After 12 years of development, one could be forgiven for wondering if Star Citizen might stay in alpha forever. However, while version 1.0 might not be right around the corner, director Chris Roberts says the full release “twinkles on the horizon.”
Star Citizen has a new roadmap, developers moving over from Squadron 42
Developer Cloud Imperium Games talked about Star Citizen’s development and the upcoming Squadron 42 spinoff in a recent blog post. This includes announcing Squadron 42 director Rich Tyrer’s promotion to Senior Game Director on Star Citizen. According to Tyrer, he and Roberts have worked together to develop a roadmap for development up to version 1.0. He also said that with Squadron 42 now feature complete, Cloud Imperium is moving more personnel back to work on Star Citizen. The studio is also reorganizing its multiple specialized teams into a single gameplay team. These factors should bring the game to version 1.0 much sooner.
The blog also talked briefly about what version 1.0 means to Cloud Imperium. “While we recognize that there is no definitive finish line in an online MMO… Star Citizen 1.0 is what we consider the features and content set to represent ‘commercial’ release. This means that the game is welcoming to new players, stable, and polished with enough gameplay and content to engage players continuously.” This includes bringing all of Squadron 42’s features over to the main game and adding features like base building and crafting.
Unfortunately, the post didn’t give a clear indication of when Star Citizen might finally reach 1.0. Similarly, despite Squadron 42 — which features stars like Henry Cavill and Mark Hamill — reportedly entering the polish phase last October, the single-player spinoff still lacks a release window. That, and the fact both games have already been in development for over a decade, don’t inspire a lot of confidence.
