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see also tristan blair and CR lore

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{{for|the founder of RSI in lore|Chris Roberts (lore)}}

[[File:Chris Roberts Press Kit 2017.jpg|thumb|Chris Roberts in January 2017]]

'''Christopher "Chris" Roberts''' is a game developer, as well as the co-founder, CEO, chief creative officer of [[StarCitizen:Cloud Imperium Games]], and the director of [[StarCitizen:Star Citizen|''Star Citizen'']] and ''[[StarCitizen:Squadron 42]].''<ref>{{Cite RSI|url=press|text=Star Citizen: Press Kit}}</ref>

== Career ==
[[File:Chris Roberts with Richard Garriott in 1988.jpg|thumb|Chris Roberts with Richard Garriott in 1988]][[File:Chris Roberts signing some of his games for a fan.jpg|thumb|Chris Roberts signing some of [[:Category:Video games by Chris Roberts|his games]] for a fan]]
He sold his first game [[StarCitizen:King Kong|''King Kong'']] at the age of 13,<ref>[https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/king-kong-chris-roberts-first-game/ King Kong – Chris Roberts First Game?] Pix's Origin Adventures, september 29 2011</ref> followed by ''[[StarCitizen:Popeye]]'', and developed 3 number one hits by the age of 20: ''[[StarCitizen:Wizadore]]'', [[StarCitizen:Match Day|''Match Day'']] and [[StarCitizen:Stryker's Run|''Stryker's Run'']].<ref name=":4">[https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featured/sgj-podcast-04-chris-freaking-roberts/ SGJ Podcast #04: Chris. Freaking. Roberts]., spacegamejunkie, 03/12/2013</ref>

In 1987, Roberts got a publishing contract with Origin Systems where he made [[StarCitizen:Times of Lore|''Times of Lore'']] and [[StarCitizen:Bad Blood|''Bad Blood'']], as contracted outside developer with an office.<ref name=":0">[https://youtu.be/xnZOGOrDZIg Around the Verse: Episode 1.62 (2015.09.24)], YouTube</ref>

In 1990, Roberts developed [[StarCitizen:Wing Commander I|''Wing Commander'']], which evolved into a [[StarCitizen:Wing Commander (series)|franchise series of game titles]], all developed and produced by Chris Roberts. This made him an official Origin Employee.<ref>[https://www.filfre.net/2017/04/from-wingleader-to-wing-commander/ From Wingleader to Wing Commander], The Digital Antiquarian, April 28, 2017</ref>

He eventually became vice president of new technology at Origin Systems, as well as executive producer for Electronic Arts after EA acquired Origin.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20011103203404/http://www.pnrfilms.com/team_c_roberts.html Roberts became vice president of new technology at Origin Systems, Inc. as well as executive producer for Electronic Arts]", Point of No Return Entertainment, archived</ref>

He left Origin to be in a smaller more focused company and group to do a small number a high quality games a year and know everyone who was walking down the corridor. He also wanted the ability to exploit universes and stories he created or other people in the company created and take them to film or tv and be small enough to react, whereas Electronic Arts which had acquired Origin didn't care about the film business.<ref>[https://download.wcnews.com/files/infoburst/show4.mp3 Wing Commander Combat Informaiton Center interview by Chris Roberts by Hadrian], 1999</ref>

He co founded [[StarCitizen:Digital Anvil]], the game development and digital effects company he founded in 1996 aged about 27 with funding from Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices. In December of 2000, Roberts sold Digital Anvil to Microsoft.<ref>[https://news.microsoft.com/2000/12/05/microsoft-to-acquire-digital-anvil/ Microsoft to Acquire Digital Anvil], Microsoft, December 5, 2000</ref> When Microsoft acquired Digital Anvil, acquiring among others the ongoing development of [[StarCitizen:Freelancer (video game)|''Freelancer'']], Chris Roberts became consultant while taking some time off to rethink what he wanted to do in the interactive entertainment field.<ref>[https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/12/05/digital-anvil-interview Digital Anvil Interview], ign.com, June 18, 2012</ref>

He then founded [[StarCitizen:Fever Pitch Studios]], which was acquired by Warthog Games en 2003.

After all this time in the gaming industry and of the opinion that it was stagnating, feeling burned out, as well as in view of the acquisitions of smaller gaming companies by larger ones, Chris Roberts decided to explore storytelling via movies.<ref name=":3">[https://youtu.be/8ej6u1h7ZEg Star Citizen Chris Roberts at BAFTA LA Januari 2015], YouTube, 21 Jan 2015</ref>

