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Star Citizen Won’t Be Part Of The E3 PC Gaming Show After All
The PC Gaming show is sliding into a new time slot at E3 this year, taking over EA’s old position. The lineup has gotten a little thinner since the show was announced though, with one big participant dropping out.
Cloud Imperium Games, the studio behind Star Citizen won’t be appearing at the PC Gaming show. The developer confirmed to us that it pulled out weeks ago.
“We are not able to have Chris at the PC Gaming Show due to his commitments in the UK making the game,” a Cloud Imperium Games representative told us via email. “I informed PC Gamer of this several weeks ago. It’s important to note that we were never committed to be at E3 as an exhibitor or in any other capacity (except for the PCG show). In fact we’ve never had a booth at E3. Our focus has pretty much always been Gamescom, and it will be again this year.”
To-date, Star Citizen has raised more than $114 million via Kickstarter and an ongoing self-run crowdfunding campaign. Currently, the game is in alpha with a number of different modules in development simultaneously.
According to the official site, current playable pieces include eight open world missions with approximately 20 random encounters, a section of the first-person shooting gameplay available in a space station dedicated to that mode, and a multiplayer component with both player-versus-player and wave-based combat.
Star Citizen has the subject of much controversy, in part due to its enormous crowdfunding success and continued setbacks. In January 2015, founder Chris Roberts (Wing Commander), issued a revised timeline for the game. According to that document, Star Citizen should be releasing this year.
The first of three episodes in the single-player campaign, Squadron 42, was supposed to be out in 2015. It is now scheduled for some time in 2016.
[Source: Cloud Imperium Games via Polygon]
Our Take
Given the controversy surrounding Star Citizen, pulling out of an extremely visible stage presentation is going to make ripples amongst detractors. It also has the effect of weakening an already tepid PC Gaming Show lineup. After last year, that event needs streamlining and big beats instead of being an overlong slog. Given how late Star Citizen is, this might be the best use of Roberts' time. The game has enormous expectations to meet.
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