Chris Roberts reflects on Big 2021 for Star Citizen, growth, release cadence and no in-person CitizenCon in 2022

Cloud Imperium Games founder Chris Roberts shared a very lengthy letter from the chairman StarCitizen Community talks about the year in review, what lies ahead and the journey towards Alpha 4.0 and possibly Beta. He also announced that there will be no in-person CitizenCon this year.

For the studio, 2021 is compared to the film Groundhog Day, where it felt like they were repeating the same things over and over again. The team is gradually returning to the office after the pandemic restrictions are lifted around the world, so the team and collaboration should run more smoothly from now on. “It became apparent that we were missing the benefits of spontaneous collaboration and team building that come from working in person close by,” he says, emphasizing that problem solving becomes harder when everyone is working remotely and you can’t just walk in go to someone’s desk and start thinking about solutions. Considering patches took longer last year, he expresses hope for a clearer release and progression cadence this time.

This comes at a time of growth for the studio as Cloud Imperium opens a 90,000 square foot studio in Manchester, England and has hired nearly 300 people since early 2021.

However, given the remaining uncertainty from COVID and the significant investment required to host live events under that risk, he also announces that there will be no in-person CitizenCon this year. While there will still be events and previews, it just won’t happen at an in-person con in 2022.

Despite the slower progress, Roberts also looks back to 2021 with pride, citing the release of the first dynamic event, the Xenothreat Incursion, Underground Infamy with drive-in caves and sinkholes, the Invictus launch week, and finally leading up to Alpha 3.15, Deadly Consequences Das introduced medical gameplay, looting, personal inventory, and other features that changed what you could even imagine StarCitizen.

Roberts also names the growth, saying more people have flocked there than ever StarCitizen based on updates, word of mouth and progress made and visible in playable form. New users are continually coming to the game in 2022, and Roberst says they have more than doubled their rate of new user acquisitions this year.

StarCitizen Alpha 3.0 was released in December 2017, so they expect to release Alpha 3.18 by the end of the year. Alpha 4.0 could then be released next year if everything falls into place.

The full letter can be found at RSI.