Star Citizen single-player campaign 'Squadron 42' gets 2020 release window and $46 million...

[Polycount]

Something to look forward to: Despite raising over $200 million in funding and several years of development, ambitious multiplayer space sim Star Citizen still doesn't have a release date. However, it's single-player 'Squadron 42' spin-off game finally does; sort of. Courtesy of a $46 million investment from billionaire record producer Clive Calder, the game is now expected to launch during the summer of 2020.

$46 million may seem like overkill for a single-player game that already has plenty of funding, but Chris Roberts (the owner of Roberts Space Industries, Star Citizen and Squadron 42's development team) says most of the title's fresh funding will go towards marketing costs.

Given some of the casting decisions Roberts has made with the game, such as bringing on Hollywood stars like Mark Hamill, promoting the game to as many people as possible could be a critical component of Squadron 42's future success. After all, if nobody buys the game in the end, it doesn't matter how good it might be; it'll still be considered a major loss.

When Squadron 42 eventually launches, the developers promise players will get to experience a thrilling, story-driven single player campaign filled with tough decisions, top-tier voice acting, and intense space and ground battles.

If you want to be one of the first to experience those features when Squadron 42 launches in a couple of years, you can pre-order the game right now for $45. If a story-driven space sim doesn't really sound like your cup of tea and you'd prefer something a bit more open-ended, the multiplayer side of Star Citizen can effectively be pre-ordered for the same price in the form of a $45 ship purchase.

However, just to reiterate, Star Citizen itself does not have a release date or even a release window, so you could be waiting for quite some time before you get to sink your teeth into it. On the bright side, you'll get to test the game's various Alpha versions as they release - for now, that means you can explore Star Citizen's first world and city (Hurston and Lorville, respectively).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77967-star-citizen-single-player-campaign-quadron-42-gets.html

 

[m4a4]

I'd be fine with playing Squadron 42 for now... provided it's a decent campaign (and a longer one).

 

[psycros]

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development" (aka supercars for Chris and his closest cronies). So we're either going to get the next Duke Nukem Forever or the next Battlefront. Either way SC/S42 can't possibly live up to $46 million worth of hype. And of course you'll have to buy a whole new PC to play it just as people did with every Wing Commander game, and it'll probably STILL run like a dog on anything that costs less than $1500. I'd love to be proven wrong on all counts but I've heard nothing that gives me any hope of that occurring.

 

[madboyv1]

Honestly as a huge fan of the Wing Commander games and Starlancer, I'm looking forward to the Single player /co-op campaign moreso than that actual persistent universe... Though I do have a Super Hornet ready to go for that.

@psycros Ha ha I remember all the trouble my dad went through to get Wing Commander Prophecy working... but oh man was it amazing (for the time).

 

[Puiu]

Any bets on how many years it will be delayed? I'm thinking of at least 2022 as the real release date.

 

[JoeBlobers]

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development" (aka supercars for Chris and his closest cronies). So we're either going to get the next Duke Nukem Forever or the next Battlefront. Either way SC/S42 can't possibly live up to $46 million worth of hype. And of course you'll have to buy a whole new PC to play it just as people did with every Wing Commander game, and it'll probably STILL run like a dog on anything that costs less than $1500. I'd love to be proven wrong on all counts but I've heard nothing that gives me any hope of that occurring.

SQ42 won't have loot box at all. It is a single player game and buying it will be enough to cover expenses as Millions of newplayers are going to join as soon it is a released product (not Alpha or Beta)... Star Citizen (MMO) will have micro-transactions like any others MMO.

 

[gamerk2]

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development" (aka supercars for Chris and his closest cronies). So we're either going to get the next Duke Nukem Forever or the next Battlefront. Either way SC/S42 can't possibly live up to $46 million worth of hype. And of course you'll have to buy a whole new PC to play it just as people did with every Wing Commander game, and it'll probably STILL run like a dog on anything that costs less than $1500. I'd love to be proven wrong on all counts but I've heard nothing that gives me any hope of that occurring.

SQ42 won't have loot box at all. It is a single player game and buying it will be enough to cover expenses as Millions of newplayers are going to join as soon it is a released product (not Alpha or Beta)... Star Citizen (MMO) will have micro-transactions like any others MMO.

Keep in mind even the CoDs of the world are lucky to sell > 5 Million copies. And given the Star Citizen delays, many people are going to wait for reviews before even considering a purchase.

Point being: If the game isn't good, it's going to cost its creators a **** ton of money.

 

[Footlong]

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development" (aka supercars for Chris and his closest cronies). So we're either going to get the next Duke Nukem Forever or the next Battlefront. Either way SC/S42 can't possibly live up to $46 million worth of hype. And of course you'll have to buy a whole new PC to play it just as people did with every Wing Commander game, and it'll probably STILL run like a dog on anything that costs less than $1500. I'd love to be proven wrong on all counts but I've heard nothing that gives me any hope of that occurring.

