The curious case of Star Citizen continues as developers from Austin, Texas rise up against developer Cloud Imperium Games ("CIG") after poor handling of the recent Texas snowstorm. Anonymous sources spoke out against the company's upper management, noting how the Star Citizen team was left high and dry and expected to work in a time of dire need.
Star Citizen is an MMO that has been in development for roughly a decade. It was funded on Kickstarter in the early 2010s with an initial 2014 release date set before the game was delayed. Now, in 2021, the game still has no sign of release, causing many Star Citizen fans to wonder if it'll release at all. To make matters worse, the developer has had to work through a pandemic, and its team in Austin was severely impacted by the recent snowstorm.
Speaking to Kotaku, anonymous sources have noted how awful the situation was and stated that the company failed to communicate with its employees during the crisis and left them with unrealistic expectations, despite some developers having their homes flooded or having a complete lack of power. CIG also expected developers to continue work on the long-delayed Star Citizen or use precious paid time off despite some employees not having any available. A company spokesperson responded in an e-mail stating that they prioritize their staff's safety and well-being. The spokesperson also stated that "the Austin offices have remained closed to general staff since the beginning of the pandemic, with teams working from home. In the immediate aftermath of the Texas storm, studio leadership reached out to all 100+ Austin employees through their managers and individually to offer support; and continues to do so with actionable assistance for all of those who were affected.”
Some staff also reported that other CIG studios felt that the Austin employees just wanted a "snow day" or worse, claimed that they weren't even aware of the natural disaster that was being widely reported on pretty much everywhere. Employees have reportedly been feeling like they're not cared for by CIG, leading to low morale and general displeasure with the entire studio as well as the game itself. These reports also more or less help corroborate an older story from 2019 that noted management for Star Citizen was a complete disaster.
It's clear that that the staff at CIG is under a lot of pressure, both externally and internally. With some developers not even confident in the game actually being anything remotely worthwhile, saying it's about marketing and money, things are not boding well for Star Citizen. It's not hard to imagine there will be plenty more reports coming out as morale gets lower and employees grow more irate with CIG.
Source: Kotaku
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/30A868f
0 Comments