A couple of weeks ago we caught word of Star Citizen’s game director leaving his position after nine years at CIG, with most assuming that he primarily left his job because he wasn’t willing to relocate to Manchester, UK. It looks as if his story is not unique, as followers of the alpha sandbox have uncovered additional layoffs at the company that were categorized as a restructuring and are presumed to be a result of CIG wanting employees to relocate.
In addition to game director Todd Papy, CIG also lost lead producer Jake Ross, assistant design director Dan Trufin (whose game profile was changed from “developer” to “backer”), Austin lead designer Dane Kubicka, Austin QA lead Vincent Sinatra, Austin senior QA analyst Andrew Rexroth, and Turbulent producer Annie Bouffard.
Information on most of these layoff reports are obviously piecemeal, but Kubicka references the layoff from his post is “due to restructuring,” while Bouffard references leaving a “highly toxic company” after the end of January saw “a mass dismissal, disguised as a ‘relocation of staff’ (when very few could/wanted to move to other countries/continents with little or no notice) occurred.”
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 characterized 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 – presumably so CIG can pay lower taxes and lower dev wages – is happening instead.
