There is no doubt that Chris Robert’s Star Citizen is the biggest crowdfunded video game in the world by far. Actually, backers have pledged more than $100 million (£71 million) to the project since its original Kickstarter campaign began back in 2012. But although Star Citizen is one of the most hyped and eagerly anticipated games in the world, little has been seen of Chris Robert’s sci-fi epic so far, except for a few trailers like the one shown during the Game Awards last year.
But it seems that gamers might be closer to playing Star Citizen, as developer Cloud Imperium Games has announced that the game’s single-player campaign, which is titled Squadron 42, will be available for purchase separately from the game’s “persistent universe” multiplayer online component.
This likely means that we might see a Star Citizen release before this year is out, which is certainly good news for those who have backed the project enthusiastically since crowdfunding for it began in 2012. Originally though, game director Chris Roberts stated that the game would likely see a commercial release by the end of 2015, but as his team at Cloud Imperium Games kept adding feature after feature to the game (like the first-person action component) the project inevitably got delayed.
And it seems that video game delays are a common occurrence these days, as many high-profile titles like Naughty Dog’s eagerly awaited Uncharted 4 have suffered delays too. That action-adventure game was originally slated for a late 2015 release, but was later delayed to April 26, 2016. And the game’s release date has recently been pushed back by another two weeks to May 10, 2016.
Star Citizen has been a long time in the making, but will the final game deliver?
Also, Bioware’s Mass Effect Andromeda sequel was supposedly coming December 2016, but now it is clear according to IGN that gamers won’t get to enjoy a new Mass Effect game until at least 2017. And the same happened to Shigeru Miyamoto’s new Zelda role-playing game, which was to be one of the biggest Wii U releases of 2015, but the game got delayed and there’s not even a firm release date for it yet.
Perhaps it is the nature of modern game development, though, that makes game creators like Cloud Imperium Games push back release dates, as games these days are made with teams of hundreds and millionaire budgets, meaning that as more features get added to the game sometimes delays become inevitable.
And going back to Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen, hopefully fans of epic space combat games will finally get to play the game’s single-player campaign this year. And there’s no doubt that Squadron 42 certainly looks promising, as the game even features big-name actors like Star Wars’ Mark Hamill and X-Files star Gillian Anderson. And if Roberts manages to recreate the magic of his earlier Wing Commander games, then fans of epic sci-fi video games will surely be in for a treat if the game finally ships this fall.