As part of this, executives who weren’t laid off have instead been assigned to different roles in the studio. The studio has also laid off employees from other departments, including QA. The new direction for the company was reportedly announced internally by studio boss Chris Roberts through an internal memo.

Roberts reportedly stated the desire to meet the release schedules for both games under development as a reason for the management changes.

“To achieve this laser focus [of meeting the release of SQ42 and Star Citizen 1.0], it is more important than ever to ensure we have high-performing and efficient teams working throughout the company,” said Roberts. “In order to achieve this, I have had to make changes to the structure of our teams from the very top of the company and downwards to ensure we have the right people in the right roles, working in person as much as possible from our most critical year yet.”

Changes to the Cloud Imperium Games website also indicate that one of the members of upper management, Chief Strategy Officer Carl Jones, was laid off from the company after having worked there for more than a decade.

Star Citizen has been in development for quite some time, being one of the most ambitious games out there. Since its announcement, the game has raised more than $750 million in funding through various methods of crowdfunding. The 1.0 release for the game is reportedly coming soon, but Cloud Imperium Games has yet to announce an official release date.

Squadron 42 is a single-player action title where players control ships in smaller-scale battles. The game is set to be a companion to Star Citizen, and will also feature actor Mark Hamill as one of its characters. The game is slated to be released in 2026.

Everwild

Everwild is the latest game in development from Rare, one of the most prestigious studios around the globe. Announced way back in 2019, Everwild will see players taking control of Eternals on a quest to save the flora and fauna of the game’s magnificent world. We don’t know what the gameplay will look like, but Rare has said that it wants to explore peaceful interactions with the game’s world which is definitely one of the more exciting parts of the game. Everwild‘s development has been far from smooth, as after a prolonged period of silence – rumors have indicated that it restarted development last year. Furthermore, it’s been claimed that the team is still figuring things out, so it doesn’t seem likely that the game would reappear anytime this year. That said, one can surely hope for the best.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

The original Mass Effect trilogy is finally making its long-awaited return, complete with graphical updates, 4K resolution support and numerous gameplay improvements. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition packs all three games and most of their DLC into one huge package. A universal character creator, extensive revamps to Mass Effect 1 (including better combat and rebalanced boss fights) and much more await when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition releases on May 14^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Ah, Star Citizen– you’re one of the few things in this industry that has remained inevitable, remained constant in this industry over these last few years. Development on this crowdfunded game has been ongoing for a ridiculously long period of time, and yet it seems no closer to launch. Even Squadron 42, its single player campaign, was supposed to get a beta this year– but that never came, which led to deserved backlash, which in turn led to non-committal responses by the developers.

The developers are now doing the smart thing (or at least smarter than what they have been doing up until now), with director Chris Roberts having announced in a recently published blog update that Cloud Imperium won’t be sharing any new gameplay footage from Squadron 42, nor talk about rough launch window estimates, until the game is actually close to release.

“For most games it is typical to not even announce the project until about 12 months out and only start building awareness with marketing 6 months before launch,” Roberts wrote. “The issues with showing gameplay, locations or assets on a narratively driven game this early are twofold. First, a marketing campaign can only last so long and second, there is only so much of the gameplay that we can show before release as we want you to experience a really engrossing story.  If we show the non-spoiler gameplay now, that’s prime footage and gameplay that could have been used closer to release. It is better to treat Squadron 42 like a beautifully wrapped present under the tree that you are excited to open on Christmas Day, not knowing exactly what is inside, other than that it’s going to be great.

“Because of this I have decided that it is best to not show Squadron 42 gameplay publicly, nor discuss any release date until we are closer to the home stretch and have high confidence in the remaining time needed to finish the game to the quality we want.”

Given how long many people have been waiting for this to come out, this is bound to be frustrating- but the reasons definitely makes sense here. Here’s hoping that next big gameplay update will be accompanied by a release date announcement, and that it won’t be too far away.

Star Citizen is one of the most bizarre stories in the gaming world. The game technically still isn’t out of its official alpha phase, but has managed to raise over $300 million in crowd funding, and to be honest, I’m not sure what people expect out of this project at this point. It’s been a strange and long drawn-out process, but it seems at least some people are wanting some answers, specifically about the single player portion of the game, Squadron 42, which was at one point targeting a beta for Q3 2020 (despite the full title still being in alpha). And now, after many questions, developers Cloud Imperium Games have provided an update… sort of.

Squadron 42 was meant to be a cinematic single player experience with some Hollywood talent such as Mark Hamill and Gary Oldman, but ever since a delay, there has been complete radio silence from developer Cloud Imperium, and in response to fans wondering just what is going on, they posted on their official website with an update, or kind of an update, for the roadmap for both Squadron 42 and the general game. You can see the full ‘notes’ below or read them here, but it seems as if they are going to update to a new roadmap, which they will then eventually transition into, of which they plan to show a rough mock up to fans at some undetermined point.

Star Citizen has always been in an odd spot as a project, with many critics seeing it as a project that a lot of money is being pumped into with backers who will probably never see a true and full realized project. But the world of game development is also in a tough spot with COVID0-19 wreaking havoc on production across the world. I don’t know enough about the workings of Star Citizen or its fans to say one way or another, but if you want to see how fans are taking it, just look at that blog post’s responses to get an idea.

• Give an explanation of the goals of the new Roadmap and what to expect from it
• Show a rough mockup of the proposed new Roadmap
• Share a work in progress version of the Roadmap for at least one of its core teams
• And then finally transition to this new Roadmap

Star Citizen is one of the most interesting projects that’s going right now. Depending on who you ask it’s either one of the most ambitious gaming projects ever conceived, or one of the biggest scams the industry has ever seen. Regardless, the project has generated a massive amount of crowdfunding despite not even being in a beta phase of yet. Which makes it even stranger that a beta of the single player part of the game was due to come out earlier next year. But that, itself, has also changed as that beta has been pushed back a few months.

As announced by the developer, the single player Squadron 42, which will feature several big name Hollywood actors, has been pushed back 12 weeks or 3 months due to changes in the development process. This will most likely push it from Q2 2020 to Q3 or Q4. As of now it hasn’t been clear if a public Alpha will be released before the Beta.

Star Citizen is currently in Alpha on PC, with no slated release date at this time.

The Surge 2

Deck 13’s The Surge 2 was recently announced and will feature more open environments like a ruined cityscape along with engine improvements and better progression. The first game was met with a bit of acclaim despite some crazy difficulty spikes and lack of enemy variety. Either way, it’s good to see more choice in the hack and slash genre. Whether it comes out in 2018 or not remains to be seen.

Metro Exodus

4A Games’ Metro franchise has always offered a less than typical shooting experience with its survival elements and bullet economy. Metro Exodus appears to take the franchise even further, as our hero Artyom seemingly embarks across the country with his friends. The gorgeous landscapes, creature designs and weather effects look as great as ever and we can’t wait to see where Metro Exodus goes.