SQ42 won't have loot box at all. It is a single player game and buying it will be enough to cover expenses as Millions of newplayers are going to join as soon it is a released product (not Alpha or Beta)... Star Citizen (MMO) will have micro-transactions like any others MMO.

Keep in mind even the CoDs of the world are lucky to sell > 5 Million copies. And given the Star Citizen delays, many people are going to wait for reviews before even considering a purchase.

Point being: If the game isn't good, it's going to cost its creators a **** ton of money.

No. Just no! CoD sold over 10 million copies last year. Star Citizen needs a console port because there is a huge installed base on both PS4 and Xbox. They could make it exclusive for PS4Pro and Xbox One X to reduce porting cost. Don't know how they will pull that off since both Sony and Microsoft said they would never release exclusive titles for the most powerfull iterations.
High scores in review sites does not translate in comercial success. The Witcher 3 did not reach first place in most sold game in the world the year it was released and after. CD Projekt Red said it took 2 years to start having profits with The Witcher 3. Now the game is strong due to word of mouth.

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher...17s-biggest-games-because-its-just-that-good/

 

[R00sT3R]

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development"

..But it doesn't need to make its money back. It's s crowd sourced funding model where the people giving money knew the risks and accepted them. The only criteria they have to meet is actually releasing a completed game. What happens after that is pretty much irrelevant.

 

[Reehahs]

Marketing is a waste of money for most games. Given the hype train Star Citizen has got so far, they should not really need it. They should instead spend that money on getting the game out.

 

[MasterMace]

Star Citizen is the classic exemplar of why you don't buy something that doesn't exist.

 

[McMurdeR]

What's really curious about this whole saga is that other publishers haven't twigged that there might be a bit of money to be made in this genre?

For years fans have been crying out for modern spiritual successors to the likes of wing commander, xwing and Free space.

 

[poohbear]

How on earth did this guy squander $200 million???? U got that money and the game hasn't been released in years?? AND he's asking people to pay to pre-order??? And people are actually paying? It's a friggin catastrophe.

 

[amghwk]

It's the dumb people who pre-order are to be blamed. If they didn't cultivate this trend, developers wouldn't dare to continue with this model.

Remember those days when demos were available for you to try? Developers would showcase them through these demos for everyone to try. If they like the games, THEN they can buy the full game.

Nowadays, not only the demos are almost non-existant, but the publishers have the nerve to ask you to pre-pay for a game in-production, without knowing how the final game would turn out to be.

In the end, the current gen gamers are to be blamed for the pre-pay model, for paying for a phantom game in development.

It's just not about the Indie developers asking for money to complete their games anymore. Big 'uns do it too, for fast bucks.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

How on earth did this guy squander $200 million???? U got that money and the game hasn't been released in years?? AND he's asking people to pay to pre-order??? And people are actually paying? It's a friggin catastrophe.

Scam citizen was supposed to be released in 2012 with a $500K budget. It is now almost 2019, with over 200M invested in development, more then GTA V's entire development. This despite Cloud Imperium employing far fewer people then worked on GTA V and without nearly as much management overhead.

They wasted the money by ballooning out of control. Cloud Imperium is a great example of why the best creative products typically come from tightly controlled environments. When you have to be creative to get around budgetary and time constraints, you wind up with great games like halo, KoToR, ece. When there are no such limitations, when you put creative visionaries in an unlimited sandbox, costs run out of control as feature creep runs amok, and you wind up with Star citizen. You throw someone corrupt like Chris Roberts, using game funding to buy laborginis and houses, and you get Scam citizen. Many youtubers and self made artists have talked about this over the years, running your own business requires incredible self diligence and discipline to keep projects on track by yourself, something people like Chris roberts and Peter Molyneux do not have.

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development" (aka supercars for Chris and his closest cronies). So we're either going to get the next Duke Nukem Forever or the next Battlefront. Either way SC/S42 can't possibly live up to $46 million worth of hype. And of course you'll have to buy a whole new PC to play it just as people did with every Wing Commander game, and it'll probably STILL run like a dog on anything that costs less than $1500. I'd love to be proven wrong on all counts but I've heard nothing that gives me any hope of that occurring.

SQ42 won't have loot box at all. It is a single player game and buying it will be enough to cover expenses as Millions of newplayers are going to join as soon it is a released product (not Alpha or Beta)... Star Citizen (MMO) will have micro-transactions like any others MMO.

Keep in mind even the CoDs of the world are lucky to sell > 5 Million copies. And given the Star Citizen delays, many people are going to wait for reviews before even considering a purchase.

Point being: If the game isn't good, it's going to cost its creators a **** ton of money.

No. Just no! CoD sold over 10 million copies last year. Star Citizen needs a console port because there is a huge installed base on both PS4 and Xbox. They could make it exclusive for PS4Pro and Xbox One X to reduce porting cost. Don't know how they will pull that off since both Sony and Microsoft said they would never release exclusive titles for the most powerfull iterations.
High scores in review sites does not translate in comercial success. The Witcher 3 did not reach first place in most sold game in the world the year it was released and after. CD Projekt Red said it took 2 years to start having profits with The Witcher 3. Now the game is strong due to word of mouth.

