Cloud Imperium Games opened Steam wishlists for Squadron 42, the single-player spin-off of Star Citizen, on October 10, alongside a new trailer and a full cast reveal. The Steam page lists a Q2 2027 release window without a specific date, as Eurogamer, IGN, Polygon, PC Gamer and Destructoid reported.
The trailer mixes cinematic cutscenes with gameplay footage. According to IGN, it shows first-person sections, some involving platforming and puzzle solving, along with ship customization, off-duty activities, a hacking mini-game and a glimpse of narrative choices. Polygon noted footage of both ground-based first-person shooting and space combat.
Story and cast
In the setup released by the studio, the game is set in 2945, with the United Empire of Earth near collapse amid threats from outlaws and hostile alien forces. Players enlist as a rookie in the UEE Navy, serve aboard a capital ship alongside a crew and work their way up through a galactic war. Cloud Imperium describes a mix of space combat, ground operations, stealth and interactive cinematic sequences, with decisions made alongside crewmates. The game tells a standalone story in the Star Citizen universe and runs on the studio's in-house StarEngine.
The cast, recorded through full performance capture, includes Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Ben Mendelsohn, Andy Serkis, Mark Strong, John Rhys-Davies, Liam Cunningham, Jonathan Bailey and Damson Idris, among others. Ian Duncan plays the male player character and Alix Wilton Regan the female one, IGN reported. Cloud Imperium said the performances are woven into gameplay rather than limited to cutscenes.
PC Gamer reported that the Steam page carries system requirements and lists a 150GB install size.
A long road to release
Squadron 42 has been in development since 2014, according to game director Chris Roberts, and has missed several earlier release targets. In August, Cloud Imperium delayed it out of 2026 to Q2 2027, with Roberts saying a late-2026 launch would be drowned out by coverage of GTA 6.
Star Citizen, the multiplayer project Squadron 42 spun off from, passed $1 billion in crowdfunding in May and remains without a release window, IGN reported.
