There’s another unhappy update on the story of Star Citizen.
Insider Gaming reports that Cloud Imperium Games has laid off members of their management.
Given the gravity of the report, we will quote Insider Gaming directly here:
“Speaking to sources who wish to stay anonymous as they cannot publicly talk about the company’s plans, several top-level executives have been laid off, and other top people at the company have been shifted to different roles.”
Their report goes on to say that Chris Roberts announced these changes in an internal memo. This memo was itself released after the annual letter Roberts sends to the company. Roberts made this statement in the memo:
“To achieve this laser focus, it is more important than ever to ensure we have high-performing and efficient teams working throughout the company.
In order to achieve this, I have had to make changes to the structure of our teams from the very top of the company and downwards to ensure we have the right people in the right roles, working in person as much as possible from our most critical year yet.”
Insider Gaming also has sources that opined that the real reason for these changes is to lower development costs, as budgeting has been a long rumored issue for the title. They also believe that Roberts may try to rehire his wife, Sandi Gardiner, back into the project.
They reportedly confirmed the identities of three former executives who were confirmed to have been laid off. Afterwards, evidence merged online that Cloud Imperium Games’ Chief Strategy Officer Carl Jones left the company.
Of course, you may remember Insider Gaming’s report last November that Cloud Imperium Games laid off staff, but they were unable to confirm the number of employees. While it seems that we only ever hear of layoffs in the studio, what Insider Gaming doesn’t seem to get information on is when the company is able to bring new staff in.
This would complete the picture that they painted about the project, that has kept going in spite of their high attrition rate. This is because of the high amount of funding that Cloud Imperium Games was able to secure, and also because they have been hiring to replace people who left.
Chris Roberts may very well deliver on the vision he felt was so necessary to fully realize. But even that potential success is already marred by the legacy of mismanagement and exploitation that this title has already earned.
