The space MMO Star Citizen and its solo campaign Squadron 42 have been in development for over 10 years and are highly anticipated by fans. All info about release, roadmap, and leaks can be found here on MeinMMO.
Last update: January 23, 2024
With its developer studio CIG (Cloud Imperium Games), Chris Roberts has been working on the mammoth project Star Citizen and the associated single player story Squadron 42 since 2010.
In the early 1990s, Roberts created the Wing Commander series, a space saga that remains fondly remembered by many fans to this day.
20 years later, he began working on his new vision Star Citizen. Through crowdfunding and the sale of ‘Game Packages’ that grant access to playable modules in alpha status, over 600 million US dollars have been raised. The incurred production costs seem to have no end, but unfortunately, the required development time does not either.
We summarize all the current information for Squadron 42 here, which we know about release, roadmap, and leaks.
Release Date
When will Squadron 42 be released? On this question, CIG has been silent for some time. Originally announced for 2014, Chris Roberts announced in late 2020 that no expected release date would be given, and no new game content would be presented.
The last official answer on this came from early 2022. At that time, Carl Jones, Chief Operating Officer at CIG, was asked by the British gaming magazine MCV/DEVELOP about the development status of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
What did the CCO say in the interview? Jones speaks about the establishment of new teams and the influence Chris Roberts has on decisions in-house. In response to the question about a concrete release date, the CCO does not give a specific answer but provides an outlook for the coming years.
He reported, among other things, a planned continuation for the single player campaign in 2027, but he does not rule out that Squadron 42 could be released even sooner.
What was announced at CitizenCon 2023? In October 2023, new information about Squadron 42 was finally revealed at the Star Citizen expo. A new 27-minute trailer excited the community. However, immediately after the trailer, no specific release date was mentioned again.
Nevertheless, Chris Roberts was able to surprise the fans on-site and those watching the stream. He proudly announced that Squadron 42 is now “feature-complete,” and the completion of the single-player story is thus drawing nearer.
Roadmap
In December 2020, Chris Roberts released his annual “Letter from the Chairman” to reflect on the development of Star Citizen and
Squadron 42.
In this context, a new, revised roadmap for both development areas was also released. CIG made an effort to present current goals and milestones more transparently and specifically to interested players.
How informative is the roadmap? The “Public Roadmap Companion” provides more details on the “Progress Tracker” within the roadmap. Here, quarterly milestones of the overall development are listed.
However, there are still no specific release dates to be found here either. The mentioned times are meant for individual tasks to be completed. This does not mean that they will actually be done by then.
When will new updates be released? In addition to the Progress Tracker, there is another tab in the roadmap. In the “Release View” section, you can get insights into the upcoming patches for the game client in alpha state and their planned content.
This includes gameplay mechanics, new locations and ships, as well as other means of transportation. These new features are supposed to be integrated into the game quarterly. However, CIG does not rule out delayed releases due to longer development times.
What is SQ42’s current status? According to the announcement at CitizenCon 2023, the entries for Squadron 42 now include the following note: “Polishing – fine-tuning and refinement of all aspects of the player experience of Squadron 42.”
In a newsletter from early 2024, CIG further elaborates on the details of the polishing. This development report mentions specifics on the progress of the campaign, highlighting a total of 10 areas where the various SQ42 teams are currently working.
Leaks
Manufacturers regularly try to close leaks within their ranks when it comes to confidential content. Sources with information not intended for the public are also considered a major problem for the developers.
What leaks are known? Unauthorized releases cannot be completely avoided by game developers. And so, a 9-minute video showing in-engine footage emerged last in October 2022.
The leaked material was already said to be a year old at the time of its disclosure. Nonetheless, it is still newer than the most recently released video by CIG from late 2019.
You can find the video here on YouTube.
Have there been new leaks since then? Yes, and the information contained temporarily caused great excitement. The leak included a roadmap with a supposed release of Squadron 42 in the first quarter of 2025 and a release of the MMO spin-off in the version for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Fans and experts strongly doubt the authenticity of the mentioned information. Release dates provided by CIG until 2020 have not been met. At CitizenCon 2023, however, Chris Roberts promised the fans that they would be the first to know when it happens.
Is CIG revealing itself?
For some time now, Squadron 42 can no longer be purchased individually in the CIG shop. All combo packages, which in addition to access to the game also include a starter ship, have been quietly removed from the shop.
Currently, there is only one store offer that includes a game package with Squadron 42. This costs around 1200 euros and is therefore uninteresting for most.
For concierge members who have already invested 1000 euros or more in Star Citizen, there are further game packages with SQ42. These packages with prices ranging from 1400 to 16,600 euros definitely target a different buyer demographic.
Why can’t Squadron 42 be purchased at regular prices anymore? According to a statement from a CIG employee, Squadron 42 was removed in order to bring it back to the store with a price adjustment at a later time.
Knebel, a well-known YouTuber and streamer for Star Citizen, has thought about this and elaborated on possible reasons for the removal in this video.
Option 1: Upcoming price adjustment
Is the price simply increasing? Knebel suspects a price adjustment as the reason less likely.
CIG has in the past adjusted prices in the shop at short notice. If the packages that contain Squadron 42 are to be fundamentally revised, the developer could have simply communicated this openly.
Option 2: Legal disputes
Has Chris Roberts been sued? Officially it is said that the game was removed from the shop for a price adjustment. However, there could perhaps be a lawsuit against CIG, as the developers have thus far offered a product for sale without a concrete release date. To protect themselves from further lawsuits, the statement on the price adjustment could be used as a pretext.
Option 3: Is an imminent release with the announcement of a concrete date following?
What does CIG plan? As has been mentioned several times, Chris Roberts and Co. are no longer making any comments about a release and specific timeline for a publication. However, one might now suspect that CIG has removed all content related to Squadron 42 from the store to work in the background on announcing a full version after the “feature-complete” announcement.
Once the complete campaign with all features is playable, they could justify increasing the price with this reason and make it available for purchase again in the store.
At CitizenCon 2023, although many new details were revealed, the campaign did not find its way back into the online shop afterwards. At least not at affordable prices.
When is the perfect time for a release? In the spotlight of an upcoming CitizenCon would be the ideal time to either release Squadron 42 or at least mention a concrete date. This way, a new source of revenue for further development of the main game would arise, and CIG might complete their overall project faster.
This third possibility is seen by the streamer and YouTuber as the most likely. Whether this actually happens, he and we cannot know.
These were our updates on release, roadmap, and leaks for Star Citizen – Squadron 42.
What do you think about the current information situation? Do you regularly check the playable alpha versions and follow the development yourself, or do you believe that Star Citizen and Squadron 42 will never be fully released?
In parallel to the work on the solo campaign Squadron 42, CIG continuously adds new content to the MMO spin-off. In an initial preview with the upcoming Pyro system, some PvP players went too far and spoiled the fun for other players during this test: PvP drama in Star Citizen: Spoilsports laugh about fair play, harm the game, and themselves
