When the subject of who's more annoying comes up, Star Citizen white knights vs Star Citizen haters, the haters win, hands down. In fact, one of the wonderful things about using Copilot is I don't have to look at the Star Citizens Refunds sub-reddit anymore. The Star Citizens Refunds sub-reddit makes the EVE Online sub-reddit look like the official forums for Hello Kitty Online.
But the white knights often are pretty annoying, especially when the subject of Cloud Imperium's finances comes up. I can't really blame them too much, though. Cloud Imperium has a pretty deceptive way of releasing its financial information to make the company look healthier than is the case.
First, the figure most people know about is the counter for cash shop revenue. Updated multiple times an hour, CIG provides a total of money raised through the officially named Pledge Store. A lot of players, haters, and drive-by gaming journalists assume the counter represents 100% of CIG's revenue since 2012. That assumption is incorrect as CIG's 2023 financial report shows that cash shop sales only accounted for 84% of revenue through the company's first 12 years of existence. In fairness, CIG to my knowledge has never said the counter represents total revenue. People just make the assumption, which is why I used the word "deceptive" earlier.
The second part is the financial report Cloud Imperium posts on its official corporate website. Those reports show all revenue plus all expenses for a year. But as those reports are posted no sooner than 50 weeks after the end of the year, the financial data is a little stale. Below is an example of how I reported on Cloud Imperium's revenue through the end of 2025.
The $929.1 million displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of December was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1.053 billion in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).
- Sales/Pledges: $929.1 million (through 31 December 2025)
- Other cash shop revenue: $2.3 million (through 31 December 2023)
- Subscriptions: $39.5 million (through 31 December 2023)
- All other sources: $82.6 million (through 31 December 2023)
Notice all the references to 2023? That's because, unlike the reports for 2018-2021, the reports for the last 3 years were published after the start of the new year. Well, assuming CIG publishes a financial report for 2024.
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| History of posted CIG financial reports |
A look at the history of the publication dates and profit and loss numbers don't really explain why the last few years were published after December 31st. Blaming the $20.1 million loss experienced in 2023 for that year's report coming out 5 months late isn't consistent with both 2018 & 2019's reports coming out in December. Combined, CIG lost $17 million in those two years.
If the contents of the reports isn't causing the delays, the problem is structural in nature. I've come up with three reasons the 2024 financial report still is not published.
1. The absence of Ortwin Freyermuth. While Roberts' long-time business associate and CIG co-founder Ortwin Freyermuth resigned from the board in June 2024, I think the company still feels the effects of his departure. The pair went back to Roberts' ownership of Ascendant Pictures and the production of Lord of War in 2005. I always had the impression Freyermuth kept things as organized as he could. But after 19 years of dealing with Roberts, he deserved to retire.
2. Issues with the audit. While CIG actually submitted their 2024 financial report to UK Companies House on time for the first time in six years, the audit did find a major irregularity. The entire agreement concerning the put option for the Calders was once again flagged by PriceWaterhouseCooper. While most likely causing a significant delay publishing the 2022 account, I'm not sure about the effects on the 2023 report. We'll just have to read the report when posted on CIG's website.
3. The acquisition of Turbulent. Yes, in the year 2026 I am still writing about the acquisition of Turbulent. I'm really interested to see how the financial report handles the situation. Not only because the sale will show up in the CAPEX section. Turbulent was still working on non-CIG projects. Will the company count the funds and employees working on those outside projects in the total? Or will those expenses be excluded in the report. The issues Turbulent brought are the most complex I've seen CIG involved with. Yes, even more complex than the Calders' put option.
Having completed the post I know I'm going to hear from the white knights. I will definitely be labeled as a hater who just doesn't understand what Chris Roberts is trying to accomplish. But all I want to do is finish up on the year 2024 and put that year's story to bed. Preferably before CCP Games accounts become available for 2025 become available in May.
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