Star Citizen’s Slippery Squadron 42 Delayed Yet Another Six Months To Make Sure It Really Avoids GTA 6

Star Citizen at this point feels far more likely to result in an industry-changing documentary than a completed video game. The project, which has raised a ghastly billion dollars from its fanbase, recently broadcast a stream that went so disastrously that the presenters were publicly shamed by their boss as it was going out. And now its single-player campaign, Squadron 42, has been delayed yet again to at least April 2027, bumping its late arrival to a full 11 years. Why? Because, um [quick, something think of something], er, oh yeah, GTA 6 is coming out in November! This is, rather brazenly, the latest excuse for not releasing the game from Roberts Space Industries boss Chris Roberts. As PC Gamer noticed, a new update on the game’s official site from the once-legendary Wing Commander developer explains that—after 1,600 words of other excuses for other undelivered promises—that “there is no way I want to launch my spiritual successor to Wing Commander, a game that has had twelve years of blood, sweat and tears invested into it…launching into the buzzsaw of GTA6.” Squadron 42, the single-player campaign set in the very unfinished open-universe space sim of Star Citizen, was originally slated for a 2016 release. Then again, Star Citizen was promised for 2014 after it raised $2 million on Kickstarter in 2012. With its fundraising now the small matter of over 500 times larger, the larger project still only exists in disconnected parts, or one deeply limited conjoined whole currently a hundredth of the promised size. Meanwhile, the single-player Squadron 42 has never released any playable build in any state. And that’s set to continue until at least “Q2 2027,” and possibly as late as the distant reaches of never. It is, as someone who has not invested vast sums of personal money into an endlessly delayed project that has managed to open numerous swanky studios all around the world, very funny that Chris Roberts’ latest reason for another significant delay is so convenient. Roberts states that his decision to avoid the juggernaut that is GTA 6 as being one made “much like the rest of the industry.” And yes, it’s true, a large number of games were moved from late 2026 to early 2027 to avoid releasing against what will be the biggest game launch of all time. It’s just, the “rest of the industry” did this a few months back when the GTA 6 release date was set in stone. And, in most cases, not for games that are already over a decade late, in entirely other genres, and not playable on any of the systems onto which GTA 6 is releasing. Ah, but Roberts has that last part covered. While GTA6 isn’t launching on PC this November, pretty much all outlets and most content creators will be all over it, not leaving a lot of room for other coverage. I can say with a reasonable amount of authority that this is gibberish. GTA 6 coverage will inevitably be vast and voluminous, but only for so long, and not to the exclusion of all other gaming news. There will be plenty of room for plenty of other coverage, and vastly more so a couple of weeks after Rockstar’s game is out. Let alone two months later as 2027 begins. But Roberts really wants to take a wide berth for his space-based PC-only game. “We have taken a look at the release windows at the start of 2027,” he explains, “and decided that Q2 provides a better time for Squadron 42 to release.” Uh, guys, have your realized… “Q2” is a very usefully ambiguous period, given it covers everything from April to July, and indeed can be claimed to be even later based on when a company files its taxes. For a game that in 2024, already eight years late, promised a Q4 2026 release, it’s also a very imprecise new pledge. It’s not the sort of thing you’d expect for a game that is absolutely ready for release were it not for that pesky Grand Theft Auto. But this becomes even more farcical when you consider the likelihood of a PC release for GTA 6. While nothing has been stated about this by Rockstar, for all previous GTA games going back decades, the PC version has released seven months after the console games. Which would put that squarely into—wait for it—Q2 2027. Which, you know, would be something awfully convenient to take you by surprise when you need an excuse to bump your ethereal game’s release yet again. Who knows. Perhaps Roberts will declare a precise release date and launch a stunning game to industry acclaim, and won’t we all be left looking silly? Or, possibly, it could be the other thing.