The single-player Star Citizen spin-off Squadron 42 is slated to finally be in players' hands in 2026, 11 full years after its initial 2015 release target. And after all that time, Cloud Imperium Games CEO Chris Roberts says he's hopeful that the title will be received similarly to another 2026 release that happens to be possibly the most anticipated video game of all time: Grand Theft Auto VI.
A recent report from France's La Presse (translated) suggests that Squadron 42's launch is being timed so that it "won't be overshadowed" by the planned May launch of Grand Theft Auto VI. "We're hoping it'll be almost as big an event," Roberts said in comparing the two upcoming releases in an interview with the French paper. "Other than GTA VI, it's probably the biggest-budget AAA game [of the year]."
That's a pretty bold claim, considering that Squadron 42's very public and tumultuous path to a purported "feature complete" status in 2023. But it seems at least somewhat reasonable when you consider that GTA VI's development budget of nearly $1 billion lines up closely with $859 million in crowdfunding currently being reported for Star Citizen as a whole.
Still, comparing the launch of Squadron 42 to that of Grand Theft Auto VI might be the most grandiose bit of expectation-setting yet from a studio known for setting grand expectations. Yes, Roberts Space Industries can boast a million people who play the Star Citizen alpha monthly and 25 million who have tried it at least once (as reported in La Presse). But Grand Theft Auto V has sold 215 million copies so far, with the GTA Online mode helping to regularly attract 20 to 30 million returning players each month. The relative levels of anticipation suggested by these numbers are not in the same galaxy, to put it mildly.
The long and winding road
It's hard to remember now, but Star Citizen's then-impressive $6.3 million Kickstarter campaign came just a few months before Grand Theft Auto V first launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (remember those?). But development on Rockstar's long-awaited sequel didn't start in earnest until 2020, publisher Take Two says, around the time Star Citizen developer Roberts Space Industries was settling a contentious lawsuit over game engine rights and rolling out a new roadmap for the development of a new development roadmap for the game.
Of course, the development of Grand Theft Auto VI has happened completely behind closed doors, with developer Rockstar and publisher Take Two only occasionally offering tiny drops of information to a desperate press and fan base. By contrast, Roberts Space Industries has issued regular, incredibly detailed information dumps on the drawn-out development progress for Star Citizen and Squadron 42, even when that kind of openness has contributed to the public appearance of internal dysfunction.
The massive, ongoing crowdfunding that powers the open development structure "allows us to do things without imposing the framework of a typical video game studio," Roberts told La Presse. "The players who fund us expect the best game, period. We don't have to streamline, cut jobs, or change our business model."
That pre-launch development cycle must eventually end, of course, and the La Presse report suggests that the full, 1.0 release of Star Citizen is "now promised" for "2027 or 2028." While we'd love to believe that, the history of Star Citizen development thus far (and the lack of any provided sourcing for the claim) make us more than a little skeptical.
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