Cloud Imperium Games at Enterprise City

Cloud Imperium Games comes to Enterprise City

We are excited to welcome our biggest collaboration to date at Enterprise City as Cloud Imperium Games relocates its UK headquarters to Manchester Goods Yard.

Cloud Imperium Games is dedicated to delivering AAA games outside the established publisher system and is known for pushing the boundaries of game design. The independent studio was founded in 2012 and offers its community an unprecedented level of visibility and interaction with product development.

Cloud Imperium Games is developing one of the most ambitious and anticipated games, Star Citizen – a record-shattering crowd-funded title that combines classic space simulator gameplay with boundary-pushing visuals in a massively multiplayer setting with extraordinary fidelity. In addition, Cloud Imperium Games is creating a Hollywood-caliber story-driven single-player game set in Star Citizen’s sci-fi universe featuring an all-star cast of Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong and Gillian Anderson, known as Squadron 42.

In May 2022, Cloud Imperium Games’ 400-strong team will move from their current Wilmslow base to set up a new game development studio in the heart of Enterprise City. The business is committed to the videogame development industry in the UK and to growing its Manchester studio, led by COO, Carl Jones, to serve as a pivotal team for its large-scale game plans.

Chris Roberts, CEO of Cloud Imperium Games, said: “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.”

By 2023, the business will have created 700 new jobs in the metropolitan area, with this number expanding to over 1,000 in the next five years. Recruiting will begin in early 2022, with positions available for programmers, artists, animators, audio specialists, writers, designers and producers, in addition to administrative and entry-level roles. These jobs will be instrumental for the Manchester tech sector and strengthen the support Enterprise City provides for the Manchester and UK-wide tech scenes.

Michael Ingall, chief executive officer of Allied London, said: “We specifically targeted Cloud Imperium as a model business that we can support and help grow at Enterprise City. We have a unique inventory that can excel media, creative and tech businesses, and we have worked with CIG to find a real estate solution that ensures they can create an environment that supports a business case move to Manchester. CIG is one the most creative tech businesses to land in Manchester and we will help its team create a “universe” for its exceptionally talented workforce.

“CIG will be an inspiration for the smaller businesses of the Enterprise City district, in particular the start-ups on the Exchange scheme. We can’t wait to see the impact CIG will have on Manchester and the district”.

For more information on Cloud Imperium Games, visit CloudImperiumGames.com/core. For details on Star Citizen and Squadron 42, see CloudImperiumGames.com/games.