He first founded [[StarCitizen:Point of No Return Entertainment]] then he founded [[StarCitizen:Ascendant Pictures]] in March 2002.<ref>[http://www.ascendantpictures.com/about.html Ascendant Pictures: About]</ref> In 2004, Chris Roberts earned an Executive Producer credit on ''The Punisher'' and produced ''The Big White'' (Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson) and ''Lord Of War'' (Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto). In 2005, Roberts produced ''Lucky Number Slevin''. In addition, he served as Executive Producer on ''The Jacket'' (Adrien Brody and Keira Knightly) and the Robert Towne film, ''Ask The Dust'' (Colin Farrell and Selma Hayek).<ref>[http://www.ascendantpictures.com/complete.html Ascendant pictures complete]</ref><ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730932/ imdb: Chris Roberts credits]</ref> Ascendant Pictures was acquired by Bigfoot Entertainment in 2010.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110425185308/https://bigfoot.com/up-press-releases-172.php Bigfoot Entertainment Acquires Ascendant Pictures], Bigfoot Entertainment, July 6 2010, archived</ref>

He wanted to create worlds and universes he could get lost in, and was feeling that it became hard in movies, that the movie industry had changed and he wasn't getting that experience as much as he wanted to as as had in the gaming industry before. He had gotten immerse in the movie ''Avatar'', butI in the same amount of time he had played several games that had immersed him such as Uncharted and Mass Effect, with technology allowing that immersion that wasn't available before.<ref name=":3" />

In 2011, Chris Roberts founded Cloud Imperium Games with his wife [[StarCitizen:Sandi Gardiner|Sandi Roberts]], as well as business partner and international media attorney [[StarCitizen:Ortwin Freyermuth]]. He holds 75 percent of Cloud Imperium Games.<ref>"I hold 75 percent of the company. I have full board control. I have the majority of the votes on the board. The effective control of the company hasn’t changed", [https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/20/star-citizen-interview-why-chris-roberts-raised-another-46-million-to-finish-sci-fi-universe/view-all/ Star Citizen interview — Why Chris Roberts raised another $46 million to finish sci-fi universe], VentureBeat, December 20, 2018</ref> His workdayat CIG is approximately 50% content review and 50% administrative duties, with him mentioning that he takes on additional reviews on his own time.<ref>{{Cite RSI|url=https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/notes-from-bar-citizen-shenzhen-china-chris-robert|text=Notes from Bar Citizen Shenzhen, China - Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts, Tyler Witkin, and John Crewe were fielding questions|accessdate=2024-06-29}}</ref>

== Early life ==
His father was a British sociologist doing research in Guatemala<ref>[https://youtu.be/Fd8TmaZmr_Y?feature=shared Prof Bryan Roberts discusses his work with Prof David Morgan (Full interview]), ManchesterSociology, YouTube, 9 Jul 2014</ref><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bryan-Roberts Bryan Roberts publications], Researchgate</ref> at the time when Chris Roberts was about to be born. His American mother went to stay with her parents in Palo Alto, near San Francisco. He was born in nearby Redwood City on May 27 1968. When he was a couple of months old his mother took him down to Guatemala for a year until his father finished his research, then went teaching at Manchester University, which led to Chris Roberts growing up in Manchester, UK, where he met [[StarCitizen:Martin Galway]] in high school.

On the weekends he would go to his father's university which had a computer, he was fascinated about the presence of games on it and the possibility to animate things, which is how he got an interest in how to program, so he could figure out how to animate imagery.<ref>[https://youtu.be/dK-ggbdklaE Interview with Chris Roberts from 1996], YouTube</ref>

His father, noticing Chris Roberts budding interest in programming, signed him for an extra-curricular class at Manchester University. Around the age of 12, Chris Roberts began to learn BASIC. He was at the back of the class, ignoring the class and trying to program games instead.

The next year, the teacher of that class became the editor of The Micro User magazine. He remembered that Chris Roberts and his friend were in the back of the class trying to make games, so he called up and asked if he would like to write a 'game of the month' for the magazine.<ref name=":1">[https://web.archive.org/web/20140914215106/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/chris-roberts-star-citizen-profile The Stars His Destination: Chris Roberts from Origin to Star Citizen], 2014-13-09, archived</ref>

In the mid 1980's, his dad getting a tenured professorship position at the the University of Texas so the family moved to the U.S, and soon after Chris Roberts took a gap year from University and went to visit his parents for the summer.<ref name=":2">[https://paullicino.tumblr.com/post/140850063441/paul-dean-as-i-understand-you-were-born-in-the The forgotten interview with Chris Roberts] by Paul Dean, March 11, 2016</ref><ref name=":1" /> He liked the place and the weather so he stayed with his father in the US when he was 19.<ref>An interview with Chris Roberts, by David Taylor, Game Bytes magazine, 6/16/92, [https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/16847 archived on wcnews.com]</ref>

