The game's budget has long exceeded $600 million.
Gaming journalists have drawn attention to the fact that a number of employees at Cloud Imperium Games have been laid off over the past few weeks. They began publishing this information on the social network LinkedIn – and it was not just ordinary employees who were laid off.
Thus, level designer Dane Kubika, test team leader Vincent Sinatra and senior QA analyst Andrew Rexroth have recently lost their positions. Last month, game director Todd Papi, who had worked at Cloud Imperium Games for the past nine years, lost his job.
And recently, producer Annie Bouffard left the Star Citizen development studio, who considers the place where she worked to be as toxic as possible. For example, the manager had not spoken to the girl since November, and in meetings she was mocked when she cautiously expressed her concerns about the possibility of launching a cost-cutting campaign.
According to Bouffard, the cuts were disguised as the relocation of employees to another office. But at the moment, the media cannot establish the scale of the layoffs and have requested an official comment from the management of Cloud Imperium Games.
Let us remember that last year the Star Citizen budget exceeded $600 million, making it the most expensive project in the history of the gaming industry.