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Chris Roberts | |
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 Chris Roberts at GDC Online 2012 | |
| Born | May 27, 1968 Redwood City, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Game designer, filmmaker |
| Known for | Wing Commander Freelancer Star Citizen |
Chris Roberts (born May 27, 1968) [1] is a British-American video game designer, programmer, film producer and film director. He created the Wing Commander series while at Origin Systems and has been working on the crowdfunded space simulator Star Citizen since 2010.
Roberts was born in Redwood City, California to a British father and an American mother, and grew up in Manchester, England. [1] [2] He attended Parrs Wood High School, the same school as computer music composer Martin Galway. As a teenager, he created several video games for the BBC Micro, including Stryker's Run , Wizadore , and King Kong. [3]
Roberts returned to the United States in 1986 to visit his parents, who had settled in Austin, Texas. [1] He found a job at Origin Systems, where he created Times of Lore , published in 1988. The game's interface had a strong influence on other Origin products such as the popular Ultima series. [4] A similar game system was used in Roberts's next release for Origin, Bad Blood (1990). [5]
Wing Commander was published later in 1990 and was highly acclaimed. Wing Commander (and the franchise it spawned) soon became Origin's most successful product. Roberts wasn't as heavily involved in the sequel Wing Commander II , which he only produced. He instead concentrated on Strike Commander . First shown to the public at Summer CES 1991, the project suffered from numerous delays and was not released until 1993. He returned to Wing Commander soon after, devising the original concept for the spin-off Wing Commander: Privateer (which his brother, Erin Roberts, produced) and being more deeply involved in Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV . For these sequels, Roberts directed the live-action cinematic scenes. Roberts's major role in developing the Wing Commander games led Next Generation to name him one of their "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995". [6]
Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts's residence at the outskirts of Austin, Texas was named "Commander's Ranch", a reference to the Wing Commander series. [7]
Roberts left Origin in 1996 and founded Digital Anvil with Tony Zurovec and his brother Erin Roberts. [8] [9] He cited disillusionment with working with large development teams and Origin parent company Electronic Arts' unwillingness to give substantial funding to games that weren't sequels. [8] The fledgling studio set up shop in Austin and for several years worked quietly, inking a publishing deal with Microsoft in 1997. [9]
Roberts had stated that he desired to produce films as well as games with Digital Anvil. The 1999 feature film release of Wing Commander directed by Roberts himself, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and featuring visual effects from Digital Anvil, failed to attract either critical praise or financial success.
Digital Anvil's first finished game was Starlancer , released to a generally favorable critical reception in 2000. [10] Developed jointly between Warthog and Digital Anvil, the game was produced by the Roberts brothers, and Eric Peterson. The company was acquired by Microsoft soon after, who sold two of Digital Anvil's projects, Conquest: Frontier Wars led by Eric Peterson, and Loose Cannon led by Tony Zurovec to Ubisoft. Roberts left the company after the acquisition, abandoning the director position of his ambitious project Freelancer , although he remained with the game in a consulting role for a while. The game was commonly regarded as vaporware due to its promised release date of 2001; however, it was eventually released in 2003 with a markedly different feature set than the initial plans. [11] [12]
After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts founded Point of No Return Entertainment, planning to produce films, television and games. However, no projects materialized from Point of No Return. Roberts founded Ascendant Pictures in 2002 and served as a producer for a number of Hollywood productions including Edison , Timber Falls , Outlander , Who's Your Caddy? , The Big White , Ask the Dust , Lucky Number Slevin and Lord of War , which were almost entirely financed by a loophole in the German tax laws that was finally closed in 2006. Roberts' activities as a film producer ended with the depletion of the funds raised by this controversial financing scheme. [13] [14] In 2005, actor Kevin Costner sued Ascendant Pictures for breach of contract on an unreleased film. [15] The company was acquired by Bigfoot Entertainment in 2010. [16]
