Squadron 42, which was 'feature-complete' and just needed 'polish' in 2023, is now targeting a 2026 launch

GamesActionStar CitizenSquadron 42, which was ‘feature-complete’ and just needed ‘polish’ in 2023, is now targeting a 2026 launchWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Cloud Imperium Games)Star Citizen’s Kickstarter campaign happened so long ago that some of the alpha’s younger players weren’t even born when it first appeared, 12 years ago. And we still don’t have a clue when it will be released. But apparently the singleplayer component, Squadron 42, will actually launch in a future that isn’t too far off: 2026. Unless it gets delayed, which, let’s face it, there’s a very high chance of happening.CIG’s chief dream-spinner Chris Roberts said he was “confident” that Squadron 42 would hit this incredibly broad release window during CitizenCon over the weekend (cheers,IGN). This announcement came after a showcase of the game’s first hour, featuring lengthy cutscenes filled to the brim with famous actors who did their mo-cap performances a decade ago, some flashy-but-linear space battles, an FPS section, a bunch of bugs, and several crashes.This was all played live at the show, hence the issues, but you can watch a more stable version of the demo below—though it’s still titled “Live Gameplay Reveal”.Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal - YouTubeWatch OnGames are gonna crash, and they’ll do so for any number of reasons—especially when we’re talking about PC games, where you’ve got all manner of hardware configurations to consider. But this was also a demo that CIG had prepped for ahead of time, of only one brief section of the game, and Squadron 42 has been in the “polish phase” for an entire year.That the polish phase is going to continue until some point in 2026, three years later, might have raised some eyebrows if the fiasco of Star Citizen’s development hadn’t kicked off well over a decade ago.This hour represents only the game’s prologue, with the full game expected to be a 30-40-hour cosmic romp. “We feel confident we can bring the quality of the game up to the level we’ve just shown and more, without crashes,” Roberts said.He went on to thank backers for supporting the studio and for “allowing us to build such an ambitious game”, but this ambition isn’t especially obvious from the prologue. It certainly looks like it cost a lot of money to make, and it’s a very cinematic introduction, full of celebrated actors taking things very seriously between explosive set pieces, but there isn’t much we haven’t seen plenty of times before—it’s a linear, heavily scripted, but certainly exciting, hour.Crucially, though, I do still want to play it. Though perhaps not as much as the people who spent money on it 12 years ago. Only a couple more years to go, folks. 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(Image credit: Cloud Imperium Games)Star Citizen’s Kickstarter campaign happened so long ago that some of the alpha’s younger players weren’t even born when it first appeared, 12 years ago. And we still don’t have a clue when it will be released. But apparently the singleplayer component, Squadron 42, will actually launch in a future that isn’t too far off: 2026. Unless it gets delayed, which, let’s face it, there’s a very high chance of happening.CIG’s chief dream-spinner Chris Roberts said he was “confident” that Squadron 42 would hit this incredibly broad release window during CitizenCon over the weekend (cheers,IGN). This announcement came after a showcase of the game’s first hour, featuring lengthy cutscenes filled to the brim with famous actors who did their mo-cap performances a decade ago, some flashy-but-linear space battles, an FPS section, a bunch of bugs, and several crashes.This was all played live at the show, hence the issues, but you can watch a more stable version of the demo below—though it’s still titled “Live Gameplay Reveal”.Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal - YouTubeWatch OnGames are gonna crash, and they’ll do so for any number of reasons—especially when we’re talking about PC games, where you’ve got all manner of hardware configurations to consider. But this was also a demo that CIG had prepped for ahead of time, of only one brief section of the game, and Squadron 42 has been in the “polish phase” for an entire year.That the polish phase is going to continue until some point in 2026, three years later, might have raised some eyebrows if the fiasco of Star Citizen’s development hadn’t kicked off well over a decade ago.This hour represents only the game’s prologue, with the full game expected to be a 30-40-hour cosmic romp. “We feel confident we can bring the quality of the game up to the level we’ve just shown and more, without crashes,” Roberts said.He went on to thank backers for supporting the studio and for “allowing us to build such an ambitious game”, but this ambition isn’t especially obvious from the prologue. It certainly looks like it cost a lot of money to make, and it’s a very cinematic introduction, full of celebrated actors taking things very seriously between explosive set pieces, but there isn’t much we haven’t seen plenty of times before—it’s a linear, heavily scripted, but certainly exciting, hour.Crucially, though, I do still want to play it. Though perhaps not as much as the people who spent money on it 12 years ago. Only a couple more years to go, folks. Maybe.More about actionAssassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’All Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codesLatest23 year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the ‘unpaid software engineers’ of its unkillable communitySee more latest►Most PopularSquare Enix launches new anti-harassment policy to protect its employees and partners from abusive fansThe Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcementsPath of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better lootPalestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 NakbaPiranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultTeam Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40KIs the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anythingIf you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off

