Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has released a new video detailing the progress of Squadron 42, a single-player version of the developing MMO Star Citizen. The series is called The Briefing Room and will be released quarterly until Squadron 42 is released. One of the lengthy "Letters from the Chairman" by founder Chris Roberts is also being released at the same time. The letter details several aspects of the game's development and the overall state of development as it celebrates its eighth anniversary.

The briefing room video is just over an hour long and details many of the development ideas for Squadron 42. It includes an interesting walk-through of the interior of the space station, as well as development ideas from the people primarily involved in the game. A longer section towards the end introduces dynamic triggers in story events and movement, for example, NPCs stop talking when the player stops looking at them. The film concludes with an extended video by the art director of Squadron 42 that shows a seamless fly-through of the space environment and the interior of the space facility. [In the letter, Roberts says he is often reminded of John F. Kennedy's famous moonshot speech, citing the idea that CIG is making Star Citizen "not because it is easy, but because it is hard." Ironically, given the anniversary, it was a little more than eight years between the moonshot speech and the moon landing. (Roberts cites as development milestones the many technical hurdles developed by the CIG team, as well as the dynamic server mesh to support thousands of players in the same world instance, which has yet to be realized. This is when Star Citizen becomes a true Massively Multiplayer Game." They hope to get the first instance of that technology into players' hands "next year."

Roberts is not happy with the way CIG is "effectively showing the progress of Squadron 42. He offered this answer in response to the many supporters who have been disappointed by the lack of significant updates on the development of the single-player part since the roadmap was abandoned earlier this year.

Both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 have a long and storied development history for games that have not even been released yet. Although they have sold a record $300 million in crowdfunded video games, their eight-year development cycles have been met with intense scrutiny and disdain from the media, fans, and gaming insiders. Over the years, Chris Roberts has defended the game's development timeline time and time again.

We will continue to watch the ongoing Star Citizen saga with interest in 2021 and beyond.