The team at Rock, Paper, Shotgun has turned out an excellent interview with Chris Roberts that asks the big question… what happens next? Check it out to hear Chris’ thoughts on the next steps for Star Citizen, crowdfunding and the state of games in 2013. Here’s a sample:
RPS: So crowdfunding obviously went even better than you’d hoped. What happens now – especially since you’re working with a number of investors and other third-parties?
Chris Roberts: It’s actually funny. Everyone I lined up is basically over the moon. Your big risk as an investor is, “I’m backing this thing. Does anyone really want it?” At this point there’s no question that people want it, and maybe a lot more than anyone was expecting. But the actual nice thing about it is that’s allowing me to take less investment, because we’ve done so well. We’re still doing investment, but I’m going to be a bit more picky in choosing it, and I’m getting to dictate the terms better.
Whether it’s a publisher or an investor, they’re about making a profit and a return. I care about making a great game. The bad situation we’d be in, if I hadn’t done the crowdfunding and I had to get a bunch of money from a VC, first of all they would get a bigger chunk of the company. Then they’re more about, “Hey, I need my return.” If it were successful they’d be pushing us to sell to EA or something. We may not want to sell – we’d want to keep it private and be like Valve and keep doing our own thing. Read the complete interview.
And remember, Thursday morning at 9 AM PST (GMT -8) the Citizen Card shipping forms go down. So lock in any upgrades or changes you’re going to need, this is your absolute last chance!