Developer Cloud Imperium Games announced that its upcoming title Squadron 42 will be coming sometime in 2026.
If the new title does come out within that time frame, it will arrive more than a decade after the studio first launched the crowdfunding drive for Star Citizen. Cloud Imperium Games head Chris Roberts talked during CitizenCon held in Manchester, England.
Squadron 42 Release Window
Roberts, who is popular for creating the Wing Commander series, discussed Squadron 42. He said that it would provide roughly 30 to 40 hours of gameplay.
He added that he was confident that Star Citizen's standalone single-player story title would come out in two years' time.
His on-stage comments came after they showed a live gameplay demo for the upcoming game. However, the demo itself was rife with bugs, crashes, and graphical issues. But it did give the audience a rough first look at the first hour of Squadron 42, according to IGN.
The developer's demo featured the prologue of the upcoming title. It was designed to set the stage for you, the player, as a pilot within the game. The early previewfeatured cutscenes that had CGI representations of various Hollywood actors.
These include Gillian Anderson, Man of Steel star Henry Cavill, and The Dark Knight's Gary Oldman. The footage also had some on-rails turret action that was set in a huge space battle.
The game's demo ended by showing a first-person shooter segment as the audience could see the alien enemy boarding the player's ship.
Squadron 42's demo also showed a bit of basic ship flying within the game and some out-of-cockpit exploration. Many of the reactions on YouTube to the footage were positive despite some complaining about the slow nature of the opening, Sports Illustrated said.
Suffering From Bugs and Crashes
Cloud Imperium Games is somewhat known for not meeting its announced release windows.
This made a lot of players concerned that it could deliver Squadron 42 as promised in 2026. There were also reports of various issues that the studio faced with its development timelines.
Squadron 42 was originally announced on Oct. 10, 2012, along with Star Citizen and the crowdfunding campaign. Based on its website, they have already raised more than $729 million to support the game's development, according to Insider Gaming.
Roberts added that a lot of stuff is going on in Squadron 42 and the game sets up where players will come from.
He said that they would then serve on a smaller ship which is called the Stanton. He said that the game was a lot more stable for him when he played it the last few weeks.
