me: "this video was mostly pointless as we don't fully know what's going on". Everyone else: "I hear Burn Down CIG buildings"? "you got it Grumpy Eye". ... ... ... this is satire fyi.... (i hope. 2024 is getting weird and mostly hostile now)

Maybe they treated it like 2 games with SQ42 and SC but now that it gets reunited they dont need twice the directors anymore.

Everything is feature complete. Nothing is ruined. People are leaving because development progress is too good so they’re off to build real spaceships that you can buy. A picture of.

Think this quote sums up most of it: "Readers will remember that CIG talked up its new Manchester office space multiple times over the past few years, as well as its acquisition of Turbulent, all of which was characterised as part of wider studio growth and efforts to be a “disruptive force in gaming.” However it looks like a shrinking of developers who aren’t accepting marching orders to move to Manchester" Also, yeah there was one or two guys that probably got fired, but a lot of us think most of these key staff aren't getting fired, think they're simply leaving. Also imagine reworking most of your work your entire career...

Lol i new this game was a dud when i watched the announcement 13 years ago.

I'd put money on them leaving to set up their own studio.

Greed and marketing has already killed Star Citizen, yall just havent realized it yet.

imho these guys getting fired is to make room for Erin & his mates moving over from SQ42 as Star Citizen is riddled with nepotism cancer

The thing that really gets me though... is if they would have just fixed the stuff that's already in the game, FPS and shooting mechanics, physics, flight model, turret usability, etc... there would at least be something to do. It would allow for more fun dogfights, flying practice, race tracks (both ships, and grav-lev). So much potential for GOOD player FPS encounters. We could see some potential and begin to expand on it later, but instead everything has to always stay in a half implemented broken state, where you can only graze the surface of fun. I just don't get it.

I’m going with what I told my friends. A lot of these ships and stuff weren’t even supposed have hull of their ships complete…..and then unannounced, they drop Polaris hull in Invictus, new random ship (ironclad) concept, and the quick “throw it all out now while we can”, means the leadership has an idea that there’s some poor economic factors for their future, so they are going to try and sell anything and everything they can right now and we will need to see what happens. Grumpy is literally echoing what a sh*t ton of us is already thinking and talking about. 🤙🏽

It's very normal when merges happen that multiple people in middle management get laid off. Same thing with restructuring. It's usually not the ones with least experience or people that are slacking off that get laid off, those are usually lower on the payroll and are working in growing teams with specific plans. Not saying that is the case here, I have no idea, but seeing high profile members leave CIG is sad no matter what. While sad I don't see much point speculating on it or what it means, how it will affect the development or whatever. I'm chosing to stay very excited for 3.23 and other plans for Star Citizen this year.

Just based on my own experience, chances are that it is something of every likely possibility. Most people do not leave jobs unless they have work lined up, CIG is unlikely to talk about employee related issues, for legal reasons, they also aren't like to talk about bad financial prospects. Exiting Employees generally can't talk about subjects covered under NDA. So everything can be fine or the house is burning down, and you can just never know the answer until the dust is settled. It is possible that SQ42 being "feature complete" was driven by financial realities, and not the fact that CR was happy with where it was, we just can't know that yet. So I am not sure that any speculation, anger, or whatever is even warranted yet.

I just took a look at the financials. In 2023 they raised a total of $112 Mio.. Thats marginally less than in 2022 which was $113 Mio. So they stagnated in 2023. Compare that to 2021 to 2022. They went from $86 to $113 Mio.. That was 31% growth.. Look at the years before that. Record breaking year after record breaking year. So if I had to make an educated guess: They expected more way more from 2023. So they likely hired too many people (I think they went from like 850 to over 1250 people in 2023) in 2023. Pair that with the fact that SQ42 is feature complete and they're shifting dev focus towards SC they're likely in the process of getting rid of slimming down and being more efficient in terms of resource usage. Maybe they have too many people for the same positions now that people from SQ42 are coming over who knows. But I highly doubt its something detrimental. Judging by what they plan for 3.23 it seems to be going very well lol. 2024 is really gonna show what CIG is made of and how well CR can lead a through turbulent times.

