Star Citizen Dev Threatens Lawsuit Over Slander As Backer Defends His Investment

Edit: this post was edited for clarity at 8:56 AM 10/5/2015.

Cloud Imperium Games is threatening to sue a gaming website over poorly sourced reportage making serious allegations of their outstanding project, Star Citizen. In response, a fan has chimed in on reporters and skeptics raising doubts on its progress.

The Escapist published two articles raising questions on the progress of Star Citizen, making serious allegations that include embezzlement and discriminatory hiring practices, among other things. After their reports were themselves the subject of investigation and skepticism, the publication posted a defense of the stories, written by Managing Editor John Keefer. They promise to retract if the stories were proven wrong but reiterate their confidence in them. You can read The Escapist's defense of their story here. 

Following this, CIG’s Ortwin Freyermuth sent a letter to the publication, pointing out they made defamatory accusations towards the company and its employees, and threatening legal action in the U.S. and the U.K. against The Escapist. Ortwin also disputes many of the allegations, and asserts that the pieces have caused emotional and economic damage to the company. You can read CIG’s open letter in full here.

Redditor and Star Citizen backer PoisonTaco has come to CIG's defense, saying many of the pieces critical of the game's direction have perpetuated the idea that the game’s backers did not know what they were getting into, labeling them cultists, or worse. If the intention in writing the posts was to warn the backers of Star Citizen, that was not the result. He also points out that publisher backing does not necessarily prevent a player from being ripped off; games like Battlefield 4 and Batman Arkham Knight were cited as examples. PoisonTaco points out that Cloud Imperium Games has an extensive, possibly overly complicated, system for updating their fans. Between numerous regular videos, blog posts, forum posts, etc, CIG has opened a literal window into game development, and this is open to everyone, not just backers. To sum, PoisonTaco tells observers that they are fully aware of what they invested in and don’t need to be told what to do.

[disclosure: GameRanx editor-in-chief Ian Miles Cheong is a contributor at The Escapist.]