Star Citizen, Which Just Hit a $750 Million Crowdfunding Record, Reportedly Hit By New Layoffs | MMO

System · December 4

Star Citizen, Which Just Hit a $750 Million Crowdfunding Record, Reportedly Hit By New Layoffs | MMORPG.com

Recent reports are saying that Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is one of the latest to be hit with layoffs and cuts after huge staff crunch order.

Read the full story here

Elidien_ga · December 4

I am starting to question if this game launches or the world comes to an end first. Its debatable at this point.

Wargfoot · December 4

Elidien_ga said:

I am starting to question if this game launches or the world comes to an end first. Its debatable at this point.

I know evidence of this game failing is around here somewhere.

Help me look.

I'll check this dumpster of cash over here, and you can look under that pallet of cash over there.

Tiller · December 4

This game would go play-to-earn blockchain, but CIG isn't going to leave any profit on the table for anyone else. I wonder how big a vault module I could fit into a Syulen.

Elidien_ga · December 4

Wargfoot said:

Elidien_ga said:

I am starting to question if this game launches or the world comes to an end first. Its debatable at this point.

I know evidence of this game failing is around here somewhere.

Help me look.

I'll check this dumpster of cash over here, and you can look under that pallet of cash over there.

Nah the cash, as always is in the "Senior leadership's" wallets.

sabrefoxx · December 4

Imagine you're Chris Robert if you can.

You've used a small amount of initial capital to get a demo in 2012.

Fast forward 12 years and your gross profits are over $750 million.

Has your pet project succeeded or fail? (I did not ask if it finished)

It's not like he sank 200mil to get a 50mil return on investment. He put in maybe a couple mil if that, and has now achieved hundreds of millions in return.

Face it, the only thing CR is risking at this point is his reputation. Financially it's already a success.

Pher0cious · December 4

$750 million raised after how many years? How much of it has been spent? Spent on what? How much is left? These are the questions to the real story. Where's the journalism bruh?

mitech616 · December 4

3/4 of a BILLION dollars, and you're already laying people off before the game is even done.

Shady much?

Xiaoki · December 4

Pher0cious said:

$750 million raised after how many years? How much of it has been spent? Spent on what? How much is left? These are the questions to the real story. Where's the journalism bruh?

They are spending the money as soon as it comes in. If not for private investors and tax breaks they would have gone bankrupt years ago.

riningear · December 4

Honestly like, goddammit, Cloud Imperium, I JUST got on the SC beat and y'all are already crossing over into my less favorite beat I also tend to take up here (game industry layoffs).

Not shocked, just disappointed.

Tiller · December 4

Pher0cious said:

$750 million raised after how many years? How much of it has been spent? Spent on what? How much is left? These are the questions to the real story. Where's the journalism bruh?

Yeah they still haven't added any NPC life to speak of in the game beyond a few AFK players.

Slapshot1188 · December 5

Companies always layoff employees when their jobs are done
These were QA
It's obvious that game is polished and these employees were no longer needed

Did I do that right?

GrindcoreTHRALL · December 5

Its actually almost 1billion in funding. They arent even close to bankrupt. The same people claiming they are bankrupt are the same people saying they were going bankrupt after the New York Times hit piece on chris roberts. They have over 1k employees and have been developing for over 12 years, lay offs are inevitable with companies this size, especially at the end of the year after their biggest convention.

SC made around 20 mill this month alone. 'Looks like its doomed to fail." Did I do it right?

kitarad · December 5

I have no issues with what they do with their money like the extravagances in their British offices or the promises made to the employees they asked to work during that show they put on if they were not using money from 'donations'. This is not a company using their own money but money their fans have given in the hopes of them releasing a game. This is just shy of a scam honestly even if the game is being developed the pace and complete disregard for their own schedules and promises and disrespect to their own player base is staggeringly unbelievable.

Angrakhan · December 5

sabrefoxx said:

Imagine you're Chris Robert if you can.

You've used a small amount of initial capital to get a demo in 2012.

Fast forward 12 years and your gross profits are over $750 million.