(Image credit: Cloud Imperium Games)

Gary Oldman

Star Citizen’s Kickstarter campaign happened so long ago that some of the alpha’s younger players weren’t even born when it first appeared, 12 years ago. And we still don’t have a clue when it will be released. But apparently the singleplayer component, Squadron 42, will actually launch in a future that isn’t too far off: 2026. Unless it gets delayed, which, let’s face it, there’s a very high chance of happening.CIG’s chief dream-spinner Chris Roberts said he was “confident” that Squadron 42 would hit this incredibly broad release window during CitizenCon over the weekend (cheers,IGN). This announcement came after a showcase of the game’s first hour, featuring lengthy cutscenes filled to the brim with famous actors who did their mo-cap performances a decade ago, some flashy-but-linear space battles, an FPS section, a bunch of bugs, and several crashes.This was all played live at the show, hence the issues, but you can watch a more stable version of the demo below—though it’s still titled “Live Gameplay Reveal”.Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal - YouTubeWatch OnGames are gonna crash, and they’ll do so for any number of reasons—especially when we’re talking about PC games, where you’ve got all manner of hardware configurations to consider. But this was also a demo that CIG had prepped for ahead of time, of only one brief section of the game, and Squadron 42 has been in the “polish phase” for an entire year.That the polish phase is going to continue until some point in 2026, three years later, might have raised some eyebrows if the fiasco of Star Citizen’s development hadn’t kicked off well over a decade ago.This hour represents only the game’s prologue, with the full game expected to be a 30-40-hour cosmic romp. “We feel confident we can bring the quality of the game up to the level we’ve just shown and more, without crashes,” Roberts said.He went on to thank backers for supporting the studio and for “allowing us to build such an ambitious game”, but this ambition isn’t especially obvious from the prologue. It certainly looks like it cost a lot of money to make, and it’s a very cinematic introduction, full of celebrated actors taking things very seriously between explosive set pieces, but there isn’t much we haven’t seen plenty of times before—it’s a linear, heavily scripted, but certainly exciting, hour.Crucially, though, I do still want to play it. Though perhaps not as much as the people who spent money on it 12 years ago. Only a couple more years to go, folks. Maybe.

CIG’s chief dream-spinner Chris Roberts said he was “confident” that Squadron 42 would hit this incredibly broad release window during CitizenCon over the weekend (cheers,IGN). This announcement came after a showcase of the game’s first hour, featuring lengthy cutscenes filled to the brim with famous actors who did their mo-cap performances a decade ago, some flashy-but-linear space battles, an FPS section, a bunch of bugs, and several crashes.

This was all played live at the show, hence the issues, but you can watch a more stable version of the demo below—though it’s still titled “Live Gameplay Reveal”.

Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal - YouTubeWatch On

Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal - YouTube

Games are gonna crash, and they’ll do so for any number of reasons—especially when we’re talking about PC games, where you’ve got all manner of hardware configurations to consider. But this was also a demo that CIG had prepped for ahead of time, of only one brief section of the game, and Squadron 42 has been in the “polish phase” for an entire year.

That the polish phase is going to continue until some point in 2026, three years later, might have raised some eyebrows if the fiasco of Star Citizen’s development hadn’t kicked off well over a decade ago.

This hour represents only the game’s prologue, with the full game expected to be a 30-40-hour cosmic romp. “We feel confident we can bring the quality of the game up to the level we’ve just shown and more, without crashes,” Roberts said.

He went on to thank backers for supporting the studio and for “allowing us to build such an ambitious game”, but this ambition isn’t especially obvious from the prologue. It certainly looks like it cost a lot of money to make, and it’s a very cinematic introduction, full of celebrated actors taking things very seriously between explosive set pieces, but there isn’t much we haven’t seen plenty of times before—it’s a linear, heavily scripted, but certainly exciting, hour.

Crucially, though, I do still want to play it. Though perhaps not as much as the people who spent money on it 12 years ago. Only a couple more years to go, folks. Maybe.

More about actionAssassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’All Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codesLatest23 year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the ‘unpaid software engineers’ of its unkillable communitySee more latest►

More about actionAssassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’All Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codes

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’All Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codes

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’

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Latest23 year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the ‘unpaid software engineers’ of its unkillable communitySee more latest►

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23 year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the ‘unpaid software engineers’ of its unkillable community

Aribeth de Tylmarande in Neverwinter Nights.

23 year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the ‘unpaid software engineers’ of its unkillable community

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Most PopularSquare Enix launches new anti-harassment policy to protect its employees and partners from abusive fansThe Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcementsPath of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better lootPalestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 NakbaPiranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultTeam Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40KIs the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anythingIf you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off