Cloud Imperium hit with layoffs

Original story, February 28, 2024: Cloud Imperium Games has laid off an unknown number of staff.

As reported by Game Developer, former employees shared that they had been made redundant on LinkedIn, including level designer Dane Kubicka, Austin QA lead Vincent Sinatra and Austin senior QA analyst Andrew Rexroth.

Star Citizen's game director, Todd Papy, also left the company last week according to his LinkedIn profile.

Former producer Annie Bouffard shared on LinkedIn that she resigned from a "highly toxic company" having been gaslit when she "expressed concern about potential layoffs."

She claimed there were mass layoffs at Cloud Imperium at the end of January, which were "disguised" as a "relocation" to another office by the studio.

Bouffard alleged that her boss hadn't spoken to her since last November, and that during her annual evaluation she was "mocked in a condescending way when [she] said what mattered to [her] was the wellbeing of her teams."

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Cloud Imperium for further comment and clarification.

In 2022, Cloud Imperium opened a new studio in Manchester.

Update, February 29, 2024: Cloud Imperium has provided GamesIndustry.biz with the following statement.

"As part of our normal processes, we regularly look for ways to make our operations more efficient, which can include restructuring in order to place a position closer to the team it supports," it said.

"Now that we are back in office and seeing the progress and quality of work when our teams are in-person working together, we have decided to co-locate as much development as possible, which has resulted in some minor staffing changes as we move some development positions closer to their core teams.

"As a result of this consolidation, a small number of positions were eliminated and we continue to recruit for key roles within the company."

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