Squadron 42 is not going to be on the upcoming Citizencon Direct, however developer Cloud Imperium Video games does not need you to panic. The long-awaited, standalone, single-player marketing campaign spinoff of mammoth interstellar spectacular Star Citizen is at present focusing on a 2026 launch. However contemporary affirmation from CIG content material director Jared ‘Disco Lando’ Huckaby that it would not make an look on the studio’s October showcase quickly spiraled followers into despair on the considered a possible delay. Huckaby, nonetheless, was fast to reply to the issues.
“There shall be no Squadron 42 presence at Citizencon Direct this yr.” That preliminary clarification, made by Huckaby throughout a livestream, naturally sparked fear among the many Star Citizen devoted that the single-player spinoff to CIG’s gargantuan house recreation could be in bother. Taken in its full context, although, Huckaby talks in additional element about how the crew is “heads down” on working in direction of the 2026 date given by Cloud Imperium CEO Chris Roberts throughout final yr’s showcase.
You’ll be able to watch Huckaby’s full assertion within the video above, beginning on the 2:53:20 mark, however I am going to transcribe all the essential speaking factors right here for comfort. “There was a be aware on the finish there concerning the Squadron 42 crew nonetheless being heads down and dealing on that, and I need to second the data there,” he says. “There shall be no Squadron 42 presence at Citizencon Direct this yr.
“That crew is heads down,” Huckaby continues. “We drew a line within the sand once we mentioned 2026. I do not know if we will make it; I simply know that we will do each single factor doable to make it. And a part of that’s not taking time for the distraction of Citizencon. It is why we’re not doing a bigger occasion this yr, we’re doing a smaller, extra centered factor.” He notes that there additionally will not be discussions of Star Citizen 1.0, however reasonably a focus on the subsequent yr of growth.
“No Squadron 42 presence in any respect. Not a launch date, not any of that stuff. We’re letting these folks keep centered.” He then takes a second to supply some reassurance, which did not make the reduce within the preliminary clip that was shared to the Star Citizen Reddit web page. “We’re on observe. There’s nothing to report, there is no thriller, there’s nothing we’re hiding.” Huckaby additionally addresses the “false impression that each one the sources are in Squadron 42,” explaining that there are two separate groups at work.
“Squadron, sadly, it is obtained to be below a bit extra secrecy,” Huckaby says. He then responds to feedback within the livestream: “I can already see the chat – ‘It means this, it implies that.’ People, it implies that when it is time for the sport to return out, you are going to hear much more about it. We have at all times been all large yappy on Star Citizen and fewer yappy on Squadron.
“As we get nearer to our supposed launch date in 2026, we’ll begin opening up the doorways, opening up the communication. You will begin seeing extra of all that form of stuff that you’d count on in a correct, go-to-market marketing campaign,” Huckaby concludes. “We wish folks’s focus [to be] on making the sport; that is it. It is actually no extra sophisticated than that. When the time is correct, you may see loads of Squadron 42 stuff, I promise.”
Huckaby then later dropped into the Reddit thread to supply some further feedback. “I personally can’t let you know what the long run holds, as a result of fairly actually, that is the accountable reply for me to present with the best way that videogames are made,” he writes. “Not our videogames, all videogames. So no, I do not know the long run, and I mentioned as a lot, is all, and I might ask please do not mistake my pragmatism for any commentary on the standing of the sport.”
“I simply strive very, very onerous to talk as intentionally and plainly as I can with out embellishment or hyperbole,” he continues. “I meant what I mentioned in essentially the most literal method doable: that I am unable to sit right here and let you know what the long run holds, as a result of in the whole historical past of videogame growth, who’s ever been capable of? That is all. If I did not consider on this crew and the folks inside, I would not nonetheless be right here.”
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In case you’re trying ahead to Squadron 42, does that come out of present love for the bottom recreation or a need to have a extra approachable entry level? Tell us within the PCGamesN group Discord server, the place you possibly can share your enthusiasm with us all.
