Squadron 42 has suffered another delay and is now targeting a Q2 2027 launch. Grand Theft Auto 6 was officially cited as the reason for the Star Citizen single-player spin-off game slipping out of 2026, though that train of thought is raising some eyebrows among fans.
The latest GTA 6 delay was announced in November 2025, when Rockstar announced the still-active release date target of November 19, 2026. Around that time is when Cloud Imperium Games was reassuring fans that Squadron 42 is still on course to launch in 2026, a release window first mentioned a year earlier. CIG Chairman and CEO Chris Roberts started hinting at GTA 6 being perceived as a problem half a year later, saying that there is “a certain thing in the industry that we, like everyone else, we have to pay attention to” in a May 2026 interview.
Squadron 42 Is Officially Avoiding GTA 6
A PC Exclusive Staying Away from a Console Exclusive
Roberts officially confirmed the latest Squadron 42 delay on August 27. “Our plan was to release in Q4 around IAE,” the CEO wrote in his annual letter, referring to the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo convention that is taking place in late November 2026. He then noted that the entire gaming industry is avoiding “the attention buzz saw of GTA 6,” adding that he made the call to do the same. CIG is thus rescheduling Squadron 42‘s 2026 release window to Q2 2027.
CIG Suggests GTA 6 Is Not the Sole Reason Behind Squadron 42’s Delay
The staffing breakdown Roberts shared in the same letter complicates the idea that scheduling is the only factor behind Squadron 42 taking as long as it has. Outside of CIG’s Core Tech Group, the company currently has 611 developers across four studios, with the workforce having been split roughly evenly between Star Citizen and Squadron 42 for the past couple of years. Roberts acknowledged that repeatedly moving developers between projects in order to get major Star Citizen updates out had pushed Squadron 42 back. The CEO revealed that most of the gameplay engineering team spent a large part of 2024 bringing features into Star Citizen “at the expense of Squadron.” The balance has since shifted to 55% in favor of Squadron 42 and 45% for Star Citizen as CIG focuses on bug fixing, optimization, and polish.
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