The spaceship MMO Star Citizen has now raised over 457 million euros in “donations” intended for the completion of the game. However, a game tester from the studio in Texas is now complaining about the poor pay and treatment of employees. Especially now that the home office rules are expiring and it is time to return to the office. Many of his colleagues are being forced to move back in with their parents. With the salaries, given the rising cost of living, they can no longer afford their own apartments in Texas.
How much money has Star Citizen raised so far?
- The counter for Star Citizen currently stands at 482,598,383 US dollars, which is just over 457 million euros (via RSI).
- By comparison: The video game Cyberpunk 2077, developed over 10 years, cost 174 million $, less than half (via xfire).
- After relatively modest beginnings of the project, the revenues exploded when Star Citizen began selling virtual spaceships. Revenues have significantly increased again since the pandemic year 2020.
Despite all the money and many years of development time, there is still no clear release window for when Star Citizen will be released. However, the project is also extraordinarily ambitious and aims to set new standards in many ways.
According to studio head Chris Roberts, the shift to remote work due to Covid has contributed to delays in the release of planned features.
Star Citizen wants all employees to return to the office
This is what an employee is now complaining about: On the career platform LinkedIn the former employee of Star Citizen, Kiplan Case, speaks up. He worked full-time in quality assurance at “Cloud Imperium Games” in Austin, Texas for 6 months. His job was to find, document, and report bugs in the game.
According to the tester, he has now been fired because he refused to return to the office and “stood up for his colleagues.” In recent months, he was able to work from home, but Cloud Imperium Games has now lifted their Covid protection regulations. Even employees with vulnerable family members or those who themselves are vulnerable received only a short extension of home office time and must now return to the office.
Case apparently confronted this. Additionally, he complains:
Austin, Texas, ranks 16th among the most expensive places to live in the USA. The cost of living is rising here. Many of us have to drive more than 90 kilometers to the office and gas prices are not currently kind.
Many of my colleagues have already been thrown out of their homes due to rising rents. They are forced to move back in with their parents.
No one who works in the fastest-growing media industry, video games, should find themselves unable to afford a home.
Case calls on everyone to reflect on how their company treats them.
We have extensively discussed the difficult combination of crowdfunding and MMOs in a podcast on MeinMMO:
Much sympathy for the employee and the difficult financial situation
This is how it is being discussed: Case’s post has raised a lot of attention on LinkedIn. The abolishment of the option to work from home seems to be occupying many in the gaming industry right now – especially now, when everyday living costs are rising for many people in hostile dimensions:
- Generally, there is a lack of understanding as to why quality assurance would need to work back in the office. They could do their job from home, say members of the gaming industry.
- Others point out that many gaming studios have indeed switched to “remote” work.
- Particularly “Quality Assurance” is known for being paid very poorly. Therefore, the requirement to return to the office is particularly difficult for them. They have little compensation rules that cover the additional burden of commuting costs.
On the other hand, some people mock Star Citizen on LinkedIn. In the comments of MassivelyOp, it is stated:
- “I can’t even imagine what it’s like to work in quality assurance for Star Citizen and report the same bugs for 10 years again and again.”
- “The company that has delayed a game for 10 years and is known for having an over-publisher and over-designer at the top creates a toxic work environment? Who would have thought that.”
“Home office or office?” is a big topic in gaming right now
This is what it’s about: It is not a specific problem of Star Citizen that the shift away from “home office” hurts especially now when gas prices are so high. It is a problem that all companies are facing right now, insisting that employees return to “the office.” And a return to at least partial office work is being sought by many companies, because they have realized that working from home creates problems especially during the “ideation” phase, due to the lack of spontaneous exchange during work breaks and the “short path”.
As the site Gamesindustry.biz reports, however, many developers they spoke to do not plan a full return to the office as before the pandemic. The genie is out of the bottle. Many developers seem to be looking for partial solutions, like 2 days of home office per week.
The case of the QA employee at Star Citizen appears to be an extreme case: The situation at Star Citizen is exacerbated by the fact that the cost of living in the Austin area has exploded due to real estate speculation.
Traditionally, “QA” testers are also at the bottom of the food chain in the video game industry, where generally not much is paid, assuming the enthusiasm of employees for the subject of “video games.”
We are discussing the effects of the pandemic on Star Citizen here on MeinMMO:
