Squadron 42 game designer does not want to repeat the mistakes of CD Projekt

Cloud Imperium Games studio head Chris Roberts has updated the development status of Squadron 42, a standalone single-player story campaign of the ambitious space simulator Star Citizen. The game designer admitted that it is definitely not worth waiting for the release of the project in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Roberts does not even intend to publish any gameplay demos or working materials, so as not to be distracted from the necessary production processes once again.

According to Roberts, the decision was driven by the studio’s desire to protect itself. She does not want to compromise and strives to release immediately the most complete, high-quality, and polished product. If she constantly shows something and makes promises (some of which, for various reasons, in the end, may not come true), inflating the expectations of the audience, who wants to quickly get a long-term construction, with a considerable degree of probability an unpleasant situation may arise – for example, the authors will rush with the release and will not finish something. And the Roberts team does not need any scandals – the game designer does not want to repeat the mistakes of CD Projekt RED, which failed at the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

As I said before, Squadron 42 will only be released when it’s ready. We’re not going to pursue a specific date, everything is determined by the maximum completion of the technology base, content, as well as the required polish for the project.

Over the past few years, I have seen quite a few games that were released far from finished. This Christmas season is no exception. Here’s another reminder of how fortunate we are to have such a close-knit community of fans and a production model backed by user funds who care only about quality, not about pursuing high performance in quarterly reports or wanting to cash in on the holiday season, ”explains Chris Roberts.

Star Citizen calls Squadron 42’s standalone single-player campaign an “epic adventure” that surpasses the likes of The Last of Us, God of War, and Red Dead Redemption 2 in staging, character detail and empathy for gamers. Chris Roberts previously said that he was aiming for “a new level of emotional engagement.”

To participate in Squadron 42, the developers invited Hollywood stars, including Henry Cavill (“Man of Steel”, “Mission Impossible: Fallout”, “The Witcher”), Mark Hamill (“Star Wars”), Gary Oldman (“The Dark Knight”, ” The Fifth Element), Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Ben Mendelssohn (Star Wars: Rogue One, Captain Marvel) and Mark Strong (Kingsman, Shazam!). They demonstrated videos with them several years ago.

In parallel with the creation of Squadron 42, development continues on the main Star Citizen, a massively multiplayer game. In total, users donated more than $ 310 million to it.

Interestingly, initially, Squadron 42 was promised to be released back in 2014, but the ambitions of the developers increased and the dates shifted. Beta testing of Squadron 42 was scheduled for the second half of 2020, but in the end, it will not be, since the developers are not yet ready for it. Now they just won’t make any promises on dates.