A new report from industry insider Tom Henderson paints a bleak picture of Star Citizen, which is about to end after twelve years of development and more than $728 million in crowdfunding revenue.
What kind of report is this? For the extensive article on insider-gaming.com, well-known industry expert Tom Henderson spoke to more than a dozen former and current employees of Cloud Imperium Games.
Tom Henderson is considered one of the games industry’s most reliable insiders, who also has numerous contacts in the industry. In addition, many reports from recent years support the current allegations. In particular, Forbes’ exclusive story from 2019 painted a bad picture of Chris Roberts and the way Star Citizen is being developed.
Most recently, among other things, the new hangar features came to the Star Citizen servers:
Star Citizen: Everything is better with its own hangar – trailer presents features of patch 3.24
More videos
Autoplay
History repeats itself
What does the insider report? Key findings from the report:
The frustration in the development team is currently said to be greater than ever before.
MeinMMO reported years ago about the sometimes poor pay of employees. The latest requirements for mandatory overtime before the upcoming CitizenCon are said to have caused even more frustration in the team.
Most people who talk to Henderson probably say that the company desperately needs a makeover if it is to survive. Some employees even believe that they have reached the point of no return – due to mismanagement and absurdly high costs, the path inevitably leads to the abyss.
According to the report, the enormous income from crowdfunding will probably soon be used up. Employees report that they have felt the effects of dwindling resources over the past twelve months – planned wage increases and further development measures have probably been frozen.
In addition, around 100 to 150 employees are said to have been laid off at the beginning of 2024. Those who refused to sign a confidentiality agreement were said to have been put under pressure not to receive any form of severance pay.
The sometimes very low salaries are said to be in stark contrast to some other investments, such as a coffee bar that will take up a large part of the 9th floor in the studio in Manchester. In addition, there are said to be enormous expenses for custom-made furniture, oversized props and ornate wall coverings. One employee describes it as “a space version of Willy Wonka’s factory.” The story of expensive works of art in CIG’s offices from August 2023 fits the bill.
The employees rate the modified version of the CryEngine used for Star Citizen as a “Frankenstein” that is becoming increasingly difficult to work with because new functions are constantly being added.
CIG’s unorthodox development processes are said to repeatedly lead to further delays. This probably means that the boss himself, Chris Roberts, repeatedly gets involved in the creative processes and orders changes that often result in problems that last for weeks.
According to the sources, it is not uncommon for these interferences to affect the smallest details that are not supposed to play any role in the gaming experience, but still eat up an incredible amount of time.
Roberts’ perfectionism and his leadership style are said to have become one of the greatest burdens on Star Citizen, Squadron 42 and CIG as a development studio.
Many experienced developers are said to have left the company over the years due to all these issues. New, often inexperienced developers were apparently only hired because they were fans of Star Citizen. Despite the frustration described above, the current team is said to maintain one of the strongest cult-like mentalities in the entire industry.
The current goal is to bring Squadron 42 live as quickly as possible in order to be able to secure the further financing of Star Citizen with the income generated, the report continues. Despite the announcement last year, the single player experience is only now actually “feature ready”.
The sources also confirm the rumors that CIG is currently working on a third project to create another pillar of financing.
More on the topic
Fans of MMOs are frustrated with Star Citizen and Ashes of Creation because the alpha already carries a hefty price tag
by Karsten Scholz
How is the community reacting to the new report? Tom Henderson’s article is already being hotly debated on Reddit. The main thread already has 1,061 upvotes and more than 360 comments.
DrPandemias writes (via Reddit): “A streamer […] played Star Citizen with people from the chat a few days ago. He spent 1 hour raving about the game and all the details and immersion. […] He started the game, spent about 10 minutes on the loading screen, crashed, and repeated this for an hour.” After that, many more problems are said to have occurred. The player’s conclusion: This is an expensive tech demo.
0-99C criticizes Chris Roberts (via Reddit): “The last game studio he ran, Digital Anvil, ran out of money because it was poorly managed. It had to be saved by Microsoft, who bought it and took over development from Freelancer. Roberts was removed as CEO of Digital Anvil and the scope of Freelancer was reduced […].”
littlechefdoughnuts takes a humorous approach on Reddit: “As an early backer who gave up caring about a finished game years ago, the real value I get from this project is watching it happen it dissolves.”
baxte has experience with the cult (via Reddit): “I bought the game years ago. In the sub I wanted to talk about inconsistencies and false statements, but it said: I’m a developer and you’re wrong. […] I began to understand the mentality of cults. I don’t post there anymore. There is no way to influence the followers.”
What do you think of Tom Henderson’s report? Are you still optimistic that Star Citizen and Squadron 42 will appear in their respective final forms? Do you even currently support the project? Or do you also think that CIG is already heading towards the abyss? Tell us in the comments! More about the current status of the game: The new update will take Star Citizen to a new level – and the entire MMORPG genre with it.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy