The Squadron 42 saga has been keeping us entertained for over a decade now. Delayed numerous times, Cloud Imperium Games’ single-player sci-fi game was originally scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2026. That will no longer be the case.

In a very long statement addressing the issues and controversies surrounding Star Citizen, Chris Roberts, the studio’s CEO, confirmed that Squadron 42 has been pushed back to the second quarter of 2027. The message specifically cites the November 19 release of GTA VI as the main reason for this latest delay.

"At CitizenCon 2024 we announced we would ship in 2026. Our plan was to release in Q4 around IAE. But much like the rest of the industry 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 (we started Squadron 42 development in 2014 as 2013 was opening studios, hiring people and getting the Hangar module out for Star Citizen) launching into the attention buzz saw of GTA6. 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.

We have taken a look at the release windows at the start of 2027, and decided that Q2 provides a better time for Squadron 42 to release.

We are allowing a small number of original backers and long-time Star Citizen content creators an opportunity to play Squadron 42 this October 9th and 10th. We’ll be making further announcements about our release plans during this time and a specific release date shortly afterwards."