It's been a rough few weeks for Cloud Imperium. The delay of Star Citizen's Star Marine FPS module caused a fuss among the game's backers, to the extent that a spokesperson was moved to respond not only to that gripe but a whole host of others. Meanwhile, the studio recently issued 3000AD founder Derek Smart with an involuntary refund following his relentless criticism of the game. That move only served to fan the flames even more.
There's really no strong evidence that development isn't smooth sailing though, and according to Chris Roberts in a new interview with Gamers Nexus, the Star Marine module is only a matter of weeks away. That's still months after the original goal of April, but not as far into the future as some had feared.
"When I made the [Letter from the Chairman] update -- when we showed it at PAX East, we said we hoped it was going to be out sometime in April, but 'don't hold me to that' was what I actually said," Roberts said.
"We did the update in May, and obviously people have been waiting a long time for it. A large amount of the company, especially now, has been working on it. We've got extra help from the German studio, which is a bunch of CryEngine experts. I've got a build on my machine with both the FPS and the Gamescom [presentation], so I'm actually helping out with the code a bit. But we didn't want to give a date because, well, we sort of don't want to get burnt by that.
"In reality, we're probably weeks off," he continued. "We're shooting to have FPS on the PTU round-about Gamescom or slightly after Gamescom. We're really talking about people getting to play FPS in a matter of 3, 4, maybe 5 weeks."
Roberts also took the time to explain some of the difficulties developing the FPS module. It's a fascinating read, especially when you consider the challenges a studio faces locking all of these different modules together. Go forth and read.