Finally, devs are fed up with Chris style of management, it will fall apart hahaha, Star Citizen is a scam!

People will leave other companies to join CIG, and people will leave CIG to join other companies, it has always been the case. SC is now entering another stage in it's development, and many of the developers who have worked at CIG for many years may feel it's the right time to look at other projects. Nothing wrong with that.

My guess is they got head hunted, offered a salary to make them think twice and maybe the run of a project more suited to their personal dreams. Remember, the experience gained from working on SC will put them in an expertise field few have been able to enter.

I wonder if Todd put his foot down about gameplay over art projects and he was asked to resign. No one knows until someone tells us. It could also just be about the numbers. The numbers were down last year until they did the Gold Ticket event and the Citizen Con. So maybe they are taking the PU in a entirely new direction. Who knows.

If the feature is complete and just needs plugged in why is a top developer director needed to do that?

The fact that they’ve gotten rid of so many long-time guys on the SC side tells us either that they think the in-house labor options can make up for their production, or that the direction they’ll be going is so different as to render all of the departed employees’ experience moot.

Maybe it’s like my line of work. Sometimes your career can stall when you stay with a company too long and you have to make a move to get more money.

Tinfoil hat time... CIG has grown too large to maintain the same underdog passion project vibe that made them CIG in the first place, completely replacing their uncompromising design philosophy with a funding-first focus, and essentially supplanting the proverbial soul of their core vision and company culture with the cold corporate market analytics needed to sustain this new never-ending need to remain in the black, which has soured the old guard and sent them seeking newer greener pastures that align with their own personal values. Or maybe they just got sick of answering "when" questions.

do we know these devs were laid off or just left on their own? I haven't heard that they did I only heard that they left the project.

All the people you identified were senior staff with more than a decade of experience each. Pay from CIG is reputed to be below industry standard, this could simply be people leaving for better jobs and/or knowing their worth, went looking for a better opportunity. If this was about scandals, or mistreatment, someone in CIG [regardless of NDA] or friend / relative would eventually let it out. Your concern might have merit if more line and junior leadership staff were leaving.

It's none of our business why they left. The game isn't gonna collapse and there is no point speculating

God I really want a proper statement by CIG clearing up all these theories and making clear house. Be transparent CIG please. Tell us whats happening in 2024. Tell us whats going on.

Going to be a lot of unpaid salaries, lawsuits, and scammed normies. Par for the course nowadays. If you ain't scamming you ain't making money.

Pleeeeeeease for the love of god fire Nightrider and Simpwave

No details whatsoever... "they were FIRED". Not good man.

Star citizen has become more trouble than it’s worth to play. If you want to be frustrated and waste your time with a game that just runs extremely poorly then be my guest.

I think Todd papy was like a kid in a candy store when he started to get flooded with more staff for the PU and then he was stone walled by CR or other leads on the direction the staff should focus on.

They probably got fired because the questioned the game development direction and did not want to make more of a "scam" but a game any longer.

For a company that has amassed nearly 700 million in funding it's a bit fucked they are possibly laying people off, as a pose to hiring more devs to help with production.

Any sources on a website about this?

The games been in development over a decade. It’s easy to get burned out on a title or things change in life that require moves and even using your position in a company to go higher for better pay elsewhere. This is all whatever.

The vast legion of PvE players want an open universe cosmic elder scrolls RPG game not DayZ in space. PvE players compose the largest demographic of gamers and are propelling Baldurs Gate 3, Helldivers 2, Palworld etc to new heights of success. For Star Citizen, It takes too damn long to do anything in Star Citizen for your limited game session to be hijacked by jackasss griefers. IF CIG CONTINUES TO ALIENATE PVE PLAYERS AND DON'T CREATE PVE ONLY SERVERS, THEIR PONDEROUS GRIEFER INFESTED HELL HOLE OF A GAME WILL FAIL AS A LIVE SERVICE MMO and CIG along with it.

Sc has a 100 plus strong marketing team, but lays off the game play dev making mining and the engineering system. Classic cig move.

I think its the integration of Turbulent..

