RPS Feature
Road To The Stars
Star Citizen this, Star Citizen that. It’s in the news significantly more often than any real space program, and it’s probably better funded at this point too. Personally, I still can’t help but question Chris Roberts’ and co’s ability to pull it off, but I’m now much less doubtful that their aspirations are sincere. I recently lobbed all the skepticism I could at each of Roberts’ claims, and he backed them up with dates, times, and plans to prove he’s not just blasting hot air into the empty blackness of our bank accounts. Look for that mammoth back-and-forth very soon. First, though, Squadron 42. The single-player story-based spin-off kind of disappeared after Star Citizen’s initial announcement, but apparently it’s benefiting from Roberts’ lightspeed jump into the Implausible Wealth Nebula just as much as its big brother. According to Roberts, it’s now just as big as anything he could’ve done working with EA to make a new Wing Commander.
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RPS Feature
Fly Me To The Moon
Star Citizen has made $8 million thanks to the contributions of generously wistful wing commanders like you. That’s so much money that, if you broke it down into individual bills and wrapped it around the Earth, you’d have wrapped $8 million around the Earth. And while Chris Roberts obviously had high hopes for his galaxy-sized baby, even he wasn’t expecting to drum up this level of interest. But Star Citizen’s not like the majority of gaming’s freshly crowdfunded crop. Somewhere way up the chain, investors are pulling a decent number of the strings. Or are they? “We’re still doing investment,” Roberts explained to RPS, “but I’m going to be a bit more picky in choosing it, and I’m getting to dictate the terms better. I’m saying, ‘You guys have to realize about making the game as good as possible. No forcing us to go public or to sell out.'” You’ll find that and tons more about the sudden explosion of space games, the future health of PC gaming, the medium’s relative maturity, and crossovers between games and film after the break.
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RPS Feature
Reaching For The Stars, Pt 2
Yesterday, we brought you Chris Roberts. Well, we didn’t bring him to you physically (sadly, he refused our requests for a kidnapping), but we presented his thoughts, brain-o-genically frozen and served on a mostly-clean sandwich tray. And now, it’s time for a second helping. This time around, Roberts and I discuss space Romans, control schemes, the potentially disingenuous aspects of crowdfunding, the future of PC gaming, and spaaaaaaaace. Going there, that is. You’ll find all that and more after the break.
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RPS Feature
Reaching For The Stars, Pt 1
During GDC Online, I find Chris Roberts situated in a plain white room – with little adorning it other than a conference table and Roberts’ PC. Given the almost ridiculous grandiosity of his plans, the sparseness of the room makes for something of an odd contrast. But soon, all of that fades into the background. Roberts runs me through a surprisingly polished demo of Star Citizen in its current state, and it’s hard not to let my imagination get away from me. The foundation’s clearly in place, and the possibilities seem endless. But this is still a game. There have to be limits. Moreover, where’s the line between pie-in-the-stars ambition and reality? So naturally, I ask. I ask about EVERYTHING. In part one, we cover why the universe is broken up into instances, Squadron 42, why Roberts doesn’t think this will become some crazy political struggle ala EVE Online, and of course, Roberts’ aspirations to a life of space crime.
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