Today Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games announced that it’ll soon open a new location in Manchester, UK.
According to the press release, Cloud Imperium currently employs over 700 people worldwide with 400 based at the current UK studio in Wilmslow, Cheshire.
Said Wilmslow team will relocate to the newly opened headquarters at the heart of the Enterprise City district in Manchester Goods Yard.
We hear that the company is committed to growing the Manchester studio to “serve as a pivotal team for its large-scale game plans.” Local recruitment to that end will start in early 2022.
The press release also included a comment from creative director Chris Roberts:
“Manchester is where I started my video game career, when I was hired to write the Game of the Month for BBC Micro User, back in 1983 at the ripe age of 14, so it makes me very happy to announce that we have signed a long-term deal for our biggest office yet, in downtown Manchester.
Manchester is one of the most vibrant and modern cities in Europe, with strong education links and high connectivity, offering outstanding opportunities and quality of life for our team. The new Enterprise City space is the perfect home for game development, with its deep investment in businesses focused on media, technology and creativity.
Manchester joins Los Angeles, Austin, and Frankfurt as home to Cloud Imperium’s team, working in partnership with our community of players on Star Citizen and Squadron 42.”
We also hear from Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester:
“Greater Manchester is an ambitious tech hub and has become a magnet for digital talent, with a community of industry pioneers, specialist academics and creative minds. We look forward to welcoming Cloud Imperium Games to the city-region in 2022 – in a move set to bring 1,000 jobs over the next five years, along with the opportunity for the region to play a new role in the future of gaming.”
In other Star Citizen news, the crowdfunding total has recently passed $396 million and it’s currently sitting on $
396,885,031.
The number of registered accounts is now over 3.3 million, and it’s at 3,327,502 at the moment of this writing.
As usual, you should keep in mind that it’s known that not all of them are paying players. The number includes free accounts created for a variety of reasons, including Free Fly events like the one happening next week.
Recently, we got an extensive look at what’s coming to Star Citizen with several panels hosted at CitizenCon.
If you’re wondering whether the game is actually fun to play, this is a good place to start. The online persistent universe has now reached version alpha 3.14, while a star-studded single-player campaign titled “Squadron 42” is in development.
For the sake of full disclosure, do keep in mind that the author of this article has been a Star Citizen backer since the original Kickstarter campaign several years ago.