It’s kind of like cost cutting, they could hire many people for the same price as these top dogs, although they probably don’t have the same skill set or level of skill. This could be in anticipation of a decline in revenue?

The timeless occurrence of a Studio "losing" developers, when in reality it's one of two things: 1) Most junior developers get hired on in waves, and they're all subjected to contracts that last a specific amount of time, so they all leave at once as well. Then the gaming community freaks the fuck out over it, despite it having negligible impact on anything. 2) Elder Staff who have been with the project for more than 6 years tend to get restless and want to go work on something else, or try something new. There is a reason why the average lifespan of a developer in the industry is only 5 years. None of this means anything. This happens to literally every single game studio in existence.

Did any of the people who left even say they were getting laid off or are we just making assumptions. I don't know if this is safe to say to exactly. If anything I don't think it's that normal for most people to stay at the same game company for years.

I remember seeing Todd papy at Citizen con and he seemed defeated at almost every question asked of his about the simulated economy and when questions.

Could have to do with all the SQ42 staff rolling back in and maybe not everyone is happy with who are taking the top positions in the new structure. I know I would be a bit upset if I kept SC running for years and then the other group rolls back in and take over the command positions. I could be totally off and am purely speculating.

I don't believe it's accurate to call SQDN 42 a side project. They're making 2 full games.

There's something happening that we know of and thats SQ42 being around the corner I can imagine people that are leaving not liking developement of mmo games and I suppose they were given time to find new jobs, normal thing in developement when projects end, not everyone might find himself in other projects We probably won't know reason until SQ42 launches and I don't think we need to (at least if we are not people that want to hire them) Everything leads to reasons like that and there's nothing really against it (unless SQ42 is garbage, but that would be rather far fetched idea, looking how good SC looks they must be good enough to make a good game thats more down to earth with expectations than SC)

The timeless occurrence of a Studio "losing" developers, when in reality most developers get hired on in waves, and they're all subjected to contracts that last a specific amount of time, so they all leave at once as well. Then the gaming community freaks the fuck out over it, despite it having negligible impact on anything.

Having years of work behind you and in front of you is daunting, especially if you haven't really released anything in this time. Not good for a career.

SC is the pre set, for set, after set that is the bassist of 42. 42 was always the project no? SC is the playground to create 42. SC is also the continuation of 42… or will be?

Todd left because they told him to stop screwing around and finally put in a way to recover our account bound items but he didn't want to do it 😂

Can you say the PU was managed well over the years? From past videos I guess you would say no. So this is probably a good thing, fresh blood is needed on big projects to keep things moving forward.

Ya we are probably fucked. Market cap reached, cry engine completely dead the only people that know how to develop with it now work for cig.

Do not know why you keep saying FIRED. In short, NO ONE has any idea why Tod Pappy left. It could have been family related, or did not want to live in England anymore, or he just needed a change. I agree that Tod Pappy was the most honest of the directors and sad to see him go. The picture on Linkin does not look happy but sad. I think something external to CIG occurred which influenced his decision to leave.

When everything's moving tectonicly. A creative person. Would get bored.

Papi going is sad, but he might just be burnt out, or they all got offers from that other game. With all the devs coming over, theories about Richard T taking over are just semantics. I think 9 years of managing a game and then having to deal with more BS caused burnout.

this is the most interesting thing to come out of cig in years. im guessing sales are down. the bubble has burst

GREED - greed is in everything that relates with Capitalism - unfortunately - you think the human kind would evolve by now - but my conclusion capitalism breeds greed - as for the CIG drama - I just want my SQ42 - and hope they figure it out about the rest of there drama

RSI = Repetitive Strain Injury......Come on CIG, get your shit together!

They shouldn't even started squadron 42 until SC (their only money maker) was feature complete, stable, polished, and good to go. Get that on cruise control, raking in millions before starting SQ42.

I Guess only time Will tell. In the meantime, lets make ships way more expensive to gain more real money and keep making ship sales every 29 days of every months

Maybe if they didn't spend all that money on a new HQ building.....

