Squadron 42 is now feature complete; meaning its moved onto the polishing phase.

We are excited to announce that Squadron 42 is now feature-complete! As we move into the polishing phase, we’re fully focused on optimizing and fine-tuning all aspects of the gameplay experience to deliver an unprecedented cinematic adventure. To celebrate this milestone, we have gathered our core development leadership from around the globe to share what this means. Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.

Redglyph spotted that Star Citizen and the single player campaign Squadron 42 have raised more than $500,000,000.

Polygon discovered Star Citizen and gave their impression along with a brief overview of the game's state. (some links removed below)

Star Citizen still doesn’t live up to its promise, and players don’t care

A decade in, development’s still trucking along

It’s 2022, and I just got into Star Citizen. An uninitiated spacefarer might be surprised at how much there is to explore.

It all started when a friend purchased starter packs for me and my friends. Despite being a skeptic who has largely been disinterested in the game, I was surprised to find a galaxy I could actually explore. Spending a few hours in the world of Star Citizen is intriguing, breathtaking, and frustrating all at once. I found myself taking time to just stop and watch advertisements for fictional mercenary companies, or sitting and bathing in the neon glow of a futuristic plaza. It is a game that is far more advanced than many people think, despite falling short in many respects.

Many people aren’t aware of how far Star Citizen has come — which makes sense, as it has so far still to go. It is, in fact, not actually a singular game but a franchise consisting of a persistent universe (PU) and an unreleased single-player campaign game called Squadron 42 that still doesn’t have a release date (and hasn’t since 2016).

The game has been infamous for its slow and delayed development cycle; for many people, the title has become just a meme, and its harshest critics online have even claimed the game is a “scam”. As the years have passed, the gap between those who are following Star Citizen and those who are disinterested has grown. If you’ve given up — or never boarded the hype train — then you might only know about Star Citizen from snarky headlines like “CIG reels back Star Citizen’s roadmap because players ‘interpret anything on the release view as a promise’” or “Star Citizen dev defends missing roadmap feature by 4 years.” It’s easy to doubt whether the game is even playable — after all, even though it’s been nearly a decade, the developers are still discussing features as basic as, er, loot.

Yet the game is not lacking in resources. The game’s fundraising campaign continually breaks records, even as it adds on deep-pocketed investors. Fans and investors bought into Star Citizen’s big promise: it’s a “forever game” consisting of a massive sci-fi universe filled with players, each on their own individual journeys. Roberts Space Industries (RSI) and Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) have together raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the development of Star Citizen, which has gone towards game development, in-game cinematics, voice work and motion-capture for characters in the campaign from celebrities like Mark Hamill (and Gillian Anderson, and Andy Serkis, and on and on), and lavish in-universe commercials showing off how neat certain ships are.

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Wccf Tech reported the decision of RSI to present less information on the project's progress in order to avoid misinterpretation.

Star Citizen Scales Back its Roadmap to Due to Fans’ “Continued Noise” Over Feature Delays

Trying to follow Star Citizen’s development roadmap often feels like a game in and of itself, as it goes far beyond the usual vague list of promises, offering a sprawling, interactive system that track where features are in development and when they’ll potentially be delivered. I guess the idea was that providing more information would reduce questions from fans, but of course it’s only made things more contentious, and it seems developer Cloud Imperium Games is tired of playing this particular game.

In the past, Cloud Imperium offered a full year of tentative release dates for features, which players understandably saw as promises of a sort, leading a “very loud contingent” to get angry when said features were pushed back. Cloud Imperium’s solution to this? Simply provide less information for players to get upset about. While the “Progress Tracker” portion of the Star Citizen roadmap will still be fully updated, the Release View section will soon only provide information about the next quarter, not the next full year. People won't complain about missed deadlines if you take away the deadlines, right?

"It has become abundantly clear to us that despite our best efforts to communicate the fluidity of development, and how features marked as Tentative should sincerely not be relied upon, the general focus of many of our most passionate players has continued to lead them to interpret anything on the Release View as a promise. We want to acknowledge that not all of you saw it that way – many took our new focus and our words to heart and understood exactly what we tried to convey. But there still remains a very loud contingent of Roadmap watchers who see projections as promises. And their continued noise every time we shift deliverables has become a distraction both internally at CIG and within our community, as well as to prospective Star Citizen fans watching from the sidelines at our Open Development communications.

