Over 10 Years After It Was Announced, Star Citizen’s Single-Player Squadron 42 Is ‘Feature Complete’

Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) has said the campaign portion of its controversial space sim is finally “feature complete”, over a decade after it was announced.

Squadron 42 was part of the original Star Citizen Kickstarter campaign launched in 2012, before it was split off from the main game to become a standalone story campaign. It suffered multiple delays and long periods of silence.

In 2015, CIG announced a long list of Hollywood stars had joined its cast, including Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, and Gillian Anderson. Flashy cinematic trailers were released showing off the cast in action, with other cast members such as Andy Serkis, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Strong, Harry Treadway, Jack Huston, and John Rhys-Davies involved with the spiritual successor to Chris Roberts’ Wing Commander series.

Now, 11 years later, it looks like the finish line for Squadron 42 may be in sight, although CIG stopped short of announcing a release window. Work towards beta and release is now underway, the developer said.

“We are excited to announce that Squadron 42 is now feature complete,” CIG said. “As we move into the polishing phase, we’re fully focused on optimising and fine-tuning all aspects of the gameplay experience to deliver an unprecedented cinematic adventure. To celebrate this milestone, we have gathered our core development leadership from around the globe to share what this means.

“Thank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.”

Star Citizen is considered one of the most controversial projects in all video games. Over the years it's been called many things, including a scam by those who wonder whether it will ever properly launch. Its virtual space ships, some of which cost hundreds of dollars, are often the focus of criticism.

What cannot be denied is the huge amount of money so far raised by Star Citizen, which CIG displays on its website. At the time of this article’s publication, Star Citizen had raised $616,272,619 from just over 4.8 million accounts.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.