Star Citizen is a game notorious for missing its deadlines. The space-faring sci-fi open-world odyssey has been ongoing since 2011 and still shows no sign of being anywhere near done despite having raised over $400 million from eager fans. Squadron 42, first announced back in 2014 during the game’s initial Kickstarter campaign, also shows absolutely no sign of completion. But that hasn’t stopped Cloud Imperium Games from already thinking about sequels.
In an interview with MCV/Develop, Cloud Imperium Games chief operating officer Carl Jones spoke of the studio’s progress over the past year and what it plans to be doing over the next five years. Notably, there was absolutely no talk of a specific release date for either Star Citizen or Squadron 42, but he did say that he expects to be “operating a very large MMORPG” by the time five years have passed, and also to be “developing the sequel and sequels for Squadron 42.”
Still, after 10 years for Star Citizen and almost eight years for Squadron 42, it almost seems like five more years would hardly make a difference. Jones preemptively responded to that criticism by offering a general timeframe for Squadron 42 of "one or two years more."
That optimism comes courtesy of the recent relocation of CIG head honcho Chris Roberts, who recently returned to England after spending some time in Los Angeles. He plans to spend "more time over here with the Squadron 42 team" to hopefully "progress Squadron 42 through to completion faster."
But as is always the case with CIG, don't expect any promises. "We want to get that game finished," said Jones, "but it will be finished when it’s ready.”
In that same interview, Jones also hinted at even larger expansions for Cloud Imperium. The studio has offices in Manchester, Los Angeles, Austin, and Germany, but there are plans to expand even further to support Star Citizen's development. CIG certainly has no shortage of cash to fuel its growth, although it’d be nice to see an actual game come out of all this industry.