Some Star Citizen devs reportedly laid off as Cloud Imperium restructures
Update: The studio confirms it has eliminated “a small number of positions”
Cloud Imperium Games has reportedly laid off an unknown number of staff.
As spotted by Massively Overpowered, the Star Citizen studio has recently lost a number of high profile employees.
“I’m sad to say that I’ve been laid off from my position as Level Designer at Cloud Imperium Games due to restructuring,” Dane Kubicka wrote on LinkedIn.
Update
In a statement issued to VGC, Cloud Imperium confirmed that a move to “co-locate as much development as possible” has led to “a small number” of jobs being lost.
“As part of our normal processes, we regularly look for ways to make our operations more efficient, which can include restructuring in order to place a position closer to the team it supports,” the company said.
“Now that we are back in office and seeing the progress and quality of work when our teams are in-person working together, we have decided to co-locate as much development as possible, which has resulted in some minor staffing changes as we move some development positions closer to their core teams.
“As a result of this consolidation, a small number of positions were eliminated and we continue to recruit for key roles within the company.”
Cloud Imperium QA manager Vincent Sinatra said he’d been “laid off after 8 1/2 years”, while senior QA analyst Andrew Rexroth said he was leaving the company “on good terms though I would have liked to continue working with them”.
This month, the studio has also lost live game director Todd Papy, lead producer Jake Ross, assistant design director Dan Trufin, and producer Annie Bouffard.
While unconfirmed, it’s claimed that a number of the departures are likely linked to Cloud Imperium wanting staff to relocate to a new office in Manchester, England.
VGC has contacted the studio for comment on this report.
Star Citizen launched as a Kickstarter campaign in late 2012, and raised $2.1 million at the time. In the years since, it has remained in ‘alpha’ state, and has continued to generate revenue through crowdfunding, with over $500 million raised to date.
