The Real Significance Of The Crunch Time For CitizenCon Story

Back at the beginning of the Squadron 42/Star Citizen project in 2012, Chris Roberts argued for crowd funding to free himself from the shackles of the greedy publishers who would hamper his efforts to make the best damn space game simulation possible. But after 12 years and $725 million in sales, time may be running out on Cloud Imperium's immunity to the same financial pressures game publishers face when backing the development of a game.

The latest example is the kerfuffle around the mandatory crunch time to work on preparations for this year's CitizenCon event. CitizenCon is CIG's annual event for the more hardcore members of its fan base. Think of Activision-Blizzard's Blizzcon or CCP Games' Fanfest for comparisons. According to a report from Insider Gaming, the managers at CIG are instituting crunchtime for the two weeks leading up to the event.

The company mandate states:

• All staff are to be in the office on Friday, October 4th and Friday, October 11th (typically a work-at-home day)
  
  
• All staff are to be in the office on Saturday, October 5th, and Saturday, October 12th (for these days, the company will provide breakfast and lunch, with staff receiving company TOIL (time off in lieu) which can be stored and used for time off at a later date)
  
  
• All staff are to work on Sunday, October 6th, and Sunday, October 13th (this can be a work-at-home day, but the company “encourages” people to be in the office. For these days and for those in the office, the company will provide breakfast and lunch, with staff receiving company TOIL, which can be stored and used for time off at a later date)

Also, in the case of Squadron 42, the crunch time preparing for CitizenCon goes back to July if the Insider Gaming report is to believed. And given the reaction from individual developers, I believe the reporting.

Another internal email sent to Insider Gaming in July 2024 reveals that Cloud Imperium Games “pre-approved” 12 hours of ‘SQ42 TOIL’ per week for developers to meet Citizencon deadlines. The catch? The TOIL will only be made available after Squadron 42 ships, and employees must still be employed with the company by the time the game ships, or the TOIL “will be forfeited.”

Most of the stories I've read and heard about the incident focus on labor law and the effect on CIG's employees. And given stories like initially not allowing employees in its Austin studio to take off time during the big winter storm of 2021, I can see why gaming publications would continue with that theme. But as suggested at the beginning of this post, I have a different take on the situation.

Throughout the year I've seen signs that money is becoming an issue for CIG. From the layoffs at the beginning of 2024 to the revelation the company has significant unfunded financial obligations coming due in 2028. time is running out on CIG. Of course, if Squadron 42 is a good game and does decent financially a lot of the financial worries go away. 

I think after Chris Roberts' statement at CitizenCon last year that SQ42 was "feature complete" that many people believed the game would release either sometime in 2024 or 2025. Did the expectations for the game's release finally cause crunch time at CIG? Or is the financial situation such that CIG needs the pre-order money for SQ42 and thus needs to make a big announcement at CitizenCon that can't go wrong or look haphazard? From what I can tell, I'd guess the latter is the case. After all, the Calders could exercise their put option in the first quarter of 2025 if they feel revenue will decline over the next three years compared to the record period of 2022-2024. And that would damage CIG's ability to publish SQ42, let alone complete Star Citizen.