While budget does play into what makes a AAA title, it&#x27;s not the only factor. Star Citizen is Cloud Imperium Games&#x27; first game... and it&#x27;s still not a final release. They are an &quot;indie&quot; shop for all intents and purposes.<p>AAA status is usually reserved for big studios that produce many games of high quality(ish), and yes, with big budgets (GTA5 cost over $265 MM to create).<p>A parallel would be a big budget movie produced by Sony vs. Veronica Mars. Veronica Mars was produced by successful people within the film industry, but it&#x27;s not on the same level as a full production.<p>&gt; $105 million (and counting) in dev costs<p>Well, that&#x27;s not in dev costs... that&#x27;s money raised... and they&#x27;re trying to bootstrap a company at the same time, so not all of that money will even go to the game development (unlike a big budget big studio development where literally every penny of their quoted budget is in development cost as the business is already established and earning on it&#x27;s own).