experienced people. Obviously it’s a little tougher now to bring people over from Europe, but we’re planning to expand in Frankfurt as well. We’re doubling our size in Frankfurt. So yeah, all studios are growing. The whole company is growing.” CIG will be moving into
it’s Enterprise City offices in the spring, after what will have been a close to three- year search for new premises. It’s been a long process of elimination, one that started close to the Wilmslow studio and steadily moved outwards and upwards into Greater and then central Manchester. “Our goal was to get more space – that was the simple target,” says Jones. “But then Chris [Roberts] wanted us to have world-class studios for our world-class developers and so we really started looking at what we could get and what we could provide. In Wilmslow there was only one location that had sufficient size, but it just didn’t have the facilities that we were looking for.” And so the search moved steadily north, and the attractions of Manchester, even in lockdown, became apparent: “Games development is a young trade. Being in a quiet leafy suburb like Wilmslow appeals to a certain group of people. But, if you’re young and getting into the industry, you want to be able to go out and have fun and have a lot of amenities on the doorstep.” With performance capture facilities close by and
other media infrastructure links dominating the area (including The Factory concert venue), the deal
“We’ve quite recently brought most of our Squadron 42 team back into our office in Winslow. The capacity is limited so we couldn’t bring everybody back, but it’s transformed the vibe and the morale of the team.”
to occupy Enterprise City was eagerly signed last summer. “It’s going to be an extraordinary site,” says Jones, looking ahead to the move later this year. “It’s just a beautiful location and it’s going to have a great vibe and a great buzz for our young staff. Also being in the centre of Manchester means that coming to the office is a little easier for a wider catchment area. So we’re hoping that it also helps our recruitment in the longer term; to hit those headcount numbers that we’re looking for.”
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM There are those that might question the wisdom of relocating to an expensive new facility in the midst of a pandemic. After all, there are many organisations that, over the course of the last two years, have expanded far beyond the point at which they can offer everyone a desk to work at, yet they are willing to take a wait- and-see approach and allow staff to work from home in the meantime. “I think the games industry is a little
Local Heroes? Manchester and the North West has long had a healthy development scene, but how integrated is CIG within the local game dev community and how does it plan to support it going forward? “Back in the 90s the whole North West was an exciting place for video games,” remembers Carl Jones. ”Still, Manchester itself doesn’t seem to be attracting companies like ourselves all that much. There’s a large number of small developers and we do what we can to be involved in that, but we’re more involved at the national level and with Manchester in terms of supporting the city, which I think is really important. Manchester now is a model 21st century city. And we’re incredibly proud to be part of that, and we’re doing what we can to support that. As a result, hopefully, we bring more people, more companies, and more games to the city.”
Star Citizen backers are able to access the game in alpha form.
January 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 21
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