According to several sources, there are layoffs at the developer of Star Citizen during the ongoing Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2954. The details paint Cloud Imperium Games in a bad light.
What is known? The well-connected industry insider Tom Henderson reports on insider-gaming.com that there have been layoffs at Cloud Imperium Games. Henderson relies on a message from a former CIG employee as well as several anonymous sources.
- One of the sources estimates that there are currently about a dozen confirmed affected individuals. However, the exact extent of the layoffs cannot be verified at this time.
- The employees are said to lose their jobs “without any severance pay”.
- Behind the affected individuals lies an extremely tough crunch phase with mandatory overtime and canceled weekends.
So far, the CIG authorities have apparently not responded to comment requests regarding the reports. Already at the beginning of 2024, there was a phase in which the company parted ways with over 100 employees over weeks. At that time, they wanted to ensure that no one learned about the wave of layoffs with confidentiality clauses.
While the Polaris (see trailer) is sold for just under 1,000 euros, employees are apparently laid off without severance.
What is the status of Star Citizen?
Why the layoffs? At first glance, one might think that CIG must have plenty of money. After all, they have already raised 751 million US dollars through crowdfunding. With CitizenCon 2024 and the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2954, there have been two major events recently that likely brought in a lot of money.
Some might have secured the new heavily armed capital ship Polaris for just under 1,000 euros. However, upon closer inspection, there are reasons for concern.
- The development of Star Citizen continues to lag behind schedule. Important features of Alpha 4.0 had to be postponed. The same applies to the “NPC Crews”, which will definitely not make it into the release version of the Sci-Fi MMO.
- Despite the enormous crunch of the employees, the demo crashed during the major gameplay presentation in October 2024.
- According to a report from October, based on statements from more than a dozen former and current employees of Cloud Imperium Games, Star Citizen is said to be heading for the abyss.
A finding from the report: Apparently, the enormous revenues will soon be depleted because costs are simply too high, despite the very low salaries in many cases. It also fits the picture that there are reports of a new project at CIG, which is supposed to generate additional income soon: Are the developers of Star Citizen working on a fantasy MMO on the side? Players find clues
