BREAKING NEWS!!! - Star Citizen

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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/

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