Star Citizen has unveiled a new development roadmap… for its roadmap

I’ve made a lot of bone-headed decisions in my life (Like scoffing to the max at a cheap BitCoin investment in 2013), but at least I can sleep soundly and know that my collection of slightly-licked Simba Pokemon Tazos has been a better investment than Star Citizen. Eight years into development, and the project isn’t so much a game as it is a tech demo that shows off some admittedly exciting technology and sunk cost fallacies.

Fans have been patient, funneling cash into the project and getting some carrot on a stick dangling content, but discontent is in the air and even the most ardent supporters of Star Citizen are getting fed up with Cloud Imperium Games. Star Citizen’s Squadron 42 single-player content was meant to appease the masses and silence the critics, but it’s still nowhere to be seen. Even worse, CIG has been quiet on the subject, barely offering any updates on the module’s progress to their fanbase.

Squadron 42 was due for release in 2016, but seeing as how it has been four years of the goalposts constantly being moved on this topic, the masses are beginning to revolt. There’s no shortage of threads on forums complaining about CIG’s lack of transparency, which eventually resulted in the studio issuing a response. A response that basically laid out a roadmap…for a roadmap. Per CIG:

The new Roadmap will focus more on breaking out teams and features so you can interactively see what is being worked on across all teams, as opposed to what features will make X release. While it’s not quite ready, it’s currently top priority on the web team’s current projects. In the immediate future, we plan to deliver the following communications:

1. Give an explanation of the goals of our new Roadmap and what to expect from it
2. Show a rough mockup of the proposed new Roadmap
3. Share a work in progress version of the Roadmap for at least one of our core teams
4. And then finally transition to this new Roadmap

It’s worth noting that since 2012, Star Citizen’s crowdfunding drive has surpassed the $300 million mark as of June 2020. In addition to that, outsider investments have also added a tidy sum to CIG’s coffers. On the plus side, those digital spaceships do look rather nice and they are an accurate representation of what it’d be like to explore the cold dark vacuum with very little to do between hyperspace jumps.

Last Updated: July 30, 2020