How is Star Citizen and Squadron 42 developer Cloud Imperium Games going to test the visuals and sounds for its unreleased games? Why, with a big splashy theater room in its enormous Manchester, UK office. Or to put the studio’s own labeling in play, a “briefing room.”
This theater was put together by UK home technology company Finite Solutions, which specializes in installation of smart home and smart security, theaters for home and commercial use, and sound and lighting systems. The company boasts that the project was “three years in the making,” while the actual cost of this theater was not provided, though readers should bear in mind that it does feature high-end projection, high-end speakers, custom seating, and a space for demonstration setup for PC and (most interestingly) PlayStation 5.
A video featuring content director Jared Huckaby explains that this theater will be utilized to help CIG test its games’ visuals and sounds in a variety of aspect ratios, color setups, and stereo arrangements, as well as use it as a place to host presentations and video conference calls. “We wanted to build the ultimate review experience,” Huckaby says in the video. “We have to be able to switch on the fly between all of these different review specs. So we needed a room that could not only do that, but could be operated by a studio full of 500-600 people.”
Unsurprisingly, a lot of followers of SC and SQ42 are not terribly impressed, with plenty of snark leveraged at CIG, though there are also some people defending this room’s existence. “Build a cool office for the engineers? I’m down. Outfit a custom motion-capture studio for efficiency? Go for it. But this? Bite me, CIG. Use the money to pay your your people better,” reads one such reply. “Is this how American taxpayers feel when they get a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier instead of healthcare?” asks another.
Jared talks about CIG’s new screening room
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Longtime MMORPG gamers will know that Star Citizen was originally Kickstarted for over $2M back in 2012 with a planned launch for 2014. As of 2025, it still lingers in an incomplete but playable alpha, having raised over $800M from gamers over years of continuing crowdfunding and sales of in-game ships and other assets. It is currently the highest-crowdfunded video game ever and has endured both indefatigable loyalty from advocates and immense skepticism from critics. A co-developed single-player title, Squadron 42, has also been repeatedly delayed.