Star Citizen looks back on turbulent months. Following reports of layoffs and a restructuring of the management level, a veteran is now leaving the studio, who has worked on the ambitious sci-fi MMO for more than ten years.
Which veteran is no longer working on Star Citizen? Carl Jones reflects on a long career in the gaming industry, which has taken him to Sega and Crytek, among others. For the past ten years and three months, he has been employed at Cloud Imperium Games.
As VP of Global Business Development, COO & VP of Business Development, and finally Chief Strategy Officer, he has solely taken on leadership roles. Thanks to a post on linkedin.com, we now know that he left the studio in December 2024.
Through ships like the Polaris, Star Citizen has also earned a lot of money in 2024:
Goodbye on a positive note?!
What is the reason for the separation? Whether Carl Jones resigned or was let go is unclear. The veteran also does not mention a specific reason: “After a decade of helping Cloud Imperium Games become one of the most innovative and largest independent game developers in the world, the time has come for me to explore new galaxies.”
In his farewell post, Jones reflects on what has been achieved – such as that he was instrumental in raising over 1 billion US dollars from various sources for the development of Star Citizen. He also expresses great gratitude for having had the opportunity to work with some of the best people in the industry.
In the future, Jones wants to work as a consultant for a small number of technology and gaming companies. More details are expected to be provided at a later date.
What does this mean for Star Citizen? It seems that the studio behind the ambitious sci-fi MMO has been experiencing turbulence for some time. For example, in November 2024, there were reports from within CIG suggesting that employees were laid off without severance after going through a hell of overtime.
Just before the new year, additional anonymous sources (via insider-gaming.com) reported that several high-ranking executives had also been laid off. Furthermore, there are supposed to have been restructurings in the management level. Whether Carl Jones is one of those affected by these adjustments is unclear but would fit into the picture.
In light of the reports, an internal message from studio head Chris Roberts to the staff was also published. The message states, among other things:
To achieve this laser focus [on the release of SQ42 and Star Citizen 1.0], it is more important than ever to ensure that we have powerful and efficient teams working throughout the company. To achieve this, I had to change the structure of our teams from the top of the company down to ensure that we have the right people in the right roles so that everyone can give their best in our hitherto most critical year.
Chris Roberts in an internal message to his employees (via insider-gaming.com)
The departure of Carl Jones is unlikely to have a noticeable impact on the project itself. On the one hand, over 1,000 people are working on CIG’s projects. On the other hand, it has been reported that many experienced developers left the studio due to internal issues in recent years .
Since there is currently a search for several senior developers (via linkedin.com), the savings from recent layoffs are likely to be limited in the medium term. Especially considering the size of Cloud Imperium Games.
The good news for fans of Star Citizen is that the project has again raised an unbelievable amount of money through crowdfunding and investors in 2024. More details can be found in the following report: Star Citizen raised three times more money in 2024 than the development of the best game of the year on Steam cost