In 2011, Chris Roberts founded Cloud Imperium Games with his wife Sandi Roberts, as well as business partner and long-time international media attorney Ortwin Freyermuth, to work on a new game. In October 2012, Cloud Imperium Games launched a crowdfunding campaign on their website to produce a space simulation game, Star Citizen , and later added a Kickstarter campaign in conjunction. By November 2012, they had earned US$6,238,563, surpassing all stretch goals set for the campaigns, and breaking video game industry crowdfunding records. [17] Chris Roberts had stated that if at least $23 million could be raised over the course of the crowdfunding campaign, no outside investors' or developers' funding would be required. This goal was reached October 18, 2013. [18]
As of June 11, 2024, Cloud Imperium Games has raised over US$700 million in crowdfunding and over $63.25 million in external investments. [19] Cloud Imperium Games' other title in development, Squadron 42, a single-player campaign set in the Star Citizen universe, is still in development with an estimated release date of 2026, having been feature-complete and in the polish phase since 2024 [20]
| Name | Year | Credited With | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| King Kong | 1983 | designer [23] | BBC Micro User |
| Match Day | 1985 | designer (BBC Micro port) [24] | Ocean Software |
| Wizadore | 1985 | designer | Imagine Software |
| Stryker's Run | 1986 | designer, programmer, artist | Superior Software |
| Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny | 1988 | designer [25] [26] | Origin Systems |
| Times of Lore | 1988 | director, designer, writer, programmer, tester | Origin Systems |
| Bad Blood | 1990 | director, designer, programmer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander | 1990 | director, lead designer, producer, programmer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander: The Secret Missions | 1990 | producer, programmer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2: Crusade | 1991 | producer, programmer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi | 1991 | producer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi: Special Operations 1 | 1991 | creative director | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi: Special Operations 2 | 1992 | creative director | Origin Systems |
| Strike Commander | 1993 | director, producer, artist, programmer | Origin Systems |
| Strike Commander: Tactical Operations | 1993 | producer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander: Privateer | 1993 | executive producer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander: Armada | 1994 | producer | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger | 1994 | director, producer, writer, actor | Origin Systems |
| Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom | 1996 | director, executive producer | Electronic Arts |
| Starlancer | 2000 | executive producer | Microsoft |
| Conquest: Frontier Wars | 2001 | producer, writer | Ubisoft |
| Freelancer | 2003 | original concept | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Star Citizen | TBA | director | Cloud Imperium Games |
| Squadron 42 | TBA | director | Cloud Imperium Games |
| Name | Year | Credited With | Distributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wing Commander | 1999 | director, actor | 20th Century Fox |
| The Punisher | 2004 | executive producer | Lions Gate Entertainment |
| The Jacket | 2005 | executive producer | Warner Independent Pictures |
| The Big White | 2005 | producer | Momentum Pictures |
| Lord of War | 2005 | producer | Lionsgate Films |
| Ask the Dust | 2006 | executive producer | Paramount Classics |
| Lucky Number Slevin | 2006 | producer | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Who's Your Caddy? | 2007 | executive producer | The Weinstein Company |
| Outlander | 2008 | producer | The Weinstein Company |
| Black Water Transit | 2009 | executive producer [27] | Capitol Films |
Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games, such as the Ultima and Wing Commander series. The company was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1992.
Wing Commander is a media franchise consisting of space combat simulation video games from Origin Systems, Inc., an animated television series, a feature film, a collectible card game, a series of novels, and action figures. The franchise originated in 1990 with the release of video game Wing Commander.
Martin Galway is one of the best known composers of chiptune video game music for the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. His works include Rambo: First Blood Part II, Comic Bakery and Wizball's scores, as well as the music used in the loader for the C64 version of Arkanoid.
Digital Anvil, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas owned by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). It was founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and Erin Roberts along with Tony Zurovec, Marten Davies, Craig Cox, John Miles, Eric Peterson and Robert Rodriguez, creators of the Wing Commander franchise from Origin Systems.
Wing Commander is a 1999 science fiction film loosely based on the video game series of the same name. It was directed by Chris Roberts, the creator of the game series, and stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, Saffron Burrows, Tchéky Karyo, Jürgen Prochnow, David Suchet, and David Warner.
