In a article titled “Interstellar Justice” posted on his blog, Smart Speak, yesterday morning, the controversial and often outspoken game developer, Derek Smart, wrote he has had “enough of the bullshit that is the “vaporware” (aka Star Citizen)” and lists demands of Chris Roberts which include his resignation.
Prior to this, Mr. Smart had posted two articles on his blog criticizing Chris Roberts’ new game, Star Citizen, calling it “a crowd-funding failure, and an unmitigated disaster” because “this game, as has been pitched, will never get made. Ever.”
These and other comments drew flak from a large portion of the Roberts Space Industries (RSI) backers who felt Mr. Smart was trying to publicize his own game, Line of Defense, which is similar in scope and nature to Chris Roberts’ flagship space simulation, though lacking the funds and community size that Star Citizen has. They also accused Mr. Smart of defamatory comments towards Star Citizen. The developers issued an unprompted refund of his Kickstarter donation stating a violation of their ToS, something Derek Smart claims is unwarranted and unjust.
He is now asking for “full accountability” in lieu of legal action in which Chris Roberts concurs with Mr. Smart’s “choices”, even offering up $1 million dollars of his own money to complete an independent audit of the company.
- You, and your wife, Sandra Roberts (aka Sandi Gardiner), should resign, effective immediately, and relinquish control of this company to an interim CEO.
- Using the same rules you used to refund my pledge, without my asking, you are to immediately process refunds in the amount of $2,134,374 as per the initial Kickstarter crowd-funding effort for those who request it. Those who want to wait to see the end (my instinct, from what I know now, is telling me that the end is looking a lot like a catastrophic total loss of this project), and funded to the tune of $83m on your website, are welcome to do that.
- Give backers the opportunity to hire an independent forensics accountant, and an executive producer, to audit the company records, and give an accurate picture of the financial health of the company, and it’s ability to complete, and deliver this project in a timely fashion. I hereby offer to foot the entire costs of this effort. And I will put up to $1m of my own money, in an escrow account of an attorney’s choosing, to be used as-needed for this exercise. I will pay this price to prove that I had every right to seek these answers. So this money can either go toward a good cause (righting this ship), or to attorneys who are most likely