Elite: Dangerous had their alpha in 2013, playable beta mid-2014, with a 1.0 release end of 2014 that was a complete game.

Star citizen had a very scaled down version (Crusader) available end of 2015, as what amounts to an alpha.

I personally hope Star Citizen delivers, but there is really no equivalence here. Frontier delivered much faster.

What we are discussing has never been delivered before which might explain some of the perceived delays.

Whether or not you liked E:D, it's still a fully released game that felt polished, albeit shallow.

But that's besides the point. Parent poster was drawing equivalencies between the two games' release timings, and my point is those equivalencies aren't actually comparable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier:_First_Encounters

I don't see how E:D is inferior to it, but YMMV.

Don't get me wrong, their development cycle is fine if they can keep with it and releasing content is awesome from them. However, I wouldn't recommend anyone that isn't a Space Citizen enthusiast to get their hands on Squadron 42.

https://www.pcgamer.com/roberts-space-industries-denies-squa...

"Squadron 42, the single-player portion of Star Citizen, doesn't have a hard release date, but it was expected to be ready sometime this year. There's even a little “2016” over the “Answer the Call” logo on the Squadron 42 web page. However, that came into question when German site Gamestar reported that, in an interview at PAX West, Cloud Imperium Games boss Chris Roberts said the game probably wouldn't be out until mid-to-late 2017."

A fun reddit thread from Jan 2016:

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/40fsop/do_you_...

...one year later.

'Well, I never promised!'