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher...17s-biggest-games-because-its-just-that-good/

Devil's advocate, but Star citizen is a PC only release ATM (although it wouldnt surprise me if Roberts promised a xbox, PS4, 3DS, switch, android, and iOS versions when his son needs a new lamborgini). CoD sells the majority of its titles on consoles. CoD selling 5 million on PC is pretty optimistic, and that may have been what he was referring to.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

What's really curious about this whole saga is that other publishers haven't twigged that there might be a bit of money to be made in this genre?

For years fans have been crying out for modern spiritual successors to the likes of wing commander, xwing and Free space.

Modern game development is very expensive, and large companies are hesitant to make such games due to a suspected limited market. The titans of industry are slow to change. The abhorrent PR disaster that was NMS may have scared of the timid publishers from space sci fi for another few years too. Many developers, even smaller ones, are trapped by the allure of massive payouts from the mobile space and LCD generic games that appeal to overenthusiastic youtube personalities.

We have gotten several games of this genre, such as elite dangerous and ever-space. We are also getting a new Descent game. I doubt we will ever get another freespace style game, that is a relatively small niche compared to the wealth gleaned from microtransaction laden mobile games. Thankfully, since Freespace 2 is open sourced, there is still new content coming out, and the game runs on anything and will continue to do so for decades to come, much like DOOM.

 

[psycros]

..But it doesn't need to make its money back. It's s crowd sourced funding model where the people giving money knew the risks and accepted them. The only criteria they have to meet is actually releasing a completed game. What happens after that is pretty much irrelevant.

The publishers and distributors will take a huge chunk of their profits. If, as most reports agree, RSI has blown a large percentage of the crowdsourced funds the company could still go into the red if SC sells poorly. Of course Roberts' entire goal from day #1 could have been to hoard most of that money rather than using it for development. If so he has set himself up for a massive class action.

 

[Pablonus]

Unless its a non-stop loot crate nightmare there's mathematically no way this game can make back the money that's been squandered on it's "development" (aka supercars for Chris and his closest cronies). So we're either going to get the next Duke Nukem Forever or the next Battlefront. Either way SC/S42 can't possibly live up to $46 million worth of hype. And of course you'll have to buy a whole new PC to play it just as people did with every Wing Commander game, and it'll probably STILL run like a dog on anything that costs less than $1500. I'd love to be proven wrong on all counts but I've heard nothing that gives me any hope of that occurring.

Have you actually tried the latest 3.4 PTU version? It plays a lot better than in 3.3. Even my potato is finally able to enjoy the game. Yes. 60fps and above is still for those power machines but it wasn't too long ago most people only 20-30 fps with massive drops in between. I would give it a try again if you haven't done so in a while.

 

[Pablonus]

Any bets on how many years it will be delayed? I'm thinking of at least 2022 as the real release date.

But at least it will be out. Funny how its no longer being called "Vaporware" as much from the trolls. I myself cant wait for my next Wing Comman.... I mean Space game fix!

 

[Pablonus]

Star Citizen is the classic exemplar of why you don't buy something that doesn't exist.

Yet here I am playing with what they have available which is being regularly updated now. Hmmmmm.....

 

[Pablonus]

How on earth did this guy squander $200 million???? U got that money and the game hasn't been released in years?? AND he's asking people to pay to pre-order??? And people are actually paying? It's a friggin catastrophe.

Sure. Sure. Catastrophe. You do realize that they haven't used up $200 million dollars right? They have received that amount and are actively consuming it in development and such.

 

[Jules Mark]

The cast of Squadron 42 should be enough to convince people to buy this game.

“Squadron 42” boasts an impressive cast and more than 10 hours of performance capture, according to its official website. Among the familiar faces are Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, John Rhys Davies, and Andy Serkis.

We got Jedi Master, Superman, Police Commissioner, FBI, Genius Villain, landed knight, Imperial Commander, Dwarf Warrior.

Plenty of talent here. You name it, we got it.

 

[captaincranky]

The cast of Squadron 42 should be enough to convince people to buy this game.

“Squadron 42” boasts an impressive cast and more than 10 hours of performance capture, according to its official website. Among the familiar faces are Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, John Rhys Davies, and Andy Serkis.

We got Jedi Master, Superman, Police Commissioner, FBI, Genius Villain, landed knight, Imperial Commander, Dwarf Warrior.

Plenty of talent here. You name it, we got it.

Who exactly is "WE", if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Jules Mark]

"We" as in backers and subscribers. I am a Star Citizen backer from Kickstarter day.

... Dwarf Warrior. And everybody's favorite: Smeagol !!

 

[Puiu]

But at least it will be out. Funny how its no longer being called "Vaporware" as much from the trolls. I myself cant wait for my next Wing Comman.... I mean Space game fix!

This is not SC. Funny how fanboys forget this simple fact.

As for the big SC game it will most likely be in early access/alpha for at least another 3-4 years. God knows if they'll release it by the end of the 20s decade.