow merchants are about to run into problems restocking their inventories.

Studio Cloud Imperium Games has spent many years guiding Star Citizen toward release. Over the past years, an active grey market formed around the ambitious space simulator, and players recently noticed that the developers have updated their rules.

These adjustments affect the purchasing and gifting guidelines for in-game items. Items can no longer be stored in inventories for later resale, as buyers must now designate the gift recipient at the time of purchase.

The guidelines also state that selling items through the gifting system now constitutes a rules violation:

A user known as Dreamy-CZ noted that the previous version of the rules explicitly classified only account sales as a violation, but asset sales are now treated as violations as well. In their opinion, the grey market has officially become a black market.

The Star Citizen developers specifically clarified that these rules do not apply to transactions concluded before the effective date. All previous transactions remain governed by the older version of the rules that were in effect when those transactions took place.

It remains unclear precisely how illicit transactions will be penalized. Star Citizen fans speculate that developers might start revoking gifts or banning accounts.