CitizenCon 2025

At 19:00 UTC last night for what I jokingly called Chris-Mass, good ol’ Mr Roberts and team delivered, the delivered hard. We might have only had a 2 hour “Direct” but what a damn good CitCon Direct it was!

It hit right where in needed to and as a result Star Citizen looks set to have another amazing year, with nothing short of jaw dropping graphics tech, a new system, new storylines, new ships, new features and many more yet to be revealed surprises 2026 should be a better year than 2025!

While I am super excited for Nyx, I can’t tell you how much, I mean it’s next month for the love of LOD! Next MONTH, how has that happened, well simple it’s not all there and we will be treated to monthly delivery through 2026 of the content but what is there is looking great for sure.

The stand-out for me was the tech, the additions they have made to Genesis, the name for their planet tech (presumably named for the Star Trek Wrath of Khan federation tech of the same name), are jaw dropping and will change they landscape, pun intended, of not only Star Citizen but gaming. This is a game that looks like it is made in 2025 and Unreal, you need to watch out, If CIG decide to licence all their tech afterwards, you cooked.

While it was not specifically mentioned this tech for sure looks like it was running on Vulkan, I cannot see DX11 or 12 running it well enough for you not to need a monster of a machine, if I am honest I do not see how DX11 could run what they showed at all and while it will iterate and be tweaked before release, it is to all intense and purposes a good show of what will be delivered.

Note: These images are snipped direct from the 4K Direct so not perfect but representitive.

Ships were of course on show and released with a nice surprise that they could be flow on the PTU, the test environment for the next patch. Some will of course moan about prices and that they are not available to buy in game straight away, those who like to complain and bitch that all is not fair with the world but they also do not understand that this game take a shit ton of money to make, that money needs to come from somewhere and for now one of the sources is selling ships to those who want but are not forced to buy then ahead of them being available in-game.

It is vital to point out though, that ALL ships will be available to buy in game with money earned in game! To get into SC you only need a game package that is the digital game and a ship of your choosing in that you choose how much to spend on the package and ship you most like the looks of. The packages range from £42 to well thousands for multiple ships, you spend what you want to support of just buy the cheapest package to get in and earn money in-game to get the rest you want.

Funding the independant

We are very lucky to be allowed the time and the money to build the game of all of our dreams, something that is only more apparent and the video games industry becomes more monolithic. – Chris Roberts

Something I want to inject here, it’s important and is relevant to the above; Star Citizen and Squadron 42 could not and would not be made by any other funding method than it is currently one. These are AAA quality games with scope beyond anything we have seen before, scope that has grown, thanks to massive backer funding to be the dream game for millions of backer and the devs. This could never have been done without the support of people backing the Kickstarter, continuing to back through buying game packages and ships, merchandise and so on.

Backers made this game, allowed CIG to broaden the scope from the original proposal and build something truly epic, a game for all, Space Combat, Space Exploration (when the verse is bigger), FPS Combat, the Arcade style Arena Commander, Mining, Salvage, Racing, A Sandbox for events like the Daymar Rally, Engineering (Tech Preview soon), Crafting (Tech Preview soon), Cooking (planned) and more we probably do not know about.

People can moan all they like, cause a fuss and kick up dirt they think is relevant but no matter what this is a game doing more than any other with a very different funding model and something people seem to forget or ignore is there are games made by big dev teams and small all across the industry with less scope that have taken five, six, eight or ten years to deliver less. Look at what Ashes of Creation has not delivered, that was a massive Kickstarter that is still in Alpha that has not delivered on it promises. Star Citizen is at least showing more and more promise than was originally scoped, sure it and CIG are not perfect but try remembering there are other projects out there that have take longer to deliver less. This is a massive undertaking and while I will never 100% defend CIG for all of it’s decisions, it does not deserve all the shit is get all of the time.

While I think of it, back to the money, CIG also post how the money is spent in reports on their website, no other company is that transparent and while I am sure not everything can be on their in the fine detail as they will be things that simply cannot be added for business reasons it is far more open than any other company.

Doomers

Now I know the doomers and gloomers will tell you that 2025 was meh, it did not add features, patches did not always go to plan, bugs still exist etc, etc. THIS IS AN ALPHA, for the love of dog!

Sorry, my calmer response; they simply do not remember where we started or were not there for the real issues, the potentially just want to moan and have issue with something or do not want to see the how different SC is now. In reality content drop after content drop, SC has risen proudly and will continue to do so from here on out.

It has been a slow 10 years waiting on tech to deliver the content but we are getting there, will fewer major systems to drop and just content to deliver we are closer to 1.0 than ever!

Squadron 42

I personally think that with Personally think we will see the single player aspect of the universe drop at the start of 2027, I know that is not what we want but with rumours ripe that GTA 6 will slip to September unless SQ42 can hit mid year it will want to get out of the way of the Rockstar giant.

I get that GTA 6 is only dropping on consoles but many people will be swept up in the hype and while not all will be, no one wants to release a game next to a giant like that, every single studio in the industry will want avoid it for different reasons, I mean, I could be wrong, I hope I am as I do not think SQ42 should care if GTA 6 is releasing it should just come out when it is ready, which of course may mean it is delayed anyway, who know what will happen…this is just me thinking out loud about what will be an amazing single player experience when it drops.

In Summary

I was super impressed with this is years CitizenCon, even if it was a shorter Direct, it was punchy and had all the information the backers and fans wanted, the haters with twist and turn stuff to their own desires I am sure but we should never forget all the hard work and dedication something like Star Citizen takes and the harm that unhelpful or spiteful feedback, leaked NDA’s (looking at you SGGT leakers, whoever you were), toxicity and general arsehat behaviour does. Try and be constructive, open minded and helpful so we get the dream we all want to see delivered. Finally I will post the actual Direct below along with Chris’ closing speech, cheers for taking the time to read the thoughts of an ageing gamer.

Chris Robers Ending Speech

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into some of what the team is cooking for the near future, of course we are not going to spoil everything that is currently in progress, and many features we haven’t featured are in active development, like base building, social and trade that are very much a priority. These along with bringing the final polish features from Squadron 42 into the persistent universe, will make next year the most exiting for Star Citizen.

Finally I want to extend a heartfelt thanks you to everyone at CIG for working so tirelessly and with much passion to deliver something that is already special and will only get more so as we continue and of course to all of you for making this possible with all your support and feedback. We couldn’t do this without all of you, something that I and the team appreciate every day.

We are very lucky to be allowed the time and the money to build the game of all of our dreams, something that is only more apparent and the video games industry becomes more monolithic. We are one of the few large independents left standing and there is no way we would be allowed to dream as big as we are on and original game and take the time to achieve that dream if we were part or funded my any of the few remaining mega game companies, so thank you and I look forward to seeing you all in the verse this coming year.