Vapourware Scam Citizen - Only people with too much money can become StarCitizens! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

[Country_Gravy]

Or so much money is going into the game he can't afford hair color.

 

[Drax]

Chris is getting gray hair, while when he started the star citizen campaign he had no gray hair. I guess that constant stream of lies is ageing him rapidly.

Not only that, he looks way more pale.
Even the background seem less... saturated...

 

[Grotesque]

Chris is getting gray hair, while when he started the star citizen campaign he had no gray hair. I guess that constant stream of lies is ageing him rapidly.

 

[Chamezero]

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1snh7pg

BREAKING NEWS!!! - Star Citizen
I have some sad news to report.

Since my recent blog "Star Citizen - The Long Con" went live yesterday, apparently a lot has been going on at RSI/CIG brain trust.

Key issue here is that I linked to a letter one David Jennison wrote when he quit working there.

For the record, I do NOT know this person. Not even on social media. And even when I reached out to authenticate the letter, I got a "no comment" from various sources.

Apparently he had shared it with some people in order to explain why he was leaving so suddenly. And it looks like one of those people sent it to me using a burner email account which is now unreachable. Pretty much how various unknown sources have been reaching out to me since I started writing these blogs back in July.

So today, multiple sources are telling us that the Santa Monica studio is in full crisis mode as a result.

Sources are telling me that Sandi, wife of Chris Roberts, is pointing fingers and publicly blaming people in the office for leaking the letter. A letter which isn't even company property btw. As the story goes, she called two of them "fuckers" in front of their co-workers. And as the word goes, it may have been during that altercation that two people turned in their key cards and immediately walked out.

As it stands, two have quit.

Lisa Ohanian (Ship Shape), gave 2 week notice.

Paul Forgy, quit on the spot - and walked out.

Alyssa Delhotal and James Pugh were reportedly fired under suspicion of leaking information to me. Since I don't know ANY of the above people, it's patently false.

It gets worse...

Meanwhile 9 people in Austin were informed that their jobs are being eliminated in October.

Additional people are reported to be informed today and tomorrow.

As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, multiple sources are telling me that the plan is to close the Austin office by end of this year. People let go so far are Artists, Engineers, and Designers working on the PU (!!!!!).

Also, sources tell me that they are hovering around $8 (!) million in cash right now and still burning around $3.5m (!) per month. Which is why they are now initiating immediate downsizing company wide. Quietly. They are hoping that upcoming sales go well to tide them over in the short term.

As it stands, credible sources tell me that they are going to run out of money at their current sales/burn by Q1/16, assuming they get some spikes from the upcoming sales and anniversary sale in November.

Which explains the Endeavor ship sale that went live in the past 24hrs.

During this downsizing, while consolidating global development in the UK, they are focusing on Squadron 42 because right now it isn't scheduled to be ready for release for another 15 (!) months. At best.

There is so much info coming in right now, that I simply can't divulge all of it without putting people at risk. So I am getting on a call with legal in a bit. I remain torn between my loyalty to industry sources, and my need to alert the industry that, as predicted, as big as this crowd-funding effort was, it is still on track to be the biggest single collapse of an entity in the history of the industry.

I have been sounding this warning bell since July. But I got incessantly attacked for it, and I am still under attack as a result.

I will add another update once I hear back from legal. I will probably just throw up another blog since it's so much stuff to wade through right now.

In the meantime, to those of you affected by this, don't even bother with attorneys or suing them. I got this. Just go find yourselves a new job, take care of your families and keep sending us stuff. This is a crowd-funded company and there are higher standards.

Most of all :

1) DO NOT TRUST THE MEDIA!!! If you want to know which of them to trust and/or talk to, contact me (anon is fine) directly at dsmart@live.com. You deserve to tell your story and I 100% guarantee you that I will make sure that it gets out and goes into the public record via the legal system as you wish for it to be told. Remember, you are going to be around in this industry, working alongside the best of the best, for years to come. Don't make light of that.

2) DO NOT TRUST ANY OF CHRIS'S FRIENDS. If you make the single mistake of talking to someone who knows someone who knows someone, you may find yourself in violation of your exit agreement (if any) and/or NDA signed at hiring. So don't do it.

3) Ben Lesnick cannot be trusted. But you probably already knew that.

- DS

Blog: http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/09/star-citizen-the-long-con/

 

[Drax]

Geez, talk about attention-whoring.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

you know what's worse than derek smartass? those who give him audience.

 

[Whiran]

you know what's worse than derek smartass? those who give him audience.

I'll gladly be his audience so long as he continues to be so wildly entertaining!

The numbers (in terms of burn rate and cash on hand) sound about right to me and the chaos in the plethora of RSI subsidiaries also seems accurate. Who knows about the accuracy of the rest but I don't really care that much - it's entertaining to me since I have no vested interest one way or another.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Couldn't agree more. It's like watching a train wreck hitting another train wreck. You just have to watch.

 

[Metro]

Roberts makes Tim Schaefer seem like a Nobel Prize winning economist.

 

[Taxnomore]

Couldn't agree more. It's like watching a train wreck hitting another train wreck. You just have to watch.

Or those people who pay homeless drunks to fight against one another. Which is pretty much what the gaming community is doing right now.

 

[Grotesque]

"Did not see that coming. Odd day"

that's what it says on James Pugh's twitter account.
so it seems that he indeed he got fired

if that is true it is a fuckin big deal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/3lyfb1/david_jennison_former_lead_character_artist_in/

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Couldn't agree more. It's like watching a train wreck hitting another train wreck. You just have to watch.

i feel it's more like watching episodes of "ow! my balls!" over and over again.

 

[omega21]

"Did not see that coming. Odd day"

that's what it says on James Pugh's twitter account.
so it seems that he indeed he got fired

if that is true it is a fuckin big deal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/3lyfb1/david_jennison_former_lead_character_artist_in/

Colour me suspicious, but looks like some good old upvoting manipulation going on there considering how the top posts are all skeptical.

 

[J_C]

unknown sources have been reaching out to me

today, multiple sources are telling us

Sources are telling me that Sandi, wife of Chris Roberts

multiple sources are telling me that the plan is to close the Austin office

sources tell me that they are hovering around $8 (!) million in cash

credible sources tell me that they are going to run out of money

There is so much info coming in right now

Dear CIA!

I recommend employing Derek Smart as your No1 Field Agent against terrorism. He clearly has more sources than any intelligence agency in the world, and he can't shut up talking about it.

 

[Xenich]

"Did not see that coming. Odd day"

that's what it says on James Pugh's twitter account.
so it seems that he indeed he got fired

if that is true it is a fuckin big deal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/3lyfb1/david_jennison_former_lead_character_artist_in/

Not surprised, I have been in that very same situation doing work in my past. Nothing more demoralizing than to be under a task master who knows little about the process. Now it makes sense why the game is having issues. CR is putting them in a never ending cycle of design paralysis. I don't doubt CR has this ideal version of what he wants swimming in his head, but he can't run things like a dictator who wants to micromanage everything, not if he ever wants to see the game released. He should create some very detailed and specific design goals for each area of the development and then let those teams take liberty in seeing that direction brought to light. That way he can check in with the leads from time to time and they can report to make sure they are within those design goals. CR is killing the game.

 

[Ninjerk]

Dear CIA!

I recommend employing Derek Smart as your No1 Field Agent against terrorism. He clearly has more sources than any intelligence agency in the world, and he can't shut up talking about it.

Why do that when you can just conceal the identity of one source and pretend that it's multiple sources.

 

[J_C]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/3lyfb1/david_jennison_former_lead_character_artist_in/

I can't take these leaks seriously. Come on, who in their right mind would leave a company, and leaking all these stuff USING THEIR REAL NAMES. That's basicly career suicide. Who is willing to employ somebody who cannot be trusted with company secrets.

There is a reason why you don't see MCA coming here and talking stories about his departure from Obsidian.

 

[Drax]

You mean he didn't told you about Sawyer's "Coprophagy Friday" policies?

 

[Grotesque]

Maybe Smart blows things out of proportion in a certain degree but he has sources and in at least two cases he was the first to announce certain events that proved later as facts.

James Pugh was indeed fired and is official as recognized by Ben Lesnick on the forums.

 

[Metro]

Indeed. Maybe if this project was, from external appearances, reasonably sound then you could dismiss Smart. But where there's smoke there's fire. This had disaster written on it long before he started criticizing it.

 

[Drax]

Goddamit...
How much you guys think I can make with a caterpillar and an aurora?

 

[Krraloth]

I
There is a reason why you don't see MCA coming here and talking stories about his departure from Obsidian.

Unless he did and he's now being blackmailed into giving us cred in Larian's Kickstarter.

 

[Xenich]

Good point, seems like a reasonable argument as to why they may not be real. Though people in this world often do things that aren't rational or wise, so it is always possible. You are right though, without proper validation, it could be nothing more than gossip. Not all that uncommon in this industry.

 

[Perkel]

Maybe Smart blows things out of proportion in a certain degree but he has sources and in at least two cases he was the first to announce certain events that proved later as facts.

James Pugh was indeed fired and is official as recognized by Ben Lesnick on the forums.

It is true but at the same time it is huge project and many many people work on this. even 10-20 people could be considered cutting fat especially that they probably need to replace newbs and low cost workers hired earlier when they didn't know how much funding they will get with experienced people.

This could also go other way. People who were underpaid could simply find better paying job and quit project.

As for money well....

YUP that is 15mln $ in last 6 months. With Christmass time i am 100% sure they will get easily 10mln+ and developement money will go into 100mln+ range. a fucking 1/10 of a bilion.

Even if they burn at current rate 3mln a month and they have 8 mln in cash they still earn monthly aside from few odd months their monthly dev cost not even taking anything from that 8mln.

Aside from crowdfunding Chris sayd numerous times he has private investors lined up of which we know nothing (originally they wanted to shell up 20mln).

Aside also from above Chris probably has huge credit line in banks if they will need money to finish game (as ridiculous this may sound)

So NotSoSmart Darek can rage all he wants, Chris can work on his game/Fuck whores as much as he wants for few next years and we can observe it.

Whatever will happen i know this will the biggest thing ever.

Their multicrew demo showed some proper incline and i think at least Squadron42 has a chance of being awesome. IDK about persistant world because that thing screams like a mess and i don't think it will ever work as intended considering currently we can't properly synchronize MMO games with 10 dudes.

edit:

Bonus. If you divide those 90mln vs 1mln funders you will get 90$ per dude which is definitely healthy and point out that most of funding comes from actuall people not whales who buy all there is on their store.

 

[Metro]

So three years on how close are they to actually producing a game?