No, Star Citizen isn’t owned by a financial institution now

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The drama started, because it so typically does, with some sleuthing of the varied authorized paperwork tracked by Companies House, the UK governing physique for restricted corporations and their dealings. The latest listing for Foundry 42 there, CIG’s British studio, features a hyperlink to a PDF of their newest mortgage settlement with Coutts & Co, a extremely regarded British enterprise financial institution. Due to the advanced nature of excessive degree monetary offers, it’s virtually indecipherable, however part 23.1 makes it fairly clear what the penalties for non-payment are – Coutts and friends would primarily personal “the game.”

And that’s the place the complexities start. As defined by CIG’s co-founder and vice-chairman Ortwin Freyermuth on the forums, this collateral “specifically excludes Star Citizen” referring solely to single-player portion Squadron 42 (which is what Foundry 42 are making, for those who didn’t catch the identify hyperlink). He additionally explains that the mortgage is to cowl an advance on a tax rebate:

“Foundry 42 and its parent company Cloud Imperium Games UK Ltd. have elected to partner with Coutts, a highly regarded, very selective, and specialized UK banking institution, to obtain a regular advance against this rebate, which will allow us to avoid converting unnecessarily other currencies into GBP.  We obviously incur a significant part of our expenditures in GBP while our collections are mostly in USD and EUR.  Given today’s low interest rates versus the ongoing and uncertain currency fluctuations, this is simply a smart money management move, which we implemented upon recommendation of our financial advisors.”

He goes on to elucidate why that is nothing to fret about in the case of the chance financial institution might find yourself proudly owning all that IP and work, saying that “Per standard procedure in banking, our UK companies of course stand behind the loan and guarantee repayment which, however, given the reliability of the discounted asset (a UK Government payment) is a formality and nothing else.”

Going by this it’s one other mountain made out of Star Citizen’s long-suffering molehill. There are opposite readings of each the paperwork and the official assertion on this lengthy Reddit post, for those who’re . We’re contacting each CIG and the financial institution itself for additional clarification.