Star Citizen looks back on turbulent months. Following reports of layoffs and a management shakeup, a veteran who worked on the ambitious sci-fi MMO for more than a decade is now leaving the studio.
Which veteran is no longer working on Star Citizen? Carl Jones looks back on a long career in the games industry, which has taken him to Sega and Crytek, among others. He has been employed by Cloud Imperium Games for the past ten years and three months.
As VP Global Business Development, COO & VP Business Development and finally Chief Strategy Officer, he exclusively took on management tasks. Thanks to a post on linkedin.com, we now know that he left the studio in December 2024.
Star Citizen also made a lot of money in 2024 through ships like the Polaris:
Star Citizen: The new capital ship Polaris in the trailer
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Farewell on good terms?!
What is the reason for the separation? It is unclear whether Carl Jones resigned or was terminated. The veteran doesn’t give a specific reason either: “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 looks back on what he has achieved – for example, that he was able to significantly help raise more than 1 billion US dollars from a wide range of sources for the development of Star Citizen. He is also very grateful that he was able to work with some of the best people in the industry.
In the future, Jones would like to work as a consultant for a small number of technology and games companies. Further details will be available at a later date.
What does this mean for Star Citizen? Things seem to have been very turbulent in the studio behind the ambitious SciFi MMO for a while. In November 2024, for example, there were reports from those around CIG that employees were fired without severance pay after they had to go through overtime hell.
Shortly before the turn of the year, other anonymous sources reported (via insider-gaming.com) that several high-ranking executives were said to have been fired. There are said to have been restructurings at the management level. It is unclear whether Carl Jones is one of those affected by these adjustments, but he would fit into the picture.
As part of the reports, an internal message from studio boss Chris Roberts to the workforce was also published. The message states, among other things:
About this laser focus [auf die Veröffentlichung von SQ42 und Star Citizen 1.0] To achieve this, it is more important than ever to ensure we have high-performing and efficient teams working across the business. To achieve this, I have had to change the structure of our teams from the top of the company all the way down to ensure we have the right people in the right roles so that everyone can be the best they can be in our most critical year yet.
Chris Roberts in an internal message to his employees (via insider-gaming.com)
Carl Jones’ departure is unlikely to have a noticeable impact on the project itself. On the one hand, because over 1,000 people work on CIG’s projects. On the other hand, many experienced developers are said to have left the studio in recent years due to internal problems.
Since they are currently looking for several senior developers (via linkedin.com), the savings from the recent layoffs are likely to be limited in the medium term. Even more so when you consider the size of Cloud Imperium Games.
The good news for Star Citizen fans: The project has again raised an incredible amount of money through crowdfunding and investors in 2024. You can find more details about this in the following report: Star Citizen earned three times more money in 2024 than it cost to develop the best game of the year on Steam