For the first time in history of Star Citizen, they released something before last given release date. Although original date was spring 2015, they changed it recently to before end of August 2015 and guess what? It happened right now. First, although very small and unremarkable piece of Persistent Universe puzzle is released, Social Module 1.0
Next to come is FPS module, but PU team will be mostly occupied by growing Social Module and adding components that will make it come alive. Arc Corp is the name of starting location, next to come is mining complex Nyx. Arc Corp has only third finished so far. Nyx showed on video should be complete. Biggest location will be Terra Prime landing zone which should three times as big as any other location. From what I've seen in sneak peaks before, it is almost like GTA3 size.
There may be more locations to follow in next six months. I expect at least five fully finished planets before end of 2016, with full functionality and maybe around twenty planets (locations) in total but unfinished (which means not everything is accessible and not missing props and textures). That will mark start of something called Star Citizen Persistent Universe Alpha or something very similar to open beta testing of every other MMORPG. Add few more years to that and game will have promised 125 or maybe even more planets and possibly even planetary exploration without limits. But economy and everything else should work in Persistent Universe Alpha. Think of it like smaller portion of finished game with all the needed mechanics to make the game work as intended. All the mechanics in but not all the content.
