Where is My Squadron 42?!

I saw in some youtube videos and from some publications that Squadron 42 is delayed again and I was a bit confused by this as we haven’t had a release date for Squadron 42 for a while HOWEVER it appears that those assertions have been made mainly because it hasn’t gone to beta in 2020 and Chris had recently said in his Letter from the Chairman it’s going to be done when it’s done… again… I am not really sure that constitutes headlines of Squadron 42 delayed again… However there are lots of development updates and WHERE IS SQUADORN 42 WHEN DO GET GAME?!

Squadron 42 is Star Citizen’s Single Player Campaign, where the player plays as a pilot in the military against Vanduul and Pirate threats… it was announced for release in 2014 then delayed and suggested in 2016 BUT now it’s release date is unknown. 

So what is happening with Squadron 42… well we do know mid-2019 they announced they wanted SQ42 to be in a state of beta complete for the end of 2020 AND they said later in 2020 that it was not going to be beta ready and there was still more work to do… however that was never going to be a public beta… you almost certainly won’t see a public beta of Squadron 42… you probably won’t even see closed tests outside of CI offices… Did you see a closed beta of CyberPunk… oh actually that might of had a few more things fixed if they did lol lol lol… 

What I mean to say is them hitting beta is great BUT it doesn’t mean much to players until the game is released. Erin did say a while ago it is possible just before release they might have some evocati testing it maybe?!

All of the Games 28 Chapters are seeing work on the Roadmap, from FPS Level Design to Flight to Social Interactions. The work currently listed shows completion dates planned for Jan 2022 currently so we aren’t getting a 2021 release for Squadron that’s for sure.

There is a lot of devs working on Squadron 42, it’s getting the Lions share of development for the most part… Star Citizen’s PU does share a huge amount of work between the 2 projects but SQ42 has narrative, location and story bits etc… that are unique to it and it is a much more rich highly detailed BUT smaller scaled part of the Star Citizen Universe.

With Chris Roberts Saying:

“Squadron 42 will have a much higher level of bespoke locations and assets and a more crafted feel; combined with a cinematic quality and characters played by famous actors delivering performances that take you on a rollercoaster narrative experience that will rival the biggest sci-fi event films.“

There is a whole host of deliverables planned to get work through 2021:

There are boats/aquatic vehicles planned for Squadron in some way…

Enemy Ships marked as specifically for SQ42 this suggests to me it’s variations of ship jacker ships and skins for ships that are just for the needs of the story. 

We have the RSI Bengal & Idris seeing work.

Xi’An Cargo… whatever that means.

Locations wise the Archon MASSIVE Mining Station, Acideo Comm Array, The Electrically charged Coil that was formed from the exploded Odin 1, we also have Odin 1’s/Coil’s Moon Gainey, the abandoned extraction facility Chemline, The Breakers Yard, Station & Planet Work.

Beyond this and the work on the Chapters we don’t have an indication of when the game will be released with Chris Roberts saying:

“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.

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.”

In forms of other development updates:

We were supposed to have a Squadron 42 update video a while ago that got delayed and has since become a Star Citizen Meme (along with the new roadmap roadmaps) then CI said they wanted to make it into regular video series called the Briefing Room that focused on development updates for Squadron… This eventually came out and showed off the Aciedo Comm array as well as character interrupts which was actually pretty cool and was over an hour and 15mins long!

However CI have decided that they are pausing until closer to Squadron 42’s launch AND in fact to 

“not show Squadron 42 gameplay publicly, nor discuss any release date until we are closer to the home stretch and have high confidence in the remaining time needed to finish the game to the quality we want. “

The reasoning being that the stuff they would show us in these videos is prime footage for marketing and building hype and they want to start that closer to release rather than have it fizzle away before the games released and have nothing left to be able to show… as they don’t want to spoil the campaign by showing too much. Which I can in part understand that reasoning.

CI have said they are going to still be updating us with the Monthly Reports and on the New Roadmap.

So when are we getting Squadron 42 Episode 1? Potentially in 2022 BUT it’s done when it’s done. Star Citizen and Squadron have had a host of delays and it’s an extremely slow development however that’s partly by design with them trying to get an amazing couple of games made. Expect to see traditional advertising and hype for SQ42 as they get close to release. CI have said a few times in the last few weeks that they are closing out squadron 42 so that implies that they have done more than they haven’t done…?

And also remember that they have another 2 games planned with Episode 2 and 3 of Squadron 42 planned as well that will be a couple of years after the Episode 1 release of the next Episode… but they are not the game cut into 3… rather 3 separate games as an episodic trilogy. We can talk about those in the future… let’s focus on getting this game out first!