Chris Roberts was born on May 27, 1968. He is a British-American video game designer, programmer, film producer, and film director. While working at Origin Systems, he created the Wing Commander series. Since 2010, he has been working on the crowdfunded space simulator Star Citizen.

Early life

Roberts was born in Redwood City, California. His father was from Britain, and his mother was from the United States. He grew up in Manchester, England. He went to Parrs Wood High School. This was the same school that computer music composer Martin Galway attended. As a teenager, he made several video games for the BBC Micro. These games included Stryker's Run, Wizadore, and King Kong.

Career

Chris Roberts returned to the United States in 1986 to visit his parents, who had moved to Austin, Texas. In 1987, Chris joined Origin Systems. At Origin, he created a game called Times of Lore, which was released in 1988. The game's design had a big impact on other games made by Origin, including the popular Ultima series. A similar system was used in Roberts's next game for Origin, Bad Blood, which came out in 1990.

In 1990, Wing Commander was released and became very popular. Wing Commander and the games that followed it became Origin's most successful product. Roberts was not as involved in the next game, Wing Commander II, which he only helped produce. Instead, he focused on a game called Strike Commander. This game was first shown to the public at an event in 1991, but it had many delays and was not released until 1993. After this, Roberts returned to the Wing Commander series. He created the idea for a spin-off game called Wing Commander: Privateer, which his brother, Erin Roberts, produced. He was more involved in later games, Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV, where he directed the live-action scenes. Because of his work on these games, a magazine called Next Generation named him one of the "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995."

Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts's home near Austin, Texas, was named "Commander's Ranch," a reference to the Wing Commander series.

In 1996, Roberts left Origin and started a new company called Digital Anvil with Tony Zurovec and his brother, Erin Roberts. He said he was unhappy working with large teams and that Origin's parent company, Electronic Arts, did not want to fund games that were not sequels. The new company was based in Austin and worked quietly for several years. In 1997, they made a deal with Microsoft to publish their games.

Roberts wanted to make films and games with Digital Anvil. In 1999, he directed a film called Wing Commander, which starred Freddie Prinze Jr. and used visual effects from Digital Anvil. The film did not receive much success or praise.

Digital Anvil's first finished game was Starlancer, released in 2000. It received mostly positive reviews. The game was made by Digital Anvil and another company called Warthog. It was produced by the Roberts brothers and Eric Peterson. Soon after, Microsoft bought Digital Anvil and sold two of its projects, Conquest: Frontier Wars and Loose Cannon, to another company called Ubisoft. Roberts left the company after the sale, even though he had been planning to direct a game called Freelancer. He stayed with the project as a consultant for a while. Freelancer was delayed for many years and was finally released in 2003, but it had different features than originally planned.

After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts started a company called Point of No Return Entertainment, planning to make films, television, and games. However, no projects were made by this company. In 2002, he founded a film production company called Ascendant Pictures. He worked as a producer on several Hollywood films, including Edison, Timber Falls, Outlander, Who's Your Caddy?, The Big White, Ask the Dust, Lucky Number Slevin, and Lord of War. These films were mostly funded using a special rule in German tax laws, which was later changed. Roberts stopped working in film production when the money from this funding scheme ran out. In 2005, actor Kevin Costner sued Ascendant Pictures for breaking a contract on an unreleased film. The company was bought by Bigfoot Entertainment in 2010.

In 2011, Chris Roberts started a new company called Cloud Imperium Games with his wife, Sandi Roberts, and a business partner named Ortwin Freyermuth. In 2012, Cloud Imperium Games began a crowdfunding campaign to develop a space simulation game called Star Citizen. By November 2012, the campaign had raised over $6.2 million, breaking crowdfunding records. Roberts said that if they raised at least $23 million, they would not need outside funding. This goal was reached in 2013.

As of June 11, 2024, Cloud Imperium Games has raised over $700 million through crowdfunding and over $63.25 million from other investors. Another game they are working

Personal life

Chris Roberts had a long relationship with his common-law wife, Madison Peterson. Roberts and Peterson lived in a home in San Diego. They have one daughter together. Roberts' first marriage to actress Sandi Gardiner, who was born on May 24, 1980, in Adelaide, Australia, was annulled in 2005. He married Gardiner again in 2009. Roberts sold his house in Hollywood in 2007. After selling the house, he was unsure if he would stay in Los Angeles, so he rented homes for 10 years. In September 2018, he purchased a house for $4.7 million through the Roberts Family Trust in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Roberts also has a daughter named Skye Roberts with Gardiner. Skye is an actress who was born in Santa Monica.