No one (NOBODY) ever tried to pull something like this off, until Star Citizen started becoming a thing. And no one would probably dare to do it afterwards. Because this is way too much even for the industry's most fattest and biggest corpos. Even IF Star Citizen fails and trainwrecks into absolute meme of a complete disaster, it is still worth commending it for at least trying doing something nobody ever tried to pull off before OR after it.

2) Even despite the graphical and detail/LoD fidelity being shown and "flexed" in the SQ 42's gameplay presentation, it is STILL not final state and NOT maxed out graphics (for one, Star Citizen was officially capable to output resolution of up-to 16K internally since 2018, which at that point, only ONE other game in the entire industry was capable of doing - Egosoft's X4. At that point, when everything else/every setting is "maxed" in the game, and the said "maxed" is only going so far as the PU's latest current state goes (with constant updates/improvement/addition of new tech), the game consumes at least 48GB of RAM and at least 20GB of VRAM on constant, which even the most expensive GPU offerings were able to achieve/cover only just recently).

When you watch SQ 42's gameplay presentation, you should always take into consideration and remember these two things:

1) It's all (ALL of it, including all of those cut-scenes with high-profile actors and top-notch assets) running in-engine, essentially being a Machinima'esque set piece. ALL of it is real (and thus can go hilariously wrong, if physics/graphics/lighting messes up suddenly), at all times.

I mean FFS this is what Wingman did here on Steam - in a history spanning ten years now:
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/app/971850/discussions/0/4635988976587598501/#c4635988976587614841

I might check 42 out if it's still fresh when it releases, but I was kinda done with that whole circus with the delays, cultish behavior of the fans, done with Wingman over the Descent Underground antics here in Early Access, and was really squicked by the first community manager for RSI.

SomethingAwful had a whole thread on the SomethingCreepy going on Ben Lesnick's website. This is why Space Hobo Huckaby has been starring instead.

I was already feeling a bit wary around Chris Roberts when he decided that - in middle of a big production deal with Microsoft - to go play movie producer to make ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Bullet Time.

Could we do something cool? Nah. It's time to blow money out the airlock. That's why I'll pay money when Chris Roberts shows me something other than tech demo upon tech demo and hopes and dreams and someday.

Yes, I'm a huge Wing Commander and Freelancer (and Starlancer as well, obviously) mark, I never treated Star Citizen as anything less than straight up "Freelancer 2.0" (and I effing LOVE Freelancer, even despite the fact that it was largely unfinished and heavily unpolished due to Micro$hit's executive meddling and forced rushing out of it on the market) since day-one, but that's not the point. I ain't shilling. I know about the Derek Smart debacle, and I followed all the news surrounding/pertaining to this project, constantly, for all this time. I know there was a lot of dubious and questionable things done both by Chris Roberts and his tyrannical wife (Sandy), in the recent years. Yet, after watching the latest SP gameplay showcase, my faith is getting restored/my interest is being rejuvenated. It'll either bomb OR it'll BTFO us.