DCS World third party developer Crosstail Studios reports that they have lost their license to develop a DCS World aircraft. The loss reportedly officially happened recently and the developer has now put out a statement on their Discord server to let the public know. Here’s what we know.

Skyraider development in limbo

Two days into 2026 and DCS World has a new third party developer issue emerging into the public discussion. Crosstail Studios was announced as a licensed third party developer for DCS World back amidst a flurry of announcements back in September of 2022. The developer opened up a Discord server, released a trailer, a couple of YouTube shorts were produced, and one video detailing their work with Echo 19 to get a sound pack developed. Not much else has come from the developer in public until today.

A message from Crosstail Studios Founder, Chris, was shared on the developer’s Discord. Here’s what it read:

URGENT: A-1H Skyraider Status

Eagle Dynamics has publicly announced the termination of our license. This decision does not reflect the reality of the project.

THE REALITY
ED terminated us solely due to a lack of communication, not a lack of development. We made massive progress in 2025.

THE BLINDSIDE
On Christmas Eve, we received a termination notice. We immediately appealed, and it was agreed with ED management (Wags) that we had until Jan 31, 2026 to present our new build.

We worked non-stop to meet that deadline. Instead, ED reneged on the agreement and publicly killed the project before even looking at the work.

THE LOST UPDATE
Because they pulled the plug early, they ignored the massive sprints by our team:

@cppimmo : Tireless coding on Systems & Flight Model.

@JazAero @badams @Lasaraz : Completion of the exterior model and hyper-realistic cockpit.

@J.P. : Creating our cinematic update videos.

Echo19 : Authentic radial engine recordings/integration.

Research: Thousands of docs from the Skyraider Association.

WHAT NOW
We are evaluating options. If you want the Crosstail A-1H, let your voice be heard respectfully in the community. Share facts, not abuse.

Spads Forever.

Chris
Founder, Crosstail Studios

Over on the DCS World forums, the Crosstail forum section has been removed. In response to posts questioning the status of the project, Eagle Dynamics Community Manager “BigNewy” replied with the following:

Due to lack of communication from that team and lack of progress over several years, we decided to terminate their license agreement. If at a later point they can demonstrate the capability to complete the project and at the expected 2026 detail and quality levels, we will consider offering a new license agreement.

BIGNEWY on the DCS forums

Failure to communicate?

Since the announcement, developer updates had been extremely limited, even on their own Discord, and virtually nothing had been shared as part of the development effort.

At some point over the last couple of years, the developer website was unavailable at times (and the SSL certificate expired and was not resigned), the invite to their Discord expired, and it did appear to the public that the project may have been dead or in hibernation. Even if that wasn’t the case internally as Chris has stated in his announcement, perception is 9/10ths and that may well have hurt this third party project not just with the community but with Eagle Dynamics as license holder.

Its possible that the project will be granted a new license at some point. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see if anything more comes of it.