Star Citizen is actually very special. Even if the game fails, I'm pretty sure they will have no problem at all to sell their technology to someone else.
The article is a tiny bit misleading. Yes, the alpha 3.3 did add face over IP and ships and stuff like that, but the main reason people are revisiting it right now is the new container streaming. Suddenly the game has *good fps* for the very first time in almost *all* situations. This is the first time, the game is *really* playable for a majority of players. This is a big thing, because if this tech is 100% completed (which it still isn't right now), they will have no problems with increasing the scope of the universe to whatever size they want. This is not a dream, you can actually see this ingame right now... and the fps won't tank like crazy.
I know this doesn't sound like THAT much, as other games have world streaming as well, but no other game allows you to start on a space station, walk around that station, board a ship, fly around a planet that is bigger than any other game world (except Daggerfall), land on said planet, get a ground vehicle, drive anywhere on said huge planet, get back into a ship, fly to another planet 1 billion kilometers away and do exactly the same, all the while being able to meet other players at any time.
Sure, in the end the game can still suck and be super boring, but the tech is very impressive.