Over 10 years for an alpha and some bs polishing phase for a single player game. This game will never be complete. Let us accept this😊

We're they keeping alive or dragging it out? Looks like they were keeping their jobs alive because the game is now coming along better and faster.

Mate, you can't do 'shorter' but thanks for the Staff Update... wild days. :0)

Maybe some people also want to change compagnies or environement after so many years. Everything is just speculation but i don't see why it's anormal someone leaving a compagny. It happens everyday in all kind of compagnies.

I also feels like tony Z is not there anymore either... Anyway. For me SC is now to much a clone of all the fps shooter we have.. its escape from Arma tarkov... for some its perfect, a survival game where everyone kill each other to steal their ressources.... when i backed back then its was supposed to be a space game with elements of fps and lite survival elements.... now it become a primarly fps shooting game with some space elements.. and an overpunishing game for hardocore gamers that dont have enough adrenaline in their life or miss the stress they add while deployed in millitary and want to retrive some of this stress in a game... I think some of the new player dont even know there was supposed to have 4 alien races.. and things like that..

They took vaporware54 off the store page months ago and there is still no hint at it being even close to release as they still refuse to actually show any game play just cinematic teasers and test environments in CryEngine... I mean ScamEngine errr StarEngine. I love it can't wait for server meshing to be absolute garbage in 3.23 so I can finally turn my back for good on this dumpster fire.

I have given up any hope that SC will ever be the game we all envisioned back at the 2012-2015. Not going to happen in our life time. I have a few hopes left about SQ42......but their are running out fast.

Nobody trusts a pirate dude.

It may be making room for other top devs moving back from sq42. I’m not saying it’s good but maybe someone will step up and hopefully we may see some progress moving forward

developers are getting fired left and right these days

There was a comment by one of the departing devs, "we swong for the fences." it's is an american baseball reference that means, we aimed for the big win. The move at SC (master modes, mining, fps see through walls) simplify the game, it is no longer skill based. It hurts as a backer, but must be torture if your heart and soul was into building the ground work for what will never be. Hopefull they will go build the game that CIG is throwing out. I am going to rant a little more, Below in the comments about how MM and mining since 3.14 sucks.

Thank you grumpy.... some one needs give some honest reporting on CIG

I can imagine a world where Todd Papy gets an incredible offer, maybe one with a signing bonus.

This doesn't have anything to do with CIG polishing SQ42 now does it?

I feel bummed, because i think they started out with great intentions. After investing too much money in the game i can only hope it doesn't blow. 😅

No clear goal posts, meandering prioroties. Its like theyre porting a vr game to desktop.

F for all the Amazing Devs who have left for better pastures,

I think its a good thing they were layed off. For me they didnt deliver, it was more talk and imagine citizen. Hoping some new guys will take over and make the game. Probably not the game once was promised, but its time for a game.

It's CIG (See-Eye-Gee). LoL. Love you Grumpy! Also, like others have said.... where have they said they were laid-off versus quit???

Not sure about Dan, there. No worries either way. Seems they aren't leaving ships half done.

A company will rely on head positions to “hold the line” and up until the line shifts. If the head position wont budge, get what they have been waiting for or cost more for the company to keep around. They are laid off. Lest just hope after 42 they will shift the progress. SC is the aftermath/continuation of 42…

Like I said in mikes video.. Other developers are breaking milestones… CIG still working on a Starmap

Where are you seeing that they were "laid off"? I thought they were leaving

There's a lot of anger being whipped up here - for a video that is pure speculation. Having been at a senior position during waves of redundancy and also having been given redundancy in the past it is very normal for legal agreements to be drafted that prevents EITHER side from discussing the matter in detail - regardless of how scandalous or innocuous the reasoning. It is also important to realise that a company needs to restructure occasionally - I mean CIG's payroll was $40+ million a year! I would rather they managed that expense wisely than continued to hire people regardless. The other issue is when rounds of redundancy are announced people can be invited to take on voluntary redundancy and this soothes the process considerably - after all, as you say, people don't want to work in the same place forever. But finally, you have no idea how good, or bad they were as team members, managers, or just employees. I have no doubt very qualified people have left the team - but there are lots of very talented people out there (and a redundancy process often requires a handover process to keep momentum in work loads). CIG will retrain people and find some new celebrity talking heads for the community to fawn over - but will continue to develop a pair of games with the best of their ability. No need to freak out.

