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Continue reading “Star Citizen Lawsuit Comes To A Settlement”
Tag: Chris Roberts
Star Citizen Threatens Lawsuit Against Escapist Magazine
If you haven’t been paying attention to the ongoing drama surrounding Star Citizen, the public spat between Chris Roberts and Derek Smart has expanded to include a very critical article published, and subsequently backed up by, The Escapist. The article alleged discriminatory practices at CIG against racial minorities, enforced by Roberts’ own wife, that Roberts himself would routinely insult and demean employees, and that the company was “bleeding money and employees.”
Chris Roberts responded to the article by, naturally, blaming Derek Smart, and taking the time to dig up dirt on the article’s author to engage in personal attacks.
I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up.
Derek Smart’s name, despite having no part in the creation of the Escapist’s article, comes up more than 20 times in Roberts’ response. Roberts also pulls from other unrelated events, including Gamergate, Randi Harper, and Brianna Wu.
In an update posted to the response page, Cloud Imperium Games has made it public that they intend to take legal action against The Escapist, maintaining the claim that the article was a conspiracy between the author and Derek Smart. CIG has demanded a public apology from The Escapist, as well as an apology to their HR department and an investigation into how the article was approved. Otherwise the developer intends to take legal action.
Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.
As noted in the letter, anything expressed should not be construed as a complete statement of the facts.
(Source: Star Citizen)
Derek Smart Enlists Law Firm, Threatens Lawsuit
If you haven’t been keeping up with the kerfuffle between Derek Smart and Chris Roberts, it goes as follows: Derek Smart has been a very vocal critic of Star Citizen and Chris Roberts, over the fact that the game’s funding has grown to a massive level and over Smart’s belief that the growing scope of the game cannot be realized and will not be released. Cloud Imperium Games responded to Smart’s blog posts by unilaterally refunding his Kickstarter pledge and banning his game account, despite Smart not actually posting his criticism on the Star Citizen website. CIG then accused Smart of using Star Citizen to promote his own game, Line of Defense.
Since then, Derek Smart has been amassing what appears to be a small encyclopedia of evidence against Cloud Imperium Gaming, building up to what may become a class action lawsuit on behalf of backers regretting their purchase who are unable to get a refund through the official channels. This, presumably, in addition to a defamation lawsuit hinted at by Smart regarding public statements made by CIG against Smart when refunding his pledge.
Smart is encouraging people to get in contact not just with the Federal Trade Commission over unrefunded pledges, but to contact him as well. You can read the entirety of Derek Smart’s latest blog post here, but be warned: It’s massive and contains a lot of reference links. Clear out some time in your schedule before you sit down for a look.
(Source: Dereksmart.org)
Ben Lesnick Addresses Recent Criticisms Of Star Citizen
Ben Lesnick (not Chris Roberts) of Cloud Imperium Games has posted a very long and detailed Q&A session on the official Star Citizen forums in an effort to improve communication and dispel recent criticism. The response is at least partially due to the wide coverage last week of a heavily critical piece posted by Derek Smart, in which the veteran developer stated that Star Citizen “as has been pitched, will never get made. Ever.”
The post is long and covers a wide array of topics including the delay of Star Marine, the first person shooter module, as well as allegations of wasted time/money, long delays on features, and lack of communication with the community.
“I will continue to push my folks to their limits to communicate with you and we will always try to improve… but if you’re someone who honestly believes development is behind an impassable wall, you’re incorrect. Between AtV, RtV, the monthly report, weekly Star Marine reports, Jump Point articles, Meet the Devs, Bug Smashers, 10 for… we’re putting an insane amount of content out there. And we’ll keep doing more, to the best of our abilities!”
If you have some time, head on over to the forums (link below) and give the Q&A a read.
(Source: Star Citizen)
Derek Smart Slams Star Citizen
Derek Smart is an industry veteran whose work and legacy goes back two decades, with the Universal Combat and Battlecruiser line of games, and he has bad news for those eagerly awaiting Star Citizen: It’s probably going to be a total disaster. Once you get past Smart reiterating his curriculum vitae, he gets to the meat of the article:
Without disrespect to anyone, I’m just going to say it: it is my opinion that, this game, as has been pitched, will never get made. Ever.
Smart does not believe that any company capable of building the game that Roberts has pitched, especially not for less than $150 million. When the game eventually does go belly up, as the blog post states, the same media that have been reporting on the game’s funding stretch goals will be the first to vilify the developer.
The hype surrounding this project since its 2012 inception is going to guarantee that every media outlet is going to want a piece of the action, and most of that is going to be based on sheer speculation, wanton conjecture, bullshit anonymous “sources” etc., because the focus would be on vilifying Chris and crew, rather than focusing on what mistakes were made.
Star Citizen first popped up on Kickstarter back in 2012 when other industry veteran Chris Roberts asked for a mere half a million to get his game off the ground and to make it look enticing to private investors. The space sim community responded by throwing a sack load of money in Roberts’ direction, $2.1 million in the Kickstarter campaign alone. Even so, with the Kickstarter campaign over and done with, the momentum of the cash flow didn’t stop. It sped up, to the tune of $84 million.
Since then, the game has become synonymous with big money, and you can say what you want about the morality of selling $2,500 singular digital ships for a game that doesn’t exist, people are still lining up to give Roberts money hand over fist. As the cash pile increased, so did the scope of the game, to the point where the the original pitch is just a blip on the current design plan.
And the more that Star Citizen has seen its vision broadened, the further behind the game gets, and the more money it seems to bring in, and the more agitated that early backers seem to be getting. After three years of development, backers have been graced with a hanger and an incomplete Arena Commander mode where players can battle with some of their ships.
You can read the entire thing at the link below, but be warned: It is a long read.
(Source: Dereksmart.org)
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