Has your pet project succeeded or fail? (I did not ask if it finished)

It's not like he sank 200mil to get a 50mil return on investment. He put in maybe a couple mil if that, and has now achieved hundreds of millions in return.

Face it, the only thing CR is risking at this point is his reputation. Financially it's already a success.

$750 million in gross profits? I think you need to go google the term "gross profits". They have $750 million in revenue. Biiiiig difference. The vast majority of that money has been smoked in employee salaries. Then you have all other other operating costs like the rent on their fancy offices which isn't cheap. The layoffs point to the fact they're probably operating at a loss at this point, hence the correction in their biggest business cost that they have immediate control over: salaries. Unlike an apartment you can't just terminate a commercial lease on a whim, so they're legally obligated to pay that rent until the lease is up with literally no way out of it.

olepi · December 5

Slapshot1188 said:

Companies always layoff employees when their jobs are done
These were QA
It's obvious that game is polished and these employees were no longer needed

Did I do that right?

Almost. QA people cost money and they don't bring in any easily identifiable revenue. Schedules won't slip if you lay off the QA people, so that's what is done. I've seen it many times.

When crunch time hits, do you lay off the sales people? No, you look for QA because they do nothing for sales.

olepi · December 5

It would be interesting to know how many of the people who were promised time off in the future if they worked extra hours for free now got laid off.

Imagine being forced to work 7 days a week to hit the deadline, and not getting paid for it. Instead, you get a promise of time off in the future. Then they lay you off after the deadline.

If that happened, then CIG is a terrible employer, scamming their own employees.

Wargfoot · December 5

olepi said:

It would be interesting to know how many of the people who were promised time off in the future if they worked extra hours for free now got laid off.

Imagine being forced to work 7 days a week to hit the deadline, and not getting paid for it. Instead, you get a promise of time off in the future. Then they lay you off after the deadline.

If that happened, then CIG is a terrible employer, scamming their own employees.

I had that happen to me once. (not at CIG)
A friendly letter to their legal department got me a nice check.

Psycked · December 5

mitech616 said:

3/4 of a BILLION dollars, and you're already laying people off before the game is even done.

Shady much?

Not buying or selling here but you should read what the layoffs were from.... The old click bait news feed "layoffs" got you good.

Theocritus · December 5

mitech616 said:

3/4 of a BILLION dollars, and you're already laying people off before the game is even done.

Shady much?

If it is true that they had 500+ devs working on the game (I still think that number is probably not accurate), then they are most likely bloated payroll wise....Also anyone that was worked in the software industries knows often once they feel your work is done, then you get laid off...it comes with the territory.

olepi · December 6

Wargfoot said:

olepi said:

It would be interesting to know how many of the people who were promised time off in the future if they worked extra hours for free now got laid off.

Imagine being forced to work 7 days a week to hit the deadline, and not getting paid for it. Instead, you get a promise of time off in the future. Then they lay you off after the deadline.

If that happened, then CIG is a terrible employer, scamming their own employees.

I had that happen to me once. (not at CIG)
A friendly letter to their legal department got me a nice check.

After reading about the Polaris ship, I totally expect CIG to pull a stunt like this. Squeeze the employees like they squeeze the customers.

The Polaris costs hundreds of real dollars and shoots torpedoes. After people bought it, CIG changed it so that you have to pay millions in credits to reload the torpedoes. They waited more than 30 days so that nobody could get a refund.

Getting millions of credits (14 million is the estimate) is extremely hard to do.

CIG does appear to be a rapacious and unethical company.

edit: the Polaris costs about $900 in real money.

KnightFalz · December 11

GrindcoreTHRALL said:

Its actually almost 1billion in funding. They arent even close to bankrupt. The same people claiming they are bankrupt are the same people saying they were going bankrupt after the New York Times hit piece on chris roberts. They have over 1k employees and have been developing for over 12 years, lay offs are inevitable with companies this size, especially at the end of the year after their biggest convention.

SC made around 20 mill this month alone. 'Looks like its doomed to fail." Did I do it right?

What were their expenses this month alone? Talking about that made alone means nothing.

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Star Citizen, Which Just Hit a $750 Million Crowdfunding Record, Reportedly Hit By New Layoffs | MMO

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