After reporting layoffs at IllFonic stating the studio's work on the Star Marine FPS module for Star Citizen is nearly done, a follow-up on GamesIndustry.biz has word from the developer that this is not because the module is almost complete, but that they are taking development in-house. Here's the statement on the situation:

"In the early days of Star Citizen's development, we were still quite small and needed the assistance from several external studios to help us build Star Citizen's core functionality in a timely fashion," a Cloud Imperium representative told GamesIndustry.biz. "IllFonic, who had previous CryEngine experience, was one of the developers that we tapped, specifically for help on the FPS game systems and mechanics that would be inside Star Citizen."

"As Cloud Imperium Games and Foundry 42 in Europe have continued to grow, we've begun pulling in some of those external projects to reside with our internal teams. This has always been our plan and Global Production Head Erin Roberts is currently undergoing a review of all our projects in order to streamline Star Citizen so the project is more dependent on our internal development teams."

"In the case of IllFonic and Star Marine, this 'winding down' and 'transitioning' has been in progress as IllFonic's part in FPS is coming to a close. And with the increased responsibilities for Star Marine development now sitting in Frankfurt and Manchester, we can assure our backers that they'll be able to play Star Marine in the very near future."