Star Citizen's Squadron 42 Delayed As Staggered Development is Announced

Published: September 2, 2019 10:10 AM /

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star citizen squadron 42 delay star citizen staggered development

Star Citizen Squadron 42 delay has been announced on the game's official website in a forum post. The forum post also details Star Citizen Staggered Development, a new approach to the game's production that will put the game's various teams into a rotation to more consistently deliver high-quality content.

Star Citizen Squadron 42 Delay

Star Citizen's single-player campaign Squadron 42 is going to be pushed back by 12 weeks as a result of a change to the way that Roberts Space Industries is developing the game. The company feels that this is going to be a positive for the title as it shares a codebase with the core multiplayer experience, but some fans are sure to be disappointed nonetheless.

It's best to let their own words do the talking, so here's the explanation of the delay straight from the forum post:

What does this mean for Squadron 42?

Ultimately, this is a really good thing for Squadron 42 development as well. Both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 share a codebase and as features come online for both games, they will be in a more stable/playable state, reducing potential blockers that can hinder and slow down development. You will of course notice that our target Beta date for Squadron 42 has moved back by 12 weeks in today’s Roadmap update, but this is a necessary step as a result of changing the overall development cadence, which we expect will create positive results in the overall delivery and experience of Squadron 42.

This unfortunate delay is a consequence of the new development style being undertaken by Roberts Space Industries, henceforth referred to as "Staggered Development".

Star Citizen Staggered Development

Robert Space Industries is now using a development strategy they're calling "Staggered Development". In short, the entire team is not focused on making the next content patch. Rather, portions of the team will each be focused on different things with a rolling schedule.

The example they use is as follows: suppose that Team A is working on content for the 3.7 update. Team B will instead be making stuff for 3.8 rather than helping out Team A with the most immediate update. Once 3.7 launches, Team A will move on to content for 3.9, and so on. It's a bit more complex than that, but you get the idea.

Ultimately, Roberts Space Industries feels that this change will give smaller teams more development time than just a single quarter, allowing them to push out updates that are of an overall higher quality. It remains to be seen whether or not this theory will survive in practice, but it certainly seems like a sound idea.

What do you think of the Star Citizen Squadron 42 delay? Do you think Star Citizen Staggered Development is a good idea? Let us know in the comments below!

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One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N