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Cloud Imperium Games Developers Fed Up After Being Expected To Work During Devastating Texas Snowstorm

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Last month, the entirety of Texas ground to a halt after a colossal winter storm pushed the state’s cordoned-off power grid to the brink. Power and heat outages, as well as resulting food and water shortages, led many businesses to temporarily shut down. This included a large number of Texan video game studios. Of those that did not, however, one stands out: Cloud Imperium Games, whose employees’ confidence in the company remains shaken after they spent the week trying to juggle work and survival.

The Star Citizen developer has studios all over the world, but the core of the massively crowdfunded MMO’s operation, from a technological perspective, lies deep in the heart of Texas. In a statement to Kotaku sent the week of the snowstorm, CIG talked about how Austin employees had banded together to provide each other with aid, which employees speaking to Kotaku under the condition of anonymity say is true—because, functionally speaking, CIG had left them high and dry. The company concluded its statement by saying that “everyone at CIG has been very understanding and concerned about the situation the Texas team is facing and we’ve stayed in constant communication.” According to six sources who spoke with Kotaku, that part isn’t true.

Communication, all six sources agreed, was the biggest problem. The week began with an interaction that set the tone: On Monday, sources said, an Austin office manager told employees, many of whom had already lost power, to figure out how to make up for lost work time in the near future—specifically “this week/weekend as a first option,” according to one source. That source said the office manager continued: “Assuming roads are clear we also can manage a few people in the studio. If all else fails then enter PTO for whatever time you cannot make up.”

The expectation was clear, say the employees: Be prepared to work through a natural disaster, or make up for it later at the cost of off hours or vacation time.

In response to employees’ criticisms, CIG provided Kotaku with a statement. “CIG is saddened to hear these allegations from the anonymous sources,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “Our staff’s safety and well-being are a priority to us at all times. 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.”

Check the link for more
 

harmny

Banned
kotaku blowing things out of proportion again to bash developers now using a real life horrible event as an excuse? jason would be proud

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Hinedorf

Banned
It's easy to talk a big game, I've been with the same company since 2005 and while I could make better pay elsewhere there's a lot of reasons to stay. If my company ever treated me this way during a major state-wide crisis, there's no way I would continue working. And in any event that I did, I can only imagine the dedication to my work would be so poor it'd bordering on sabotage.

There's folks in Texas right now still with the company feeling this exact way. People in general don't forget how they were treated in their lowest of moments, there's no apology that's going to fix the damage.

Star Citizen is a major red flag and anybody would be foolish to preorder at this point.
 
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oagboghi2

Member
It's easy to talk a big game, I've been with the same company since 2005 and while I could make better pay elsewhere there's a lot of reasons to stay. If my company ever treated me this way during a major state-wide crisis, there's no way I would continue working. And in any event that I did, I can only imagine the dedication to my work would be so poor it'd bordering on sabotage.

There's folks in Texas right now still with the company feeling this exact way. People in general don't forget how they were treated in their lowest of moments, there's no apology that's going to fix the damage.

Star Citizen is a major red flag and anybody would be foolish to preorder at this point.
did you even read the thread? There is plenty of reasons to believe this story is inaccurate.

Star Citizen has a red flag, because Kotaku made up a story?
 

Beelzebubs

Member
kotaku blowing things out of proportion again to bash developers now using a real life horrible event as an excuse? jason would be proud

pjl4iqesofm61.png























Aren't all of those people either Senior Management at the Austin Branch or people who work in England/LA who wouldn't know what the hell is going on at Austin?
 
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Varteras

Gold Member
Kotaku. The same publication that abided Jason Schreier's bullshit for years. Nice to see his spirit lives on in hit pieces like this. It wouldn't be his legacy if they weren't looking for reasons to tear down any company being successful in a capitalist society. As others have said, if we had an article for every time someone was mistreated we'd never find the articles talking about the games themselves. Someone should tell Kotaku that this happens every where. In every place where people are found. You probably had a couple people whose immediate team leader or supervisor was being shitty with them for some reason. So now let's write an article where we demonize an entire company because heaven forbid we go a month without someone shitting on Cloud Imperium Games for SOME reason.
 

demigod

Member
Clickbait to get a story, Fuck You kotaku. I don’t work for CIG but i had a power outage that lasted 3 days when at first I thought they were just rotating it. Was freezing my ass off for about 8 hours until i went to stay at my sister’s house.
 

UnNamed

Banned
Kotaku: People at Company are not happy with their work.

I wonder if we will ever see an article on hangry employees within Kotaku.
 
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I lucked out with the whole thing. My county was one of the hardest hit, and my power didn't so much as blink the entire week. I lost internet for about 20 mins or so. The worst I had was my water pipe finally froze after day 3 or 4. Two days later I replaced the broken valve that was caused by the frozen water pipe wearing shorts in 70 degree weather.
 

TVexperto

Member
dont go into the subreddit. those white knightd are crazily defending CIG for years

also i dont believe that community manager one bit. he is known for lieing. he also said a few years ago squadron 42 is finished
 

perkelson

Member
well free pr campaign for SC. Always work.

People trash talk SC. People go check if that trash talk is true. They find that game is actually playable and pretty fun. CIG crowdfunding goes STONKS.

dont go into the subreddit. those white knightd are crazily defending CIG for years
also i dont believe that community manager one bit. he is known for lieing. he also said a few years ago squadron 42 is finished

That was chris not community manager. Also there are more devs speaking about it. Also there is straight up lie there in those anonymous sources tales. CIG texas has shut down its studio there and all developers work from home for at least a year. Which means they couldn't force anyone to go to studio which was shut down.
 
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Ribi

Member
Based on the amount of replies by cig employees (one of which works in the office) I'm under the assumption that this is either 1 salty dev or kotaku getting a bogus story.
 

Hinedorf

Banned
Kotaku. The same publication that abided Jason Schreier's bullshit for years. Nice to see his spirit lives on in hit pieces like this. It wouldn't be his legacy if they weren't looking for reasons to tear down any company being successful in a capitalist society. As others have said, if we had an article for every time someone was mistreated we'd never find the articles talking about the games themselves. Someone should tell Kotaku that this happens every where. In every place where people are found. You probably had a couple people whose immediate team leader or supervisor was being shitty with them for some reason. So now let's write an article where we demonize an entire company because heaven forbid we go a month without someone shitting on Cloud Imperium Games for SOME reason.
You mean Jason Schreier the guy who writes for bloomberg.com? What exactly is it that you do in the gaming industry that makes you more credible than him? His bullshit landed him a better job so how much bullshit is it?

I have no opinion on Jason Schreier as a person but as a writer I have tons of respect and you probably would too if you actually knew what it meant to be a professional writer.

You don't have to agree with anything anybody says but if something is total bullshit and slanderous that can get you in trouble, nothing he does gets him in trouble because it's...JOURNALISM
 
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