In a move that will surprise few, developer Cloud Imperium has announced yet another delay for their long-awaited, single-player Star Citizen spin-off Squadron 42.
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For those unaware, Star Citizen is a highly ambitious space-sim that began life as a Kickstarter project in 2012. Initially pitched as a complete space-faring experience with both single-player and multiplayer modes, the game has since been split into two different titles, with the core Star Citizen game delivering the MMO experience and Squadron 42 serving as a standalone story campaign.
Since the initial Star Citizen crowdfunding campaign launched, Cloud Imperium has managed to raise over $700 million from more than five million backers.
However, despite its lengthy dev team and dev budget, the game still remains far away from a fully playable experience. As players who have paid the game’s $45 price tag to play its early access Alpha build can attest, while Star Citizen admittedly offers a solid few hours of initial wonder, at some point, it’s lack of features and content makes the entire adventure far too repetitive to keep playing.
Notably, Star Citizen is of the most infamous crowdfunding projects to date due to the fact that, thanks to countless setbacks and delays, the game will have been in development for roughly 14 years by the time it makes its latest release window in 2026.
Unfortunately for Cloud Imperium, an update to their plans for the aforementioned Squadron 42 has done little to boost players’ confidence in Star Citizen‘s chances of releasing within the next decade.
Originally revealed as a stand-alone title in 2014, the star-studded Squadron 42 – whose cast includes such notable actors as Gary Oldman, Henry Cavill, Gillian Anderson, and Mark Hamill – was previously slated for a 2020 release date, which due to production delays it ultimately didn’t make.
And though it was said to be feature complete at the 2023 CitizenCon, an annual event dedicated to Star Citizen’s development updates, since then, no word has been given as to just what the game’s current status exactly is.
That was, until this year’s CitizenCon, whereat fans were treated to a live demo of Squadron 42 which showed the player engaging in an intense space battle (in true Star Citizen fashion, the demo was not without its issues, as it crashed twice during the showcase).
Following the demo, Cloud Imperium Games founder Chris Roberts revealed that not only is Squadron 42 on track to supposedly offer 30-40 hours of gameplay, but that he and his team were “confident” that the game would, like its parent title, make it to shelves sometime in 2026.
However, in light of Cloud Imperium’s long, long history of delays, players aren’t quite convinced this will happen.
On Twitter, user @KitBashed sarcastically quipped. “‘Squadron 42 years from release’” before questioning, “Don’t get me wrong, it looks great but you need another two years? For ‘polishing’? To release Chapter 1?!”
“You guys are testing everyone’s patience,” he added. ” It’d be one thing if you hadn’t taken money already, but come on…”
In voicing an opinion held by many, many a playuer, @SpeedRacer350 responded to the news by declaring, “Star Citizen is the biggest scam in the history of video games.”
Nevertheless, there are those who still believe in the project.
One such player, @Hoschimensch, took in the new Squadron 42 trailer and beamed, “This looks so impressive. If the whole game has this quality, it will be an unforgettable experience.”
With millions already spent and countless promises still unfulfilled, fans are left wondering if Star Citizen, much less its single-player campaign, will ever see the light of day.
Ultimately, regardless of whether Squadron 42 finally launches or faces yet another delay, its fate will surely go down as another chapter in the long and controversial story of Cloud Imperium Games.