Star Citizen single-player campaign, titled Squadron 42, has never had a firm release date since it was announced several years ago and it was absent from streams this past December. While speaking with Germany’s Spiegel Magazine (as translated on reddit ), Cloud Imperium Games co-founder Chris Roberts apparently expressed some apprehension about even hitting the target this year.
While most of the interview is just a rehash of old details about Squadron 42 alongside an interview with a wealthy Kickstarter backer, there’s one last quote that’s generating strong reactions amongst the Star Citizen community.
“This year we will finish,” says a quote from Roberts cited by the publication. However, the project head paused and added “probably” to his statement.
What we can gather from this statement is that, while nearing a public state, the fate of Squadron 42 and Star Citizen still remains very uncertain. To faithful backers, this makes sense, of course. This undertaking and its many offshoots are still in the thick of development. Even its playable components are cautiously described as alphas. That being said, it can be difficult for developers to manage timelines and fulfill obligations. While Cloud Imperium Games has recently stepped up its transparency through more frequent updates, this waiting game has characterized all of Star Citizen from the start.
What we do know is that the 28-episode experience intends to offer a robust narrative with some top-tier talent including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill and Liam Cunningham. When everything is set to go live, the current plan is to only have episode 1 ready to play.
Star Citizen fans are getting anxious as CIG plans to reveal some of its 3.0 alpha internal timelines next week, but there’s still reason to be dubious. After all, those same development notes also promised Squadron 42 would be out by 2015 too. Amongst some backers, there’s a sense that this developer has intentionally withheld information to keep hype and sales going.
Star Citizen is partially available in alpha for its backers on PC. For now, Squadron 42 is slated to release in 2017.
What do you think of this latest Star Citizen development? Will 2017 be the initial release year for Squadron 42? Tell us in the comments section!
