Thread by @dsmart

**BREAKING** Foundry 42 (Squadron 42 devs) has created a new studio manager position headed by one of the guys from back in the old days.

I'm not going to name him, but he's one of the good guys, and this move makes zero sense to me.

This is pretty significant.

This is not an exec level position.

Erin Roberts (bro of Chris Roberts) is still the studio director & head of F42 who also became head of global production back in 2015 when Alex Mayberry quit amid much fanfare.

venturebeat.com/2015/07/06/sta…

This person would still report to Erin directly.

That this was an external hire, when there are several qualified people at F42 who could have been promoted from within, says a lot about what's going on over there.

In my last article, I had raised the point about how, in their 2017 financial filings, they appeared to be steering in a direction which would seem to spin off F42 (UK+GER) into its own studio, independent of CIG/RSI (being sued into oblivion by Crytek)

dereksmart.com/forums/reply/6…

F42, being the parent that's funded by CIG (current parent) to make Star Citizen and Squadron 42, would then, to some extent, be a bit immune from the fallout of the Crytek lawsuit. It makes no sense because they were still a subsidiary at the time the lawsuit was filed.

If that's the intent, all it's going to do is setup for an even longer court battle because in the US, moves like this tend to succeed until legally challenged. Then it all falls apart. That it was always part of the group of companies, makes it harder to hold up in court.

The other thing is that F42 is the largest studio of all 5 (staffed, not shells) companies. If they were working on consolidating, while trimming US ops, a studio manager makes the most sense due to the increased size.

As there have been musings about Erin's lack of "engagement", most at F42 don't quite know what his daily function is. This is fueled by the fact that BOTH projects are almost $200M over budget, 4 yrs late - and with NO end in sight.

I envision more shakeups by year end; but for several months now, the general theme has been that, Crytek lawsuit aside, something big is in the works - and it's got nothing to do with a full game release of any kind.

The "studio manager" job is precisely the same as a "studio director" job; except the latter is an exec level position.

They basically created a new position for someone who can take over Erin's day to day job, without him having to step down, thus causing a ruckus.

It's funny