Time to pull out your bingo cards and see if you have this one marked because, lo and behold, the release of Squadron 42 has been pushed back. Chris Roberts has announced in a new letter from the chairman that the Cloud Imperium Games space title, featuring an all-star Hollywood voiceover cast that includes the likes of Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, and Rhona Mitra, has had its launch window moved from Q4 2026 to Q2 2027. According to Roberts, this is to avoid having to compete with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI.
As Roberts puts it, “there is no way I want to launch my spiritual successor to Wing Commander, a game that has had twelve years of blood, sweat and tears invested,” to launch alongside the “buzz saw of GTA6”. He further clarifies that while Grand Theft Auto VI is a console-only release and Squadron 42 is PC only, most media and content creator coverage will be focused on Rockstar’s release only, and thus the reasoning for launching nearly six months later. Roberts has added that some backers for Squadron 42 may end up with access to play the game on October 9th and 10th.
On the other side of the CIG front is Star Citizen, which was in the news a while back for crossing the $1 billion mark in crowdfunding. Roberts and company have proven that you needn’t ever officially launch a game to keep it funded, and the lengthy letter reaffirms how the financials show funding going back into development and paying what could be a staff of over 600. Reportedly, there have been 35,890 concurrent players for Star Citizen, and that number is continuing to increase.
“Ive seen a few people question why there wasn’t a Letter for the Chairman at the $1 billion crowdfunded milestone, and honestly, I felt it shouldn’t be about the money as Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are much more than a financial headline.”
– Chris Roberts
Maybe Squadron 42 will launch in Q2 2027; maybe it won’t, because one thing is certain: Roberts and CIG have created their own business model, which doesn’t truly seem to require official launch dates, and as long as backers can pay and play, funding will continue, and so will the updates and patches to these projects. Star Citizen was first announced in 2012, and according to Robert’s statement, Squadron 42 has been in development since 2014. On another front, however, on the technical side, the letter is a good read for those interested in their efforts with CryEngine/Lumberyard and other technological hurdles and innovations encountered during development. For all the tongue-in-cheek jibes regarding release dates, there seems to be a lot going into developing these games, both financially and technologically speaking.
Discussion (3 replies)
Join Discussion →Whaaaat? Again!? Let me guess... new bigger better ship sale time!
You think we an get a kickstarter going to have Roberts and the top staff removed so some sort of sanity can prevail?
/s ..... Kinda.....
No GTA VI is too big and they need at least 3 Q to make sure the press will spend time on Squadron 42.
I read this in another article on the subject that appeared to quoting CR.