According to a new report from Insider Gaming, "several top-level executives have been laid off" from Cloud Imperium Games, the development studio working on Star Citizen. This "significant shakeup to its upper management" seeming comes as a result of the team failing to meet deadlines.
Insider Gaming says that they spoke to anonymous sources about these layoffs. They say that the layoffs were announced through an internal staff memo that came out following the public release of the latest "Letter from the Chairman." Though these management layoffs have not yet been publicly announced at the time of writing, the public disclosure will be announced soon.
The internal memo sent by Cloud Imperium Games' Chris Roberts notes that "it is more important than ever to ensure we have high-performing and efficient teams working throughout the company."
To achieve this laser focus, it is more important than ever to ensure we have high-performing and efficient teams working throughout the company. In order to achieve this, I have had to make changes to the structure of our teams from the very top of the company and downwards to ensure we have the right people in the right roles, working in person as much as possible from our most critical year yet.
According to reports, those that were laid off have about 25 years of combined experience at Cloud Imperium Games. One executive confirmed to be hit by these latest layoffs is Carl Jones, whom announced his departure via LinkedIn. Jones was with the studio for over 10 years. At least two more executives were supposedly let go at the same time as Jones.
In November 2024, Cloud Imperium Games laid off an undisclosed number of employees from lower positions, mainly from the QA department. In early 2024, Cloud Imperium Games laid off an estimated 100 employees from their Austin and Los Angeles offices.
To date, Star Citizen has raised over $775 million in backer funding. 2024 was the company's second best year for funding, pulling in over $116 million. The only year that beat it was 2023 when they pulled in an estimated $117 million.
