Austin, Texas – Cloud Imperium Games CEO Chris Roberts has recently announced a significant milestone for the crowdfunded space sim Star Citizen. The achievement marked the first player to seamlessly travel between two star systems on different servers, signaling a step closer to the game’s 1.0 release.
Over a decade ago, Roberts revealed a prototype for Star Citizen, a project that has now raised over $670 million and evolved into two distinct ventures: Squadron 42, a singleplayer Wing Commander successor, and the Star Citizen persistent universe MMO.
Squadron 42, featuring renowned actors like Gillian Anderson and Mark Hamill, was declared “feature complete” in late 2020. Roberts revealed that these features are being integrated into the persistent universe at an accelerated pace. The recent technological breakthrough, where a player named “MrTrash” successfully traversed star systems through a wormhole, is seen as a crucial advancement towards the MMO’s 1.0 release.
Roberts expressed his optimism in a recent dispatch to backers, highlighting the implementation of “server meshing” technology as a key factor in enabling a shared universe experience for thousands of players simultaneously. This technology allows players to move seamlessly between locations hosted on different servers.
As the development team focuses on reaching the 1.0 milestone, Cloud Imperium’s technology chief, Benoit Beausejour, mentioned that they are pushing forward towards launching server meshing in Star Citizen Alpha 4.0. This move is expected to bring significant changes to the game’s architecture and mark a new phase in its development.
In pursuit of the 1.0 goal, Roberts has relocated from Los Angeles to Austin to align himself with the development teams in Manchester, Frankfurt, and Montreal. The reshuffling also led to changes within the company, with the departure of persistent universe live director Todd Papy. Roberts emphasized his commitment to finishing the project strong, despite the challenges encountered during the lengthy development process.
While Squadron 42 and Star Citizen 1.0 do not have set release dates, players can access the current alpha version by purchasing a starter pack. With over 1.1 million players logging in last year, the future of Star Citizen looks promising as it aims to deliver a comprehensive gameplay experience to its growing community of supporters.