For well over a decade, Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts did not want to attach any definite release windows to his extremely ambitious sci-fi online multiplayer space simulation game. That has seemingly changed, as Canadian website LaPresse reports in an interview with Roberts that the game is expected to launch either in 2027 or 2028.
Considering that the game's early access for the persistent universe module launched on December 23, 2017, the early access would end around the ten-year mark, possibly threatening the existing record of 7 Days to Die: the survival horror game by The Fun Pimps launched in early access on December 13, 2013, while version 1.0 became available on July 25, 2024.
Star Citizen, currently in Alpha 4.3.0, will be preceded by the single-player campaign Squadron 42. As you might recall, Cloud Imperium Games announced during last year's CitizenCon event that Squadron 42 would be released in 2026. In the aforementioned interview, Chris Roberts expressed hopes that it will be nearly as hyped as a launch event as Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI, describing Squadron 42 as Top Gun mixed with Star Wars.
We're hoping it'll be almost as big an event. Other than GTA 6, it's probably the biggest-budget AAA game. It's Top Gun meets Star Wars.
Squadron 42 does include an ensemble cast of Hollywood stars who undoubtedly wanted to be paid well to lend their voices and likenesses to the game. Here's a comprehensive list:
- Gary Oldman
- Mark Hamill
- Gillian Anderson
- Mark Strong
- Liam Cunningham
- Andy Serkis
- John Rhys-Davies
- Jack Huston
- Eleanor Tomlinson
- Harry Treadaway
- Sophie Wu
- Damson Idris
- Eric Wareheim
- Rhona Mitra
- Henry Cavill
- Ben Mendelsohn
The $858 million dollar (and counting) question is, will Star Citizen and Squadron 42 meet fans' expectations after all these years? Vote in the poll below and share your opinion in the comments!
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
