Star Citizen developer lays out increasingly ambitious five-year plan
"We'll be developing the sequel and sequels to Squadron 42."
Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has laid out some ambitious plans for its next five years, following its recent announcement it would drastically increase its UK studio capacity over the same timeframe.
In November, CIG revealed its plan to open an enormous new studio in Manchester, which would grow the company's current 400-person team to 1000 by 2026.
Speaking in an interview with MCV magazine, chief operating officer Carl Jones said that, by that time, he expected the company to be in development on multiple sequels to Squadron 42, the long-awaited and much-delayed single-player story adventure featuring Hollywood stars.
"By that time we'll be developing the sequel and sequels for Squadron 42," Jones said.
As for when the first Squadron 42 game would launch, Jones was less clear. CIG boss Chris Roberts has relocated to the UK for the time being to aid its development, Jones said, but "it could be one or two years more."
Squadron 42 is currently seven years behind its original delivery target.
And what of Star Citizen, by that time? Word on milestones and new features was thin on the ground, but Jones said he expected the game's lengthy but continually lucrative development to mean CIG would hire even further.
"I think by that time we'll be operating a very large MMORPG," Jones said of Star Citizen in 2026. "So there'll be a lot more publishing resources, a lot more game masters, more player support. That may require us to open facilities in other locations.
"At the moment we don't have any major Asia Pacific presence and that's probably something that will have to come in the long run, because if your game explodes over there, then you really need to start building up teams to service that."
The expectation CIG would expand its current team in Frankfurt - doubling its size there - was also mentioned.
As of mid-November, Star Citizen had passed the $400m funding mark, with money coming in from more than 3.3 million backers.
In September, The Advertising Standards Authority told CIG to make it clearer that for sale "concept ships" are not yet available in the game.