Star Citizen spinoff Squadron 42 won't be at Citizencon, but CIG calms fears

Squadron 42 will not be at the upcoming Citizencon Direct, but developer Cloud Imperium Games doesn't want you to panic. The long-awaited, standalone, single-player campaign spinoff of mammoth interstellar spectacular Star Citizen is currently targeting a 2026 launch. But fresh confirmation from CIG content director Jared 'Disco Lando' Huckaby that it wouldn't make an appearance at the studio's October showcase rapidly spiraled fans into despair at the thought of a potential delay. Huckaby, however, was quick to respond to the concerns.

"There will be no Squadron 42 presence at Citizencon Direct this year." That initial clarification, made by Huckaby during a livestream, naturally sparked worry among the Star Citizen faithful that the single-player spinoff to CIG's gargantuan space game might be in trouble. Taken in its full context, though, Huckaby talks in more detail about how the team is "heads down" on working towards the 2026 date given by Cloud Imperium CEO Chris Roberts during last year's showcase.

You can watch Huckaby's full statement in the video above, starting at the 2:53:20 mark, but I'll transcribe all of the important talking points here for convenience. "There was a note at the end there about the Squadron 42 team still being heads down and working on that, and I want to second the information there," he says. "There will be no Squadron 42 presence at Citizencon Direct this year.

"That team is heads down," Huckaby continues. We drew a line in the sand when we said 2026. I don't know if we're going to make it; I just know that we're going to do every single thing possible to make it. And part of that is not taking time for the distraction of Citizencon. It's why we're not doing a larger event this year, we're doing a smaller, more focused thing." He notes that there also won't be discussions of Star Citizen 1.0, but rather a concentration on the next year of development.

"No Squadron 42 presence at all. Not a release date, not any of that stuff. We're letting those people stay focused." He then takes a moment to offer some reassurance, which didn't make the cut in the initial clip that was shared to the Star Citizen Reddit page. "We're on track. There's nothing to report, there's no mystery, there's nothing we're hiding." Huckaby also addresses the "misconception that all the resources are in Squadron 42," explaining that there are two separate teams at work.

"Squadron, unfortunately, it's got to be under a bit more secrecy," Huckaby says. He then responds to comments in the livestream: "I can already see the chat - 'It means this, it means that.' Folks, it means that when it's time for the game to come out, you're going to hear a lot more about it. We've always been all big yappy on Star Citizen and less yappy on Squadron.

"As we get closer to our intended release date in 2026, we will start opening up the doors, opening up the communication. You'll start seeing more of all that kind of stuff that you would expect in a proper, go-to-market campaign," Huckaby concludes. "We want people's focus [to be] on making the game; that's it. It's really no more complicated than that. When the time is right, you'll see plenty of Squadron 42 stuff, I promise."

Huckaby then later dropped into the Reddit thread to offer some additional comments. "I personally cannot tell you what the future holds, because quite honestly, that's the responsible answer for me to give with the way that videogames are made," he writes. "Not our videogames, all videogames. So no, I don't know the future, and I said as much, is all, and I'd ask please don't mistake my pragmatism for any commentary on the status of the game."

"I just try very, very hard to speak as deliberately and plainly as I can without embellishment or hyperbole," he continues. "I meant what I said in the most literal manner possible: that I can't sit here and tell you what the future holds, because in the entire history of videogame development, who's ever been able to? That's all. If I didn't believe in this team and the people within, I wouldn't still be here."

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If you're looking forward to Squadron 42, does that come out of existing love for the base game or a desire to have a more approachable entry point? Let us know in the PCGamesN community Discord server, where you can share your enthusiasm with us all.