Rather than continuing to display release projections that carry a high percentage chance of moving (those multiple quarters out), we will no longer show any deliverables in the Release View for any patches beyond the immediate one in the next quarter. Even though we always added a caveat that a card could move, we feel now that it's better to just not put a deliverable on Release View until we can truly commit to it. We’re going to emphasize more strongly than ever that you should focus your attention on our Progress Tracker, which has been our continued goal."

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Wccf Tech reports that CIG has relocated to UK and has given hints at a timeline for Squadron 42.

Squadron 42 Likely At Least a Couple Years Away Admits CIG, Sequels Already in the Plans

Will Star Citizen’s long-promised and much-delayed single-player campaign Squadron 42 ever actually come to fruition? That remains to be seen, but in the latest issue of MCV/Develop, Cloud Imperium Games actually put something resembling a timeline on the project, rather than issuing their usual “it’ll be done when it’s done” dismissal.

As we recently learned, Cloud Imperium Games has relocated their headquarters to Manchester and plan to expand their staff to over 1000 employees over the next five years. As part of that, Cloud Imperium head honcho Chris Roberts has re-established himself in the UK (he’d been living in LA) and is spending more time with the Squadron 42 team, which company COO Carl Jones hopes will result in Squadron 42 actually being finished.

"I guess we’ll see how long [Roberts] needs to be over [in the UK]. But yeah, it could be one or two years more. He’s spending more time over here with the Squadron 42 team and with our other developers, but it’ll be this year when he moves over for longer periods of time. Hopefully, that means we can progress Squadron 42 through to completion faster. We want to get that game finished, but it will be finished when it’s ready."

I suppose you could see that as an optimistic statement, but it sounds like the game won’t arrive for a couple more years at least. But hey, Cloud Imperium needs to get Squadron 42 finished, because according to Jones, they plan to develop “sequels” to the game once the new studio is fully up to speed.

As for when Star Citizen will finally exit alpha and get something resembling a full release, Jones is more sketchy. The reality is, the question is somewhat arbitrary – CIG will just keep updating Star Citizen and selling expensive ships to their diehard fans, and whether the game’s in alpha, beta, or full release probably won’t make much difference. Jones does say that in five years, when the Manchester studio is operating at full capacity, they plan to be running a “very large MMORPG” and that new studios in more locations around the world will likely be required. As baffling as it may be to some outsiders, the Star Citizen experiment will continue to barrel ahead, unabated.

@Twinfinite Some new videos for Star Citizen which show the Orison Landing Zone & Visual Degradation system.

The first video showcases the new Orison landing zone that will finally bring a visitable location on Crusader, the gas giant in the Stanton System.

Due to the nature of the planet, it will be a complex of floating platforms, creating a very unique environment.

We also get to take a first look at the visual degradation system, that will add dynamic dirt and wear to our ships.

The second video features a round table with the development team discussing the development of landing zones.

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Thanks Farflame!

VentureBeat interviewed Chris Roberts about why Star Citizen needed to raise 46 million in venture capital.

For me, I think the investment is very important for our independence, because it gives us the ability to take our time. We have the ability to take care of our marketing and not be beholden to someone else. For the future of the company, it’s a really good sign. And it’s a good sign to show that, even at this stage, the company is worth this kind of money. As we grow and get bigger, it should only increase beyond that. That should give people who are worried about whether we’ll be around tomorrow — they shouldn’t be so worried about that.

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Thanks Farflame!

@YouTuber Law Crytek has lost its lawsuit against Star Citizen.

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Crytek Loses. Star Citizen Wins.

In the long running lawsuit between Crytek and CIG, we finally have a resolution. Crytek's lawsuit has been dismissed by the court. Yes. It's true. Crytek can go back and amend (for the third time) the complaint, but for all purposes, this lawsuit is done. Everything has been dismissed. Let's talk.

@Gamespot Cloud Imperium Games is being sued by Crytek over a breach of contract and copyright infringement.

