Squadron 42, the stand-alone single-player campaign for Star Citizen, has missed its 2020 beta release date with no new date in sight.
As reported by DualShockers, no new date for the beta has been announced this time. Director Chris Roberts issued a statement on December 23rd (along with discussing the year in review and a new roadmap), wherein he states Squadron 42‘s progress will be shown alongside Star Citizen and reiterated the game “will be done when it is done.”
“The new Roadmap is not meant to give people an early estimate on when Squadron 42 will be completed. We made a conscious decision to only show the Squadron 42 work concurrently with the Star Citizen work over the Roadmap’s four-quarter window. This is because it is too early to discuss release or finish dates on Squadron 42.
As I said earlier this year, Squadron 42 will be done when it is done, and will not be released just to make a date, but instead only when all the technology and content is finished, the game is polished, and it plays great. I am not willing to compromise the development of a game I believe in with all my heart and soul, and I feel it would be a huge disservice to all the team members that have poured so much love and hard work into Squadron 42 if we rushed it out or cut corners to put it in the hands of everyone who is clamoring for it.”
Roberts also states that he did not wish for Squardon 42 to be another of the “eagerly awaited titles release before they were bug free and fully polished.” He also admits it is typical to build marketing six months prior to launch, but will avoid doing too much marketing to avoid spoilers.
“The issues with showing gameplay, locations or assets on a narratively driven game this early are twofold. First, a marketing campaign can only last so long and second, there is only so much of the gameplay that we can show before release as we want you to experience a really engrossing story. If we show the non-spoiler gameplay now, that’s prime footage and gameplay that could have been used closer to release. It is better to treat Squadron 42 like a beautifully wrapped present under the tree that you are excited to open on Christmas Day, not knowing exactly what is inside, other than that it’s going to be great.”
As such, gameplay and a release date will not be discussed until closer to release. However DualShockers reports alongside the new roadmap, there has been “deleting any mention of the release date on the site back in December 23rd, 2020.”
Star Citizen‘s history (and therefore Squadron 42) has been under scrutiny due to its large funding and long development time. Starting development in 2012, the project would eventually raise over $300 million USD by June 14th in crowdfunding. In 2014 the game had already entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest crowdfunded project of all time.
The game’s planned release date has been delayed time and again, until Squadron 42 was delayed indefinitely. May have grown concerns about the game ever being released.
Players and backers concerns grew as Cloud Imperium Games sold ships and bundles worth thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, and made seemingly frivolous purchases on Star Trek-style sliding doors for their offices. One popular claim was that these doors could have cost up to $9,500 USD.
In 2018 Cloud Imperium Games released their financial information, revealing they had spent $193.3 million USD since 2012, with $48.8 million in 2017. $14.23 million had been kept in reserve, and generated $200 million USD in revenue.
Roberts reaffirmed Star Citizen was “not a pipe dream, nor will it take 10 to 20 years to deliver;” in response to criticism of a feature shown in a developer diary four years ago seemingly not being in the alpha-build in late September 2020.