Chris Roberts was working on his own on ''Ultra Realm'', the precursor to what would become [[StarCitizen:Times of Lore|''Times of Lore'']]. When he went to a boardgame club he saw the art of local artist Denis Loubet displayed on a wall and contacted him to make art. Denis Loubet had been working with Richard Gariott since ''Akalabeth'' in 1980 and had been hired as a fulltime artist at nearby [[StarCitizen:Origin Systems]] just three weeks earlier.<ref name=":3" /> Loubet showed what he was working on to Richard Garriott and Dallas Snell at Origin, who were impressed by the work-in-progress of Chris Roberts, and they invited him to Origin’s offices to ask if he’d be interested in publishing it through them. Chris Roberts had never heard of Origin Systems or the ''Ultima'' series; he’d grown up immersed in the British gaming scene, where neither had any presence whatsoever. But he liked the people at Origin, liked the atmosphere around the place and he ended up with a publishing contract at Origin Systems.<ref name=":2" /><ref>[https://youtu.be/UPObpk1HJK4 Let's Play: Wing Commander 25th Anniversary Livestream], YouTube, 27 Sept 2015</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>[https://www.filfre.net/2017/04/from-squadron-to-wingleader/ From Squadron to Wingleader], The Digital Antiquarian, April 21, 2017</ref>

==Gameplay ==
The games Chris Roberts made were always about narrative and immersion because he felt that was missing for him, he wanted that sense of story and progression that he felt he wasn’t getting in games.<ref name=":2" />
==Trivia==

*He's a fan of science fiction, has seen ''Star Wars'' when he was 8 with his brother [[StarCitizen:Erin Roberts]], going home to build star wars spaceships out of Lego before Lego made them.<ref name=":0" />
*He was reading massive amounts of science fiction books from authors such as Heinlein, Asimov. Le Guin, Larry Niven, with The Forever War by Joe Haldeman being a big inspiration for Wing Commander.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/12grru/i_am_chris_roberts_creator_of_wing_commander/c6uxpd6/?context=3 Chris Roberts Reddit AMA comment about inspirational space settings]</ref><ref name=":0" />
*He appears on a mural in the game ''Kingdom Come: Deliverance''.<ref>[https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/kingdom-come-deliverance-1 Kingdom Come: Deliverance screenshot] by Stormkindle on Spectrum, March 11th 2018</ref><ref>[https://youtu.be/dZxEqZhqUzY How our backers become immortal], Warhorse Studios, 9 Sept 2016</ref>
*He appears as a farmer in [[StarCitizen:Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny|''Ultima V'']] where he's working on an epic called Times of Lore. Ultima V was also the first Origin game on which he was credited but his role was largely support.<ref>[https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/11157 Chris Roberts In and Around Ultima V,] WIng Commander Combat Information Center, September 8, 2011</ref>
*He's a big WWII and military history fan.<ref>"[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/12grru/i_am_chris_roberts_creator_of_wing_commander/c6v0j2u/?context=3 I'm a big WW2 and military history fan]", Chris Roberts Reddit AMA</ref>
* He has a collection of WWII model tanks and Napoleonic miniatures.<ref name=":3" />
*His favorite old school PC game is the first ''Command & Conquer''. He loved all the ''Lucas Arts Adventure'' games.<ref>[https://youtu.be/X6XTAf-bxbI Star Citizen: A Conversation With Chris Roberts], YouTube, 15 Apr 2014</ref>
*He goes to fantasy fairs dressed as a knight.<ref name=":4" />
*He has special thanks in the original ''Need For Speed'', for loaning them his cars for testing during the game's development, including a Ferrari.<ref>"[https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/8d758276-9967-4c7d-abce-4adcad6e370b For example, the featured Ferrari belongs to Chris Roberts", Road & Track new game is the anseer if you've got "the need for speed"]", 3DO Club News, Issue 4, page 6, February 1995, via archive.gamehistory.org</ref><ref>[https://www.mobygames.com/person/6555/chris-roberts/ Chris Roberts], MobyGames</ref>
*One of his favorite games is ''Galaga'', of which there is an arcade machine in CIG offfices.<ref>[https://youtu.be/cTQF2Gpgiw8?feature=shared Space Madness! The Resurgence of Space & Sci Fi Games], Trelane, YouTube, 27 oct. 2017</ref>
*Rich "T Dog" Stroberts in Wing Commander Prophecy is an anagram for Chris Roberts.<ref>"[https://x.com/banditloaf/status/1727886240681267360 Rich Strobers is an anagram for Chris Roberts.]", @banditloaf, Twitter, Nov 24, 2023</ref>

==External Links==

*[https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,6555/ Chris Roberts at MobyGames]
*[[StarCitizen:wikipedia:Chris Roberts (video game developer)|Chris Roberts on Wikipedia]]

==See also==

*[[StarCitizen:Chris Roberts quotes]]
*[[StarCitizen:Tristan Blair]]
*[[StarCitizen:Chris Roberts (lore)]]

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Developers]]
[[Category:Investors]]
[[Category:Board members]]
[[Category:Worked_at_Origin_Systems]]
[[Category:Worked_at_Digital_Anvil]]

StarCitizen:Chris Roberts - Revision history

imported>TheBookfinder: see also tristan blair and CR lore