German game developer and publisher Crytek is suing the developer of the ambitious PC space game Star Citizen over breach of contract and copyright infringement claims. Specifically, Crytek is suing Cloud Imperium Games on the claim that the the Star Citizen studio did not live up to the promises it made for using Crytek's CryEngine.

According to the complaint filed December 12 (via PC Gamer), Crytek agreed to a below-market rate for Cloud Imperium to use CryEngine with the agreement being that Cloud Imperium would prominently display the CryEngine logo in the game. The lawsuit says Crytek knew that displaying the CryEngine's logo was a "critical component" of the agreement between the two companies. The lawsuit goes on to say that Cloud Imperium founder Chris Roberts "publicly sought to minimize Crytek's contribution to Star Citizen."

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Thanks for the news Lucky Day!

DSOGaming reports on some gameplay video from the soon to be released version 3.0 of Star Citizen.

YouTube’s ‘Xenthor Xi’ has shared a video, showing one hour of gameplay footage from Star Citizen 3.0 in 4K. According Cloud Imperium, Star Citizen 3.0 is available on the PTU and the first wave of testers got their hands on it.

The goal of this initial PTU release is to increase its total player count in an effort test concurrency. The team also needs players to focus on testing the traversal system by quantum traveling and landing on moons. Furthermore, players should locate and visit Levski, and just explore the space around Crusader.

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Farflame compiled a demo list for Star Citizen:

• Faceware tech announcement
• Gamescom gameplay demo
• Gamescom presentation
• Short overview of Gamescom videos for impatient ones

Star Citizen published two new videos about shipwrecks and new developments:

Star Citizen: Lost & Found

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In Star Citizen, ships are filled with personality and potential danger whether in space or crashed into the ground. This video explores some stunning shipwrecks and the people drawn to them.

Star Citizen: Around the Verse - The Shape of Derelict Ships

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Derelict ships are the star of this week’s episode. Learn all about how we’re designing a diverse set of shipwrecks. Sandi Gardiner and Chris Smith host the show, while Eric Kieron Davis provides an update from our LA studio.

Thanks Farflame!

Farflame spotted a new video about Star Citizen. Some nice enviroment is shown starting at the 8:35 mark:

Star Citizen: Around the Verse - Eclipsing the Competition

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Sean Tracy and Josh Herman host this week’s Around the Verse, which features an update from our German office and a Ship Shape segment focused on the Aegis Eclipse.

Farflame spotted some Star Citizen info on DualShockers:

Star Citizen Gets Fantastic Screenshots and Videos Showing Update 3.0, Javelin Destroyer and More

Star Citizen shows off its planetary content, the Aegis Javelin destroyer and more future goodies.

Chris Roberts’ Cloud Imperium Games released a batch of new screenshots and videos showcasing some rather interesting upcoming elements for the game.

First of all, we get a batch of screenshots from update 3.0, which will introduce the game’s planetary tech. Alongside the screenshots we also get a video showcasing of the schedule for the update has been determined, giving an interesting look at the workflow of the studios under the Cloud Imperium Games umbrella.

The detailed schedule can be found here, and we learn that the currently estimated release date for 3.0 is on June 29th.

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(some lessons on Agile Software Development)

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Farflame spotted some Star Citizen newsbits at PCGamesN:

Chis Roberts talks about the comparison with Elite Dangerous:

Star Citizen right not to ape "basic, bare minimum" approach of Elite: Dangerous, claims Chris Roberts

More info about single player Squadron 42 and some videos:

In Squadron 42, they plan to turn out a single-player game that tells a story worthy of Wing Commander, and preserves the player freedom of Star Citizen’s space sandbox.

Drama or rather "drama" between ex-devs and Roberts about his demands:

Former Star Citizen devs claim impossible standards wasted months of development, Roberts responds

You can watch some FPS gameplay of Star Citizen here.

Star Citizen's update 2.4 has finally introduced the persistent universe, making it available to all backers.