Freelancer is a space trading and combat simulation video game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is a chronological sequel to Digital Anvil's Starlancer, a combat flight simulator released in 2000. The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999, and following many production schedule mishaps and a buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, it was eventually released in March 2003.
Crusader: No Remorse is an action game developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts. It was first released in 1995 for MS-DOS, with the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports following in 1997. Set in a dystopian future 22nd century, the game centers on The Captain, a special ops officer and supersoldier, who defects from the tyrannical world government, the World Economic Consortium (WEC), and joins the Resistance rebels.
Strike Commander is a combat flight simulation video game designed by Chris Roberts and released by Origin Systems for the PC DOS in 1993. Its 3D graphics-engine used both gouraud shading and texture-mapping on both aircraft-models and terrain, an impressive feat at the time. Significant plot elements were presented through in-game cut-scene animations, a hallmark storytelling vehicle from Chris Robert's previous Wing Commander games. Strike Commander has been called "Privateer on Earth", due to the mercenary role-playing in the game.
Wing Commander is the first game in Chris Roberts' space flight simulation Wing Commander franchise by Origin Systems. The game was first released for MS-DOS on September 26, 1990, and was later ported to the Amiga, CD32 (256-color), Sega CD and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and re-released for the PC as Wing Commander I in 1994. An enhanced remake Super Wing Commander was made for the 3DO in 1994, and later ported to the Macintosh.
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger is the third main game in Chris Roberts' Wing Commander science fiction space combat simulation video game series, developed and released by Origin Systems in December 1994. It was a departure from previous games in the series in that it uses extensive live action full-motion video to add an interactive movie-style presentation to the space combat gameplay, emphasized by its advertising slogan, "Don't watch the game, play the movie!". The game's more than two hours of video featured a number of prominent movie stars including Mark Hamill as Colonel Christopher "Maverick" Blair, Malcolm McDowell as Admiral Tolwyn, John Rhys-Davies as James "Paladin" Taggart and Thrakhath nar Kiranka, and Tom Wilson as Todd "Maniac" Marshall.
Wing Commander: Prophecy is the fifth installment in the Wing Commander science fiction space combat simulator franchise of computer games. The game was released in 1997 for Windows, produced by Origin Systems and distributed by Electronic Arts. In 2003, a Game Boy Advance conversion with added multiplayer was produced by Italy-based Raylight Studios and distributed by Destination Software.
A space flight simulation is a genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight to varying degrees of realism. Common mechanics include space exploration, space trade and space combat.
Video game development has typically been funded by large publishing companies or are alternatively paid for mostly by the developers themselves as independent titles. Other funding may come from government incentives or from private funding.
Star Citizen is an in-development multiplayer, space trading and combat simulation game. The game is being developed and published by Cloud Imperium Games for Windows. An extended retry of unrealized plans for Freelancer, Star Citizen is led by director Chris Roberts. The game was announced via a private crowdfunding page in September 2012, followed on October 18, 2012 by a successful Kickstarter campaign which drew over US$2 million. Pre-production of the game began in 2010, with production starting in 2011.
Firesprite is a British video game developer formed in 2012 by former members of Studio Liverpool based in Liverpool. In September 2021, Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired the company, making them a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios.
Ortwin Sam Schneider-Freyermuth is a German American video game executive, entertainment lawyer and film producer. He currently holds the position of co-founder, vice-chairman and general counsel of Cloud Imperium Games. He is also known for having been the CEO of film production company Capella Films and for producing the 1997 director's cut version of Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot.
Amazon Lumberyard is a now-superseded freeware cross-platform game engine developed by Amazon and based on CryEngine, which was licensed from Crytek in 2015. In July 2021, Amazon and the Linux Foundation announced that parts of the engine would be used to create a new open source game engine called Open 3D Engine, which would replace it. A new Open 3D Foundation, run by the Linux Foundation, will manage the new engine, which will be licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. The new engine is reportedly partially based on Lumberyard but with many parts rewritten, and is considered a new engine.
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