Star Citizen is far from its launch day but Cloud Imperium’s Chris Roberts has published a congratulatory letter to space sim rival David Braben and his Frontier Developments team for fully releasing Elite: Dangerous.
Roberts has been a supporter ”since day one, and am thrilled to see it become a reality.” He’ll be firing it up over the holidays, and reminds the Star Citizen community there’s no real rivalry.
In fact Braben and Roberts have openly advertised one another’s project throughout their development, wanting the PC gamer hordes to support both returns of space sims. Star Citizen isn’t an established series as Elite but it builds of Chris Roberts’ past accomplishment such as Wing Commander, Starlancer and Freelancer.
”I know that many Star Citizen backers imagine there to be an intense competition between our game and Elite, but nothing could be further from the truth. David and I promoted each other’s projects during our respective crowd funding periods because we both believe that the world is better off with more PC games and even better off with more space games,” posted Chris Roberts.
”In the nineties there was plenty of room for multiple Space Sims and there is no reason that still can’t be the case now! I’ve always maintained that we aren’t a success if we just make a game; part of the reason that I came back from film was to build a game in a genre I loved and hopefully remind people how amazing it is to lose yourself in another universe, adventuring amongst the stars.”
”So rather than be worried about Elite or No Man’s Sky, I welcome them. It’s been a long time coming but Space Sims are finally getting the love they deserve. And what’s been more amazing is that it’s been a grass roots movement. It hasn’t been driven by a big publisher seeking to pad their profits but by gamers and developers that love the genre and wanted to return to the kind of games that captured their imagination when they were younger.”
Roberts continues adding that ”each game will have a distinct feel” and so they’ll do well despite ‘competing’. ”I would encourage anyone who loves space sims to take a look at Elite: Dangerous. The team at Frontier has done incredible work, and there’s a fascinating universe for pilots to explore.”
Elite: Dangerous launched officially this week.