If there was ever a game that has the phrase “patience is key” it’s Star Citizen. The title has been in development for over ten years, most of which has been crowdfunded by a very successful Kickstarter campaign amassing more than $300 million. As of this writing, there’s no official launch date, nor has there been any concrete gameplay to show for it. The newest situation doesn’t make things any better either, as Cloud Imperium Games Lead Director Chris Roberts announced that they will not showcase any gameplay anytime soon. This also includes the upcoming beta for the single-player campaign, Squadron 42, which was supposed to be released at the end of this year.

Star Citizen’s single-player campaign misses beta window, doesn’t have a release date https://t.co/OKlXXM2kYo pic.twitter.com/ZLsJ0QL2RU

— Polygon (@Polygon) December 28, 2020

In the post, Roberts states that “Squadron 42 will be done when it is done, and will not be released just to make a date. If we show the non-spoiler gameplay now, that’s prime footage and gameplay that could have been used closer to release.” Roberts goes onto say that this was a major factor in delaying the beta and that he has “high confidence” in whatever time they have left in order to complete the project and meet the standards that the fans have come to expect.

The unbelievably long development cycle of Star Citizen has been well documented over the years. Cloud Imperium Games initially hoped for a 2014 release, but due to a plethora of delays, changes, and new additions to the project, that was no longer possible. This includes the aforementioned Squadron 42, which we were given a preview of in 2018. It boasts a who’s who of Hollywood Actors, including Mark Hammil, Mark Strong, Gary Oldman, Andy Serkis, Liam Cunningham, and Gillian Anderson to name a few. The developers were more than likely able to achieve this due to the massive influx of funds from a billionaire record producer near the end of 2018.

Despite all of this, all of these leaps and bounds that the studio has made for the now mammoth IP, we’re still nowhere near a potential launch window. While we admire the studio’s determination for providing quality content, it would still be nice to at least see some more progress in terms of gameplay, specifically Squadron 42. Hopefully, they can get a trailer out soon when we enter 2021, but as for a release date, it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll hear about that.