Chris Roberts Announces Star Citizen

Star Citizen

Star Citizen

After a long period of inactivity, legendary game developer Chris Roberts has returned to active game development by announcing a new game project revealed last week at the Game Developers Conference.  Star Citizen is a new space flight simulator revealed by Roberts with an impressive trailer.

Roberts is no stranger to the space sim genre. He is famous for having created the Wing Commander franchise, a cinematic space game turned series that broke sales records and reinvented the genre. He is also the creator of the spin-off series Privateer, a game equally as groundbreaking in its scope and open ended gameplay.

Now under development for a year, Star Citizen is planned to be a free-to-play game that need only be bought once with additional content being purchased. The gameplay will be in the same open ended vein as Privateer allowing players full freedom to explore an expansive galaxy and decide what sort of character they wish to be, such as a trader, bounty hunter or bandit. Whatever you choose, it’s been promised that the story you become a part of will be sophisticated and deeply engrossing.

Roberts has placed an enormous deal of faith in this game because he hopes it can pump life back into what he considers a stagnant gaming industry

“In recent years game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre,” Roberts said to attendees of the conference. “I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular.”

But Roberts does not expect to go through normal channels to attain funding necessary to make and market the game. Instead, he is taking advantage of the growing trend of Kickstarters and is asking for funding from the public via the official Star Citizen website. The financial goal is currently set to be between $2 million to $3 million. His reasons for choosing to rely on public funding comes down to three main things.

“For one, this route takes the traditional game publisher out of the mix and enables us to take the millions of dollars normally used by publishers for a triple-A title and plow them right back into developing the game,” Roberts said. “Secondly, using our own crowd funding mechanism allows us to reach out to our international fans, who have been devoted followers of my games in the past. Thirdly, going direct gets us much closer to our fans and allows us to focus more on the community side, create more updates for our fans and directly interact with them as we are making the game.”

No release date has been announced but it has been revealed the game will be exclusive to the PC. For more information, visit the official website for this promising game.

Jonathan Anson

Jonathan Anson

A resident of Southern California, Jonathan Anson has been a lover of games ever since his father brought home a Windows 95 computer where he was first introduced to his first games. He previously worked for The Gamer Studio before jumping ship to Gaming Illustrated where he can be found showcasing his other love: writing. He is also in the process of attempting to acquire an AA degree in Journalism from Saddleback College.
TAGS: , , , ,
  • Duder McDuderson

    It isn’t free to play. It follows the Guild Wars 2 payment model. Buy the game upfront then there will be the ability to purchase items for money in game but no monthly subscription for the multiplayer component.

    • Jonathan Anson

      We’ve gone ahead and corrected that fact in addition to fixing up some errors in the story. Thanks for letting us know.