“CIG has blown millions of backer’s money on frivolous rubbish,” says a former Star Citizen dev, criticizing Squadron 42

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Star Citizen, a game known for its long development cycle and criticism from its player base, is continuing to achieve record revenue in 2025. Despite ongoing complaints about things like benefits for members of the Concierge club and the number of in-game purchases, income continues to rise. Furthermore, a former developer has recently shared strong criticisms regarding Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) and the highly anticipated Squadron 42.

Squadron 42 – Stunning Visuals, but little actual gameplay

Yesterday, Camural, a YouTuber, shared a video discussing the Squadron 42 demo. Following that, Robert Peterson, a former developer at CIG, shared his own experiences of what it was like to work on Star Citizen.

I used to work as a developer at the Frankfurt studio. From what I know, the amount of money spent at the UK studio was roughly equal to what was spent at Frankfurt. CIG has wasted millions of dollars contributed by backers on unnecessary things.

According to Robert, a large part of Squadron 42’s gameplay involves simply “walking and talking,” with the player having limited control. This means players mostly follow characters like Mark Hamill through pre-determined scenes. While the game looks good, he believes it doesn’t offer much real gameplay and ranks it among the worst games ever made, and therefore won’t purchase it.

Squadron 42 promises to be visually stunning, but it will likely be remembered as one of the most flawed “games” ever imagined, and certainly one of the most difficult to actually create.

Robert worked as a level designer for the PU, but it seems he wasn’t permitted to create the levels you actually play in the game. The artists handled that part, despite not fully understanding the reasoning behind it. Both Robert and the lead level designer left the project in 2022.

Squadron 42 is currently planned to be released in 2026. Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) is still optimistic about hitting this target and providing a deeply engaging and memorable game. However, increasing worries from players and even those who previously worked on the project indicate the final product might not live up to what people are hoping for.

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2025-09-30 18:32