StarCitizen:Cloud Imperium
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Cloud Imperium (CI) or Cloud Imperium Group refers to the group of companies behind the development and publication of the video games Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
Official description
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Structure
Cloud Imperium is actualy two twin holding companies under identical ownership, StarCitizen:Cloud Imperium US, LLC in the US and Cloud Imperium Games Ltd for the rest of the world, each with subsidiaries. The various game development studios are each called Cloud Imperium Games, the video game publishers are called Roberts Space Industries, while the legal agents are called Cloud Imperium Rights. They can be differentiated between the same names by their use of Ltd, LLC, GmbH etc.<ref name="Legal-CI">Legal - Cloud Imperium</ref>
It was co-founded by game developer StarCitizen:Chris Roberts, StarCitizen:Sandi Gardiner, and international media attorney StarCitizen:Ortwin Freyermuth Template:Years or months ago in April 2012,<ref name="Core-CI">Core - Cloud Imperium</ref> with StarCitizen:Erin Roberts joining the team in 2013.<ref name="Press-CI">Press - Cloud Imperium</ref>
As of the end of 2024 the headcount of StarCitizen:Cloud Imperium was at 1031 employess.<ref>Blog - Cloud Imperium</ref>
.<ref name="companyregister" group="Annotation">Information available in multiple legal documents from company registries. For companies in California, please refer to California Secretary of State Business Search. For companies in Delaware, please refer to Division of Corporations - State of Delaware. For companies in Texas, please refer to Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. For companies in UK, please refer to Companies House. For companies in Germany, please refer to Company register in Germany.</ref>
Studios
Cloud Imperium Games has 5 offices worldwide: Manchester and Derby in the UK, Montreal in Canada, Austin in the US, and Frankfurt in Germany, each with a rough list of specialist teams provided here if possible.
United Kingdom
CIG UK numbered 693 employees as of December 2024,<ref>Cloud Imperium Games Limited, Annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, UK companies house, 20 Aug 2025</ref> more than half the total number, with a further unknown number being relocated to it in early 2025 from abroad.
On 2019-03-06, Foundry 42 Limited rebranded to Cloud Imperium Games Limited for brand unification.<ref>Foundry 42 Ltd Rebrands to Cloud Imperium Games Ltd</ref><ref name="CIG-LTD">Cloud Imperium Games Limited - Companies House UK</ref>
- Manchester:<ref>Hub Crawl Hero - Fireside Chat with Carl Jones - Cloud Imperium Games: "Why Manchester?", YouTube, 23 May 2023</ref> Graphics (low-level), UI, Audio, Ships (especially those needed for Squadron 42), Environment (Level Design), Props, Marketing, Support
- Derby: StarCitizen:Facial Pipeline
Canada
- Cloud Imperium Games Montreal opened in 2025, as part of the already existing StarCitizen:Turbulent.<ref>Le studio web Turbulent devient Cloud Imperium Games Montréal, lapresse.ca, 22 août 2025</ref>
Germany
- Cloud Imperium Games Frankfurt office:<ref>STAR CITIZEN: Around the Verse - Episode 100 Celebration, Part IV, YouTube, 21 Jul 2016</ref> the German office branch of Cloud Imperium Games Ltd works on the Engine (StarCitizen:Star Engine), Tools, AI (StarCitizen:Subsumption), Cinematics, FPS weapons, Environment (StarCitizen:Prodecural Planets and StarCitizen:Space Stations), Lighting<ref>Happy Hour Interview w/ Brian Chambers, YouTube, 5 May 2017</ref>
United States
- Austin, Texas
Board of Directors
Cloud Imperium's [[StarCitizen::Category:Board members|Board of Directors]] consists of five members. Chris Roberts retains full control of the Cloud Imperium Board and Group.<ref>Cloud Imperium Board of Director Updates</ref>
Current members
- StarCitizen:Chris Roberts (also known as Christopher Roberts)
- StarCitizen:Erin Roberts (also known as Erin David Roberts)
- StarCitizen:Eli Klein (also known as Ezer Klein)
- StarCitizen:Sandi Gardiner (also known as Sandi Roberts)
- StarCitizen:Marc Nitsche
Former members
- StarCitizen:Dan Offner (also known as Daniel O'Connell)
- StarCitizen:Ortwin Freyermuth (also known as Ortwin Sam Freyermuth)
Subsidiaries
United States
Template:Editorial Note Template:Editorial Note
Canada
Europe
Defunct entities
Teams
The development studios under Cloud Imperium Games are divided into different disciplines and teams.<ref>CitizenCon 2949 - microTechnicalities</ref><ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
- Animation
- Artificial Intelligence
- Character combat
- Ship AI
- Social AI
- Audio
- Dialogue
- Backend services
- Character
- Character Art
- Cinematics
- [[StarCitizen::Category:Concept art images|Concept art]]
- Design
- Economy
- FPS mining
- DevOps
- Build
- Publishing
- Engineering
- Actor feature
- Engine
- Physics
- Environment art
- Landing zone (locations)
- Modular
- Organics
- Space scaping
- FPS
- Gameplay feature
- Gameplay story
- Persistent Universe gameplay
- Graphics
- Mission feature
- Level design
- Social
- Spaceflight
- Dogfight
- Lighting
- Live design (Design)
- Narrative
- Player relations
- Props
- QA
- SQ42 test
- Ship art
- System design
- Tech animation
- Tech art
- Technical design
- Tools
- Usable
- User interface
- UI art
- UI tech
- Vehicle feature
- VFX
- Weapon art
Partnerships
Turbulent
On 2019-12-04, Cloud Imperium UK Limited (CI UK Ltd.) and StarCitizen:Turbulent extended their partnership through mutual investment. CI UK Ltd. purchased 22,250 shares of Turbulent stock directly from Turbulent co-founders StarCitizen:Marc Beaudet and StarCitizen:Benoit Beausejour, making Cloud Imperium UK a 25% shareholder, and acquired two seats on the Turbulent board. Meanwhile, Marc Beaudet and Benoit Beauséjour each acquired 1,170 shares in CI UK Ltd..<ref>Cloud Imperium & Turbulent Extend Their Long-Running Partnership Through Mutual Investment</ref> Cloud Imperium Games acquired Turbulent in July 2023.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite RSI</ref><ref>Turbulent rejoint Cloud Imperium Games, Benoit et Marc, Medium.com, 2023-07-13</ref> The CIG merger with Turbulent brought the headcount to 1110 at the time<ref name=":0" />.
in August 2025 part of Turbulent became Cloud Imperium Montreal.<ref>Deux entités, deux missions, une passion commune, linkedin post, 28 August 2025</ref>
Official Links
See also
Trivia
- The first offices of CIG in Austin were in in the basement of a historic home which housed the archeology department of an environmental firm, near UT, at 17th and Rio Grand. CIG remained there for about a year until it became overcrowded with almost 40 people, with PCs having to be carried over one's head rather than in front due to the lack of space and stern looks when one would bump into someone's chair, with CIG moving to a new office in Bee Cave near Austin in January 2014 where they remain as of 2024.<ref name=":1">Star Citizen Live: Meet the Devs - Publishing and Corporate Technology, Star Citizen, YouTube, 9 February 2024</ref>
- The first infrastructure were two tower servers in a Harry Potter style under the staircase closet that also served as office, with a black contractor tarp over the top of the servers to protect them from any leaks from the above sewer pipes.<ref name=":1" />
Annotation
References
<references /> StarCitizen:category:Development