I’m hopeful that it’s just them wanting new challenges and family things… and nothing more serious. Last thing SC needs is more bad publicity

If base building gets cut, i'll definitely not return to SC

Layoffs for an active project does not make sense. Cig has too much work to do. After just blowing money on new workspace, laying off production staff does not really save money. Todd is overrated in my opinion. Maybe he was just fired. That makes more sense than layoffs.

Biggest problem with CIG is their complete lack of accountability. It's the same decade long story. Server meshing is their go-to excuse (fall guy) In reality server meshing won't fix the game. Look at how shit arena commander is, there's no need for server meshing in arena commander. AI still sucks at flying and there is horrible desync. They will never open up to actual investors because CR knows he's trash and he will be immediately voted out. CR has no ethics and is a garbage exec, as a result so is the rest of CIG. So stop opening your wallets to the turd.

well the individual circumstances of each lay off are shady and just guessing. i believe the sq42 team overtake and other teamleads overtake roles in the SC PU, so bascially its a consolidation of roles ... however we will know more in the upcoming half year how things change in SC PU

Because they never get to finish shit is my bet

Star Citizen's incredibly large scale comes with an incredibly long development time. We all knew that beforehand. It´s a long way to go

I think many of us will be optimistic that pappi is gone

Them being let go is what caused the sudden good surge of progress... ever think of that? lmao

Here is a generic post to help the algorithm.

My question is were these people that left the reason things went so slow? Grumpy I'm betting 60%+ of said updates do not make it in initial 3.23 patch. So many changes, & new things. Everyone knows when they change something--something else breaks. Going off of CIG's past history this is going to be a dumpster fire. Don't say it already works in SQ42 that is a totally different game! Not to mention delays of patch release! What are your thoughts on my opinion?

Im sure whats happening is is that tod and the other guys just plainly don't like some direction that the company is going in. Maybe the guys don't like how they are doing master modes or that there trying to make money over a good game.

Just as you said on squadron, they have been more focused on the single player game that a niche asked for instead of finishing the project Chris said he would. I believe he just got bored and started working on something else.

I'm an SC noob, about 8 weeks in, loving the experience in-game, such as it is, and still tons to learn on that score; ...BUT - yeah, you know what's coming... Something is just OFF about the whole deal. It ain't a New Deal, put it that way. Smells like an OLD confidence trick. E.g. Simple box delivery missions - ease a new player into things, familiarise with flying, navigation, various basics. Sounds good. Half of those missions are borked. This is basic stuff. And yet, we have ambitious video previews and showcases from the makers about all sorts of cool stuff, AND what is it with those hundreds of dollars ship packages? How many of those do they actually sell? Seems to me they've become rather complacent and self-satisfied with the business model. They've taken the political strategy - always promising more amazing things, but failing to fill in the potholes littering roads everywhere in your vicinity. Damn CIG, take on some interns to fix the basic stuff and make that part solid. Don't you think the come-back rate for newbies would increase considerably? How many gamers give it a go and think, "No, that just awful" and never return because some very basic thing has been left to rot. Like a lot of things in life, it COULD be SO good, but it's just missing the most obvious of fixes. The most reasonable explanation I can come up with is because there never was a "Completed" end-point for this project. It made too much money being something else. Asymmetric information ploy in action. They know something you don't, and even though you might well suspect, you can't prove it, and the candy still calls to those who have become used to tolerating it.

The game is a mess, CIG is a mess, Robert is a mess. I only hope devs can find a better job, and couldn't care less if SC goes down. It was nice time to move on.

I already lost respect with CIG many moons ago. I had a great time in 2.6.3. Once 3.0+ came out, I got tired of the bugs so I sold most of my fleet. Thankfully I actually made money on many ships, so my losses were minimal. Currently, I can't even start the game in it's current state... :( BTW, anyone want to purchase an account? lol

where they fired of did they leave out of choice?