StarCitizen:Turbulent
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Template:InfoboxNeue Turbulent is a creative agency and technologicalthat worked on StarCitizen:Star Citizen and StarCitizen:Squadron 42 and was eventually acquired by StarCitizen:Cloud Imperium.
History
Turbulent was founded in 2002 as a communication agency, before becoming a technical services agency, then a web development and interactive media agency, mostly working with TV, films, entertainment, working with the likes of Radio Canada, Télé-Québec, TV5, and it became engaged with Cloud Imperium Games working on web services, slowly growing its role over the years, and becoming in part a game development company.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1">Star Citizen : entrevue avec Marc Beaudet, président de Turbulent, rdsca, youtube, 15 July 2022</ref> It describes itself as a professional services agency and a team embedded in daily operations, including being the Star Citizen web team.<ref name=":3" /> Turbulent has been a support firm doing web, platforms, and technology. But through that, it gradually built a real gaming team for Star Citizen, and that was a game changer.<ref name=":5">Cloud Imperium Games – Behind the Scenes of Star Citizen, lebetatesteur.ca, September 5, 2025</ref> It was acquired by Cloud Imperium Games in 2020.<ref name=":3" />
Star Citizen
Turbulent was initially referred to CIG by StarCitizen:Behaviour Interactive to help work out website issues when the site was overwhelmed when the crowdfunding started.<ref name=":2">Star Citizen Live: Meet the Devs - Publishing and Corporate Technology, Star Citizen, YouTube, 9 February 2024</ref> They have been working with CIG since November 2012.<ref name=":4">"We started this i think it was end of novenber 2012", StarCitizen:Benoît Beauséjour, Star Citizen Live: Gettin' Turbulent, Mar 10, 2023</ref><ref>Turbulent - Case Studies: Star Citizen</ref>
Turbulent works with Cloud Imperium Games to develop web platforms such as Spectrum, the StarCitizen:Starmap, StarCitizen:Issue Council, the website, and the launcher as well as the Concierge program, telemetry system, community Hub, StarCitizen:Galactapedia and StarCitizen:Roadmap, while being part of the CIG efforts on cloud services, StarCitizen:Persistent Entity Streaming, and Server Meshing.<ref>[Replay] Un développeur Star Citizen sur la chaîne ! #1 Interview in French with a Turbulent technical artist</ref><ref>Template:Cite Jump Point</ref><ref>Template:Cite Jump Point</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite RSI</ref>
In 2017 Ortwin Freyermouth said that the collaboration has become so close that Turbulent is treated as another CIG Studio, providing development updates to the Star Citizen community.<ref>Open Development as Disruptive Game Design Practice, Clash of Realities 2015/16, page 572, Ortwin Freyermuth, degruyter.com, ISBN: 9783839440315, October 27, 2017</ref>
Just before COVID, CIG asked Turbulent is they would be interested in creating Star Citizen content, especially planets and star systems, leading to the creation of a dedicated unit within Turbulent, which worked among others on places such as the Hospitals and the derelicts. They have also been tasked with the creation of characters, which lead to a further expansion of the team.<ref>Turbulent Jeux Vidéo, turbulent.ca</ref><ref name=":1" />
Mutual investment
On 2019-12-03, CIG went through a mutual investment with Turbulent. Cloud Imperium UK Ltd. purchased 22,250 shares of Turbulent (25%) directly from their co-founders StarCitizen:Marc Beaudet and StarCitizen:Benoit Beausejour, and acquired two seats on the Turbulent board. Meanwhile, Turbulent founders Marc Beaudet and Benoit Beauséjour each acquired 1,170 shares (2,340 combined) in Cloud Imperium UK Ltd.<ref>Cloud Imperium & Turbulent Extend Their Long-Running Partnership Through Mutual Investment</ref>
On 2020-11-24, Turbulent announced that the company will open a Montreal game studio focusing on building star systems for Star Citizen, directed by CTO and co-founde Benoit Beausejour and industry veterans such as producer StarCitizen:Guillaume Voghel, art director StarCitizen:Pierre-Luc Boulais, and lead game designer StarCitizen:Louis Rousseau.<ref name="turbulentnewstudiopr">Turbulent creates new game development studio in montreal to make worlds for Star Citizen </ref> As of 2020-04-05, Turbulent had 42 people and growing working on Star Citizen.<ref>How many staff work at the Montreal Studio? Sandi Roberts Twitter</ref>
Acquisition
Cloud Imperium Games acquired Turbulent on 2023-07-02<ref name=":3">Turbulent rejoint Cloud Imperium Games, Benoit et Marc, Medium.com, 2023-07-13</ref><ref name=":0" />. The CIG merger with Turbulent brought the total headcount to 1110 at the time.<ref name=":0" />
Everything Turbulent did that is related to video games had to be supported by a strong brand that was immediately associated with that gaming identity, this motivated to rename part of the company.<ref name=":5" /> In August 2025, part of the company becomes a creative agency retaining the Turbulent name, which is still very strong in the web world, while the section of Turbulent dedicated to the video game development of Star Citizen and Squadron 2 becomes StarCitizen:Cloud Imperium Games Montréal.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Deux entités, deux missions, une passion commune, linkedin post, 28 August 2025</ref><ref>Le studio web Turbulent devient Cloud Imperium Games Montréal, lapresse.ca, 23rd August 2025 </ref>
Notable members
External Links
Trivia
- During the pandemic between 2019 and 2022, Turbulent revenue tripled its revenue, from $7 million to more than $20 million.<ref>Turbulent tripled its revenue during the pandemic, lebetatesteur.ca, June 23, 2022</ref>
References
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