CIG announces Star Citizen: Squadron 42 system requirements

Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) have announced system requirements, though still no launch date, for the long-delayed single-player sci-fi epic Star Citizen: Squadron 42, and anyone with less than 16GB of RAM is straight out of luck.

Currently the focus of an ongoing lawsuit from developer Crytek over a contract dispute, Star Citizen was originally pitched by gaming veteran Chris Roberts back in 2012 as a single-player spiritual successor to Wing Commander and Freelancer. The planned November 2014 launch date sailed past, however, and three years and nearly $180 million in crowdfunding cash later, the game has split in two: the single-player Squadron 42, featuring an all-star cast of motion-captured actors, and the massively multiplayer online (MMO) epic Star Citizen. Neither, however, are available as anything other than fragmented alpha-status chunks at present.

Despite concerns that the games may never see the light of day, developer Cloud Imperium Games is forging ahead with the release of more-or-less finalised system requirements to play Squadron 42. At launch, the company claims, players will need a minimum of 16GB of RAM alongside an Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Phenom II X4 940 CPU and a GeForce GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon R7 360X graphics card with 2GB or more video RAM. From this, then, it's clear to see that the engine is to be heavily RAM-hungry yet surprisingly light on other resources - though the company has still not declared precisely how much hard drive space users will require, beyond recommending the use of a solid-state drive (SSD).

The release of system requirements comes as the company promises to release new footage from the game in an apparent dual attempt to both placate existing customers and draw in yet more cash. The most important information, though, remains absent: an actual launch date.