Star Citizen has released version 1.0 of its Arena Commander module, Wing Commander creator and Cloud Imperium Games founder Chris Roberts has announced.

　　The 1.0 update adds the long-awaited lobby system and friends system, more than triples the number of flyable ships, and introduces a number of graphical and gameplay improvements.

　　"I would like to stress that today’s release of Arena Commander 1.0 is a beginning, not an ending," Roberts said. "This milestone does not denote the completion of Arena Commander, it kicks off an even more significant phase of its development."

　　The Arena Commander module is a multiplayer-focused piece of Star Citizen where players can battle each other in a variety of modes. It gives them a feel for how it looks and controls, but in no way represents the full scope of Star Citizen’s grand ambitions. So far, it's only available to backers.

　　Star Citizen also recently released the Imagine trailer you can see above, and one of its fake ads for a new ship, the Consolidated Outlands Mustang.

　　Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign, which is the biggest for a project of any kind in history, continues to soar. It currently stands at more than $67.5 million from more than 690,511 backers.

　　For more on Star Citizen and Roberts himself, check out part one and part two of GameSpot's interview with the legendary designer.

　　Emanuel Maiberg is a freelance writer. You can follow him on Twitter @emanuelmaiberg.