That’s right folks, today we bring you news of the first ever persistent version of the Star Citizen Persistent Universe! Those of you who have been following the game closely will no doubt already be aware and like me have been massively anticipating (and possibly even testing on the test universe servers CIG run) this latest huge milestone in Star Citizen’s development. Well, as we leaked last month, 2.4 is here and it brings with it a huge amount of new functionality and content. I’m happy to say that the leak itself was largely accurate and our decision to publish it worthwhile.

Due to the huge update, we’ll forego our usually monthly report on Star Citizen to focus on the game systems which have arrived with 2.4 with one single exception that I’ll come to at the end.

PERSISTENCE!

Yes, in case it wasn’t obvious yet, Star Citizen 2.4 brings with it the first implementation of persistence! CIG have given every backer some alpha currency (aUEC) for testing the initial persistence in game. Up until now, your Star Citizen backer account has only contained the data for what you have bought on it in the real world via the website. In session, you only had the reputation, items you found etc for that individual game session. As soon as you logged out, your account was reset to what you started the game with. Well, no longer! For the first time in Star Citizen, the actions you take in game will persist between sessions. At a high level, this includes the following:

• Credits balance
• Reputation (criminal
• Items purchased
• Ship loadouts
• Hangar configuration
• Character loadouts

This is the big one folks. Although at this stage the currency is only an alpha version and it is being used for balancing and testing cost of items vs. rewards for missions etc and will be periodically reset as it is balanced, the gameplay mechanics have now changed substantially.

Read more.

Instead of appearing at E3 this year, Chris Roberts has elected to stay at home and use the time to produce more content for Star Citizen.

The PC Gaming show is sliding into a new time slot at E3 this year, taking over EA’s old position. The lineup has gotten a little thinner since the show was announced though, with one big participant dropping out.

Cloud Imperium Games, the studio behind Star Citizen won’t be appearing at the PC Gaming show. The developer confirmed to us that it pulled out weeks ago.

“We are not able to have Chris at the PC Gaming Show due to his commitments in the UK making the game,” a Cloud Imperium Games representative told us via email. “I informed PC Gamer of this several weeks ago. It’s important to note that we were never committed to be at E3 as an exhibitor or in any other capacity (except for the PCG show). In fact we’ve never had a booth at E3. Our focus has pretty much always been Gamescom, and it will be again this year.”

To-date, Star Citizen has raised more than $114 million via Kickstarter and an ongoing self-run crowdfunding campaign. Currently, the game is in alpha with a number of different modules in development simultaneously.

According to the official site, current playable pieces include eight open world missions with approximately 20 random encounters, a section of the first-person shooting gameplay available in a space station dedicated to that mode, and a multiplayer component with both player-versus-player and wave-based combat. 

Star Citizen has the subject of much controversy, in part due to its enormous crowdfunding success and continued setbacks. In January 2015, founder Chris Roberts (Wing Commander), issued a revised timeline for the game. According to that document, Star Citizen should be releasing this year. 

The first of three episodes in the single-player campaign, Squadron 42, was supposed to be out in 2015. It is now scheduled for some time in 2016.

[Source: Cloud Imperium Games via Polygon]

 

Our Take
Given the controversy surrounding Star Citizen, pulling out of an extremely visible stage presentation is going to make ripples amongst detractors. It also has the effect of weakening an already tepid PC Gaming Show lineup. After last year, that event needs streamlining and big beats instead of being an overlong slog. Given how late Star Citizen is, this might be the best use of Roberts' time. The game has enormous expectations to meet.

Source.

Joxer spotted the Star Citizen Free Fly Event starting next week:

Greetings Citizens,

On the fence about Star Citizen? Why not give it a try and see what we’re building! For the next week, we’re enable Free Fly access to all accounts… which means that anyone can jump in to Star Citizen Alpha 2.1.2 today! The Free Fly event gives everyone access to three unique parts of the Star Citizen experience:

• Star Citizen Alpha 2.1.2 – Also known as Crusader or the “mini-PU,” this is the nucleus of the world we’re building! Featuring multiple space stations and environments, scripted missions, places to explore and more, Alpha 2.1.2 is your first look at a much larger universe!
• Arena Commander – Arena Commander is a ‘game within a game’ that we’ve used to develop our flight mechanics and ship combat balance. Take on human opponents or an AI swarm in single seat fighter.
• Social Module – Interact with other players while you explore our first landing zone, ArcCorp! The Social Module is intended as a starting point for our world building,

You can register for an account here to get started. If you already have an account from a previous Free Fly, you’re all set! Just log in via the Star Citizen launcher. This is the first Free Fly that includes Crusader, so there’s more to explore than ever before. Free Fly accounts will have access to the Hornet F7C military fighter, the Aurora LN starter and the Mustang Delta interceptor.

