[UPD] Former Star Citizen devs report layoffs at Cloud Imperium Games, citing restructuring

Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) might be another studio to cut jobs this year. The information came from several former employees who said they had recently been laid off.

UPDATED (February 29): Cloud Imperium Games confirmed the job cuts to VGC, saying that it decided to “co-locate as much development as possible” as part of a restructuring to make its operations more efficient. As a result, a “small number of positions were eliminated and we continue to recruit for key roles within the company.”

As first spotted by MassivelyOP, a Redditor found out that a number of Cloud Imperium Games  developers had announced they were no longer part of the studio.

It appears that they were let go this month, and many of them were high-profile employees. The list includes:

• Jake Ross — lead producer, worked at CIG for 10 years;
• Dane Kubicka — level designer, worked at CIG for nearly three years;
• Vincent Sinatra — QA manager, worked at CIG for over eight years;
• Andrew Rexroth — senior QA analyst, worked at CIG for nearly nine years;
• Annie Bouffard — producer, worked at CIG for nearly three years.

Cloud Imperium Games hasn’t announced any job cuts publicly, but Kubicka said he was laid off “due to restructuring.” Another possible reason is that many US-based employees were unable to relocate to the studio’s office in Manchester, UK.

According to Bouffard, “at the end of January, a mass layoff, disguised as a ‘relocation of staff’ (when very few were able/willing to move to other countries/continents with little or no notice) occurred.” She also called CIG a “highly toxic company,” claiming to have been “gaslighted” when expressing concerns about potential job cuts.

Last month, Star Citizen live game director Todd Papy, who worked at Cloud Imperium Games for nine years, left the company. But the reasons for his departure remain unclear.

It is worth noting several former CIG employees claimed last year the studio was affected by mass layoffs. The Star Citizen devleoper denied the reports, telling PC Gamer that only nine people were let go. “We have grown from 900 to 1100 employees this year, due to organic growth and the completed acquisition and integration of Turbulent into CIG,” the statement reads. “s part of this process, we looked at where we could increase efficiency by making sure the key teams working together were co-located, which resulted in us determining 9 roles were better suited in other locations.”

In August 2023, Star Citizen surpassed $600 million in crowdfunding. The total amount raised has already increased to $667.3 million since then.