TLDR:
- Star Citizen’s Creative Content Lead confirms Alpha 4.0 is still scheduled for Q3 2024.
- The developers are still working on Alpha 3.24 in the Evocati channel.
- Alpha 4.0 is the game’s biggest update ever, as it will add a new star system.
The latest episode of Inside Star Citizen was quite fascinating as we got our very first look at how Jump Points will operate in Alpha 4.0, transitioning players from Stanton to Pyro and vice versa.
At the end of the episode, however, the creative content lead Jared Huckaby confirmed once again that Alpha 4.0 is still slated for Q3 2024 and not the end of this year. “Hopefully, a whole heck of a lot about the first Jump Point that’s currently in development and scheduled to make its way into Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 in just the next few months,” said Huckaby.
Huckaby continued to clarify that this massive update is aimed to be delivered sooner than the end of the year, which means the Q3 2024 window is still valid. “Yeah, I didn’t say ‘before the end of this year.’ We are still targeting something a bit sooner than that,” Huckaby explained.
Alpha 4.0 is supposed to be the biggest update Star Citizen has ever received since its first Alpha release. The update will add the next star system, Pyro, into the game, along with the first iteration of server meshing, engineering role, the first variant of the RSI Zeus ship series, new ship components, and a long list of quality-of-life upgrades for missions, transit systems, multi-tools, pilot UI, and more.
While Alpha 4.0 seems like a promising upgrade, Cloud Imperium Games is still struggling to release Alpha 3.24, which is indeed the remnants of the Alpha 3.23 update.
Originally, Star Citizen was supposed to receive new cargo-hauling missions, freight elevators, and personal hangars with Alpha 3.23 in May 2024, however, CIG detached these features from the update and pushed them back until now. Those features have now formed Alpha 3.24, an update that was not planned originally.
Since June 28, Alpha 3.24 has been in the Evocati testing. The update will then move to the PTU channel where everyone can participate to provide feedback, and only after that the update will release on Live servers.
There are still more than two months left from Q3 2024, and Alpha 4.0 can still be released in the current window, but with a quick look at the track record of CIG with former updates, you will realize that it is unlikely to have two big updates in a single season if not impossible.
At the very least, CIG has been struggling with Alpha 3.23 content since May 2024, and they still can’t get rid of the crucial bugs. So, a simple calculation will tell you how much time it will probably take Alpha 4.0 to release on Live servers.
It’s quite possible to see Alpha 4.0 in the Evocati channel by the end of Q3 2024, but having it released on Live servers in the same period seems to need a huge effort, and we would love to see CIG hit this milestone in the promised schedule.
