Star Citizen’s Squadron 42 campaign is “feature complete” after 11 years

Enlarge / Gillian Anderson's likeness has been promoting Star Citizen since 2015. (credit: Cloud Imperium Games)

Eleven years ago, Wing Commander designer Chris Roberts announced Star Citizen, an online multiplayer game that he said would "change the way people perceive games for the PC." Roberts told Ars' Kyle Orland soon after that he didn't enjoy the four-year development of another hit, Freelancer, because "spending that many years disconnected from your audience, sort of working off by yourself, wasn't creatively fun for me." With Star Citizen, Roberts said he could keep development from dragging on by engaging fans and using a pre-built engine, as opposed to what Roberts said would be "two years" building his own.

Roberts has definitely engaged his audience in Star Citizen, to the tune of $616 million raised from more than 4.8 million "Star Citizens." It has just taken a bit longer than two years to give them a true release.

Roughly 11 years after Star Citizen's initial announcement that included it, then nine years after its first potential release date, Squadron 42, the single-player campaign, is now "feature complete" and has "entered its polish phase." Roberts announced this in a video released Sunday as part of an annual CitizenCon for backers, along with footage from the game and details on its development.