Chris Thursten of PC Gamer tells us what a day in the studio is like with Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and other A-list talent as they bring the characters of Squadron 42 to life.

In June I spent two days at The Imaginarium motion capture studio at Ealing Studios, London. Founded in 2005 by actor Andy Serkis, it has been used for Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is also where Squadron 42’s substantial narrative component is being pieced together, using a cast that includes Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, Andy Serkis and many others.

By the time I arrive filming has been progressing, on and off, for several months. Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies are working through what is left of their parts, and the production as a whole is coming to a close. It is the first time I have seen what over $100 million in funding looks like. That number can be difficult to parse, if you’re not a big-budget game producer. In Ealing, I learned that it looks like a lot of very expensive cameras, skintight suits covered in ping-pong balls, and a cast of top-flight actors.

Bolted onto Squadron 42’s open-ended structure is a scripted narrative told through conversations in the open world and story missions. That world-class motion-capture rig is being used to map the likenesses of the cast into the game, striking for the sense that you’re inside a sci-fi TV show. This is a modern way of achieving what Wing Commander struck for in the 1990s. FMV is gone, but Hamill and RhysDavies are back. They’re no longer Christopher Blair or Paladin (and the aliens are no longer men in giant cat costumes) but this really does feel like a spiritual successor.

“Right from the beginning it was something I wanted to do,” Chris Roberts says. “It’s fun—I haven’t done this in a game for quite a long time. We can take modern technology, fuse it with great acting... take it up a level, like Wing Commander took it up before.”

More information.

DArtagnan spotted this awesome Star Citizen video:

DSOGaming feeds us a rich interview with Cloud Imperium Games on Star Citizen mods, PC exclusivity, graphical features, DirectX12, and multi-core CPUs. 

A couple of months ago, we had the pleasure of interviewing Cloud Imperium’s Engine Technical Director, Sean Tracy, who shared with us some interesting new information about their upcoming PC exclusive space sim, Star Citizen. We talked with Sean about a lot of topics such as the game’s PC-only nature, mod support, DX12, some of the key graphical features of Star Citizen, as well as the game’s PC requirements and its multi-core CPU support. Enjoy the interview after the jump and big shoutouts to Cloud Imperium’s David Swofford as without him, this interview wouldn’t be possible!

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Sean Tracy: Gamers can expect their PC’s to be pushed to the max as we are not bound, as developers, making a game for the “lowest common denominator” which classically for most companies are the consoles or even mobile hardware. Without us having to effectively optimize to the point of being able to run on the limited hardware that is present in the consoles we are free to push the boundaries of what is possible in real time on current and even next-generation PCs. The PCs will always be beyond what console hardware has and further we are dedicated to giving enthusiasts that want to test their machine’s mettle with the options to be able to do that. This is truly a game for PC gamers who want a game built from the ground up for the PC and not up-rezzed or ported over.

More information.

Star Citizen is already unforgiving.  And you'd better have a decent rig ready, because it's ready to leave slower rigs in the dust.

Cloud Imperium has never made any bones about the demanding nature of the game—you will recall the bit about how consoles "couldn't possible handle" it—but if you were thinking you'd be able to coast through with the mid-range rig you built in 2011, think again: When asked by DSoGaming if the minimum requirement could be cut back again, Engine Technical Director Sean Tracy said, "Likely not."

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Of course, if you're gaming on a PC with 4GB and a DirectX 10 card, the odds are that either you're playing Peggle, or you're already looking into a fairly major upgrade. And by the time Star Citizen rolls around, which isn't likely to happen for a couple more years, that sort of system will be just about completely untenable for any kind of gaming that isn't built into Windows.

More information.