There's always the possibility that something fails, whether it's brand new or has been in existence for a while. We have to remember that we aren't necessarily just customers buying a product; we're also backers, i.e. initial investors. With backing something in its early stages comes the risk that it fails before it's even "finished". Star Citizen will also face many monetization questions even after launch, just like any game would.
BUT, you have to consider the sheer scale and excitement behind Star Citizen. Consider its potential. With that type of potential and this sort of buzz behind something, I doubt CIG would have much trouble looking for "real" outside funding if needed. We back the game as investors, and for our contributions we get "ships" and such. If CIG really needed extra funding that couldn't be addressed by selling us more ships, I'm sure there's plenty of investors out there with "real" money that could back CIG, either as lenders or investors (getting pieces of revenue/ownership instead of ships, of course).
EDIT: And downsizing, whether true or not and happening now or later, was always going to happen. That, or they start development on a new game. They have a workforce that is well beyond what's needed to maintain a released game, even with new content being rolled out. They're staffed for initial development right now, so as things get finished, it's entirely possible that certain jobs are no longer needed.
They may be downsizing now to control costs better, and all of this could be normal, or they could be downsizing because of funding issues, but either way I have faith that CIG can and will survive, even if it means securing outside funding. Or all of this is BS, and CIG is perfectly healthy...
Who knows what's actually going on over there. While I acknowledge a level of risk in backing something this early on, I have a great deal of confidence that they're fine over there at CIG.
