[thexpl0r3r]

Outlets like Press Start and CGM recently posted articles claiming Star Citizen is now owned by a bank, and the developer is suffering from financial woes. This is based on a loan listed on Companies House, a United Kingdom-based registrar of companies used to share public records for companies in the country.

Star Citizen studio seeks to calm fan fears it faces financial issues
Is 'Star Citizen' In Trouble With A Loan And Owned By A Bank?

[Adhar Khorin]

It would seem to call into question the crowd funded model, if nothing else.

[Noram]

Official Statement:

We have noticed the speculations created by a posting on the website of UK’s Company House with respect to Coutt’s security for our UK Tax Rebate advance, and we would like to provide you with the following insight to help prevent some of the misinformation we have seen.

Our UK companies are entitled to a Government Game tax credit rebate which we earn every month on the Squadron 42 development. These rebates are payable by the UK Government in the fall of the next following year when we file our tax returns. 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.

The collateral granted in connection with this discounting loan is absolutely standard and pertains to our UK operation only, which develops Squadron 42. As a careful review of the security will show and contrary to some irresponsible and misleading reports, the collateral specifically excludes “Star Citizen.” The UK Government rebate entitlement, which is audited and certified by our outside auditors on a quarterly basis, is the prime collateral. 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. This security does not affect our UK companies’ ownership and control of their assets. Obviously, the UK Government will not default on its rebate obligations which will be used for repayment, and even then the UK companies have ample assets to repay the loan, even in such an eventuality which is of course unthinkable.

This should clarify the matter. Thank you.

[Dark]

It would seem to call into question the crowd funded model, if nothing else.

Not really. There's plenty of other ventures that worked fine under the crowd funded model, as well as those with the semi-crowd funded model where the developers made it known they would be seeking funding elsewhere as well.

Star Citizen has always been a questionable project, the over-ambitious scope never matched the proposed budget from day one.

[Curzon Peers]

That's not true. The ORIGINAL scope was well within the ORIGINAL budget. The problem was, once they got more money than they could have possibly imagined, scope creep ate all of it.

Of course there is one aspect of crowdfunding that is bad and pertains to this situation: there's no one to kick the producer upstairs when he continues to fail on delivering.