Highlights

  • Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games faced layoffs affecting employees across multiple teams, along with accusations of workplace toxicity.
  • The game's budget has surpassed $500 million, making it one of the most expensive ever, but CIG is experiencing issues.
  • The industry trend of game studio layoffs continues, with over 6,000 people impacted this year alone.

Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games reportedly laid off some of its employees last month. Apart from these layoffs, which were allegedly excused as “staff relocation” at first, the Star Citizen developer is being accused of providing a toxic workplace environment.

Star Citizen is a multiplayer space trading and combat simulation game that has been in development for over a decade. The title had a successful Kickstarter in 2012, and CIG has been releasing content for the unfinished game since then. Star Citizen’s budget is well over $500 million by now, making it one of the most expensive games ever created. However, it seems that Cloud Imperium Games may be having a few problems lately.

Star Citizen Pyro Map
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In a report made by MassivelyOP (via Game Developer), it was revealed that some employees were laid off from CIG last month, including names such as live game director Todd Papy, who worked for the company for almost a decade. According to these reports, “mass layoffs” occurred to an undisclosed number of employees, affecting design, production, and QA teams, despite Star Citizen breaking fundraising records last year. Another employee who was laid off, Annie Bouffard, claims that these layoffs were originally excused as staff relocation. Cloud Imperium Games announced the opening of a new office in Manchester, UK, in 2021, and recently started to move some employees to this location. However, it’s unclear whether the new Manchester office had a role in the layoffs or if this is just speculation by Bouffard.

Star Citizen Developer CIG Accused of Toxicity

Bouffard also accused the company of being a “highly toxic” environment. She claims to have been gaslighted when speaking out against the layoffs and complained that she was “mocked in a condescending way” during her annual evaluation. At the moment, CIG has not spoken out officially about either the layoffs or the toxic workplace allegations.

This news comes on the heels of PlayStation’s massive layoffs, which happened earlier this week. The company laid off around 900 employees, affecting some of its most noteworthy studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Guerrilla Games, and shutting down its PlayStation London studio.

This year, over 6,000 people have been laid off from game studios. Last month, for instance, Unity cut its workforce by 25%, affecting around 1,800 people, and Microsoft announced the layoffs of 1,900 employees. Unfortunately, it does not seem like this trend is likely to stop soon, as new companies announce layoffs essentially every week.

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Star Citizen

Star Citizen is a multiplayer space trading and sci-fi combat simulation game being developed by Cloud Imperium Games. Combining features from space simulators, first person shooters, and MMOs, Star Citizen has four playable game modes to provide different experiences for players. Hangar lets players interact with their ship, Arena Commander is a space combat simulator, Star Marine is a multiplayer ground combat simulator, and Persistent Universe combines everything together for one complete experience.

Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
Shooter , Simulation