Chris Roberts hopes Star Citizen’s launch will be ‘almost as big an event’ as Grand Theft Auto 6, still targeting 2026 for its Squadron 42 singleplayer campaign
Star Citizen is unique among videogames. It’s been in development for well over a decade—hell, it was a decade ago that Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, and Mark Hamill got on board—yet still has no release date. It’s also raised more than $858 million in crowdfunding (yeah, you read that right), yet the money is still flooding in: It only surpassed the $800 million mark in April of this year. Some people are adamant that the whole thing is some sort of scam, but plenty of others are playing the alpha and seemingly enjoying it.
A recent La Presse interview (Google translated) with Star Citizen director Chris Roberts doesn’t shed a whole lot more light on what exactly is going on over there, but it does provide a hint—very vague and unspecific, but a hint—of when this unique beast will finally hit the 1.0 finish line. The report says Star Citizen is now set for a full release sometime in 2027 or 2028 (I told you it was vague), preceded by Squadron 42, the singleplayer part of the game, which is targeting a launch sometime in 2026.
When in 2026 remains an open question, but it will apparently be timed to avoid the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6. That’s not super helpful given that the next GTA is coming in the middle of the year—May 26, 2026—but I would imagine that the second half of the year is the better bet, if it actually happens.
Regardless of that, Roberts clearly has great expectations. “We’re hoping it’ll be almost as big an event [as Grand Theft Auto 6],” he said. “Other than GTA 6, it’s probably the biggest-budget AAA game.”
That much, at least, is no doubt true, but all of this should be taken with a grain of salt. The 2026 release date for Squadron 42 looks relatively solid-ish, because it was first brought up in 2024: The fact that it’s still the target a year later, and with 2026 edging ever closer, is about as close to firm on launch timing as Star Citizen has ever been. The 2027 or 2028 window for Star Citizen 1.0 is obviously less reliable: Notwithstanding the game’s drawn-out development thus far, a two-year window that’s still well over a year away from even opening is pretty much meaningless.
But, as I said, those who like Star Citizen like it a lot, and if you’re curious you can give it a try for free over the next week: Star Citizen is holding another “free fly” week, enabling the curious but uncommitted to sign up and give it a try at no cost. The current free fly week is live now and runs until September 2.
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