Star Citizen Scoops, Musings and Blogs

[dsmart]

On p21 under "Bridge Crew", croberts claims that US labor costs then double that of the EU. This is correct because traditionally the math is about x2.1; which is why companies tend to outsource if at all possible.

“We try to be quite smart about development costs, so we do a lot in the UK and two-thirds of our developers are in Europe. It’s far more cost effective. Over here you can have two developers for the price of one in the US. In the places where there’s game development in the US, the price of living is really high. We’re up in Manchester and it’s a lot cheaper to live there than in LA. The average salaries in the industry are less for that reason.”

It’s not just the cost of living, though: “We get basically 25 per cent of the UK cost back from the government. And that allows us to hire more people. We wouldn’t have as big an office in the UK if that deal wasn’t there. I think that was a very good move for the government to do that, because now we have around 250 in the UK, by far our biggest group of people"

https://issuu.com/newbayeurope/docs/mcv928_27th_october

So if they raised $34M in 2017, and the 318 people in the EU cost them $23M (64% of total funding), well how much do you think the 132 people in the US cost them in 2017?

Nope, those guys aren't very bright. But hey, they're funding JPEGs via an active scam. So.

[StanTheMan]

And if the figures are correct . .they have to keep doing this year after year because any game is at least 3-4 years off.  Then there is the law suit.

[dsmart]

And if the figures are correct . .they have to keep doing this year after year because any game is at least 3-4 years off.  Then there is the law suit.

They are basically operating on a month to month basis, and as I mentioned in my article (since updated that section), it's no different from the legacy dev<->publisher relationship.

[jwh1701]

Well both SC and SQ42 are their primary IP assets. They don't get money from anything else.

Also...

I dunno, but if I was paying an accounting firm £26K to do my books, even if they're cooking them, I'd hope that they would be correct.

With such obvious mistakes I believe the accounting firm is located in Chris's bank account. I really believe they are just taking as much money as possible from the project.

[dsmart]

With such obvious mistakes I believe the accounting firm is located in Chris's bank account. I really believe they are just taking as much money as possible from the project.

Cooking the books is easy; covering your tracks isn't.

[dsmart]

**BREAKING** Foundry 42 (Squadron 42 devs) has created a new studio manager position headed by one of the guys from back in the old days.

I'm not going to name him, but he's one of the good guys, and this move makes zero sense to me.

This is pretty significant.

Thread: https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1060238479806947328

[jwh1701]

**BREAKING** Foundry 42 (Squadron 42 devs) has created a new studio manager position headed by one of the guys from back in the old days.

I'm not going to name him, but he's one of the good guys, and this move makes zero sense to me.

This is pretty significant.

Thread: https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1060238479806947328

Very interesting update, it seems like they are best at jpgs and continually wasting backer money.

[StanTheMan]

Very interesting update, it seems like they are best at jpgs and continually wasting backer money.

It looks more like Erin wants to effectively disappear and they don't think (or care) they are going to lose anyone internally because they are mightily pissed off they were not given an opportunity to apply for the role...

I would imagine at some point Croberts desperately wanted to get SQ42 out the door as he imagined he could lord it around the Hollywood scene showing off MOCAP actors for years to come, irrespective of what happened to the PU.

[N0mad]

The news about the new appointment is curious.

CIG desperately need a take-over to sort out the project and release something, just like the Digital Anvil / Microsoft  / Freelancer debacle in the old days. In the absence of anyone willing to buy Chris out maybe they're trying to get someone experienced to take over SQ42 and get it out the door. As long as the cash doesn't run out and more importantly Chris doesn't interfere they might just pull it off. However I can't see Chris backing away from any of this whilst he's still in charge.

[jwh1701]

It looks more like Erin wants to effectively disappear and they don't think (or care) they are going to lose anyone internally because they are mightily pissed off they were not given an opportunity to apply for the role...

I would imagine at some point Croberts desperately wanted to get SQ42 out the door as he imagined he could lord it around the Hollywood scene showing off MOCAP actors for years to come, irrespective of what happened to the PU.

I absolutely agree about sq42 and his Hollywood dream, who in the right mind would jump to AAA actors and mo-capping before the ground work was even finalized.

[jwh1701]

The news about the new appointment is curious.

CIG desperately need a take-over to sort out the project and release something, just like the Digital Anvil / Microsoft  / Freelancer debacle in the old days. In the absence of anyone willing to buy Chris out maybe they're trying to get someone experienced to take over SQ42 and get it out the door. As long as the cash doesn't run out and more importantly Chris doesn't interfere they might just pull it off. However I can't see Chris backing away from any of this whilst he's still in charge.

I would agree but even if they hire someone I wonder if they are not in development hell. I oversaw a project based in Ireland years ago for a new server for IBM. The Ireland team ended up 9 months late and we went through 23 iterations of server boards and even then still required a bunch of bypass wires. They failed to delivery on every aspect of the project and did not meet any of the metrics. IBM had to pay for expedited shipping worldwide for each server board iteration not including the cost of changing them out. Plus each board required a reset to the test cycles, bios developers etc.  IBM let the entire engineering team go and never produced another server there. I often wonder if they have reached a point of no where the code / development is beyond salvageable.

[StanTheMan]

The news about the new appointment is curious.

CIG desperately need a take-over to sort out the project and release something, just like the Digital Anvil / Microsoft  / Freelancer debacle in the old days. In the absence of anyone willing to buy Chris out maybe they're trying to get someone experienced to take over SQ42 and get it out the door. As long as the cash doesn't run out and more importantly Chris doesn't interfere they might just pull it off. However I can't see Chris backing away from any of this whilst he's still in charge.

Yes but they already pre sold it and spent the money...

Not as if many would buy additional chapters unless the buyers can engineer a miracle.

Plus it is collateral on the Coutts loans

[Spunky Munkee]

It's not as if the ROberts family will give up their Two Million dollar a year collective salary for mismanaging this dumpster fire. All they need to do is show minimal progress, sell a few concept ships and keep these idiots believing and funding for another year for that money.

They dont need to actually turn out a game, backers wont hold them to that standard. They just need to keep their hopes from being dashed to collect several million dollars in compensation every year, plus whatever other things they get like corporate flights, fancy car leases, housing allowance, health care, security, clothing allotments for the Mrs, possible plastic surgery, and the chance to buy his skanky wife a spot in a b movie.

I'm sure they are busy setting themselves up in the next venture that is waiting in the wings. Be that Mocap, B movies ect.

Star Citizen Squadron 42, The Movie!
Trying to pitch the ministries to HBO, I wouldnt put it past him.

[Caveat Emptor]

How do you know the Roberts family are pulling $2 million per annum?

[Spunky Munkee]

I believe his salary was shown in a tax filing possibly both of theirs. Regardless, it was out there some time ago.
We know his brother makes over 250K a year.
Keep your ear to the ground long enough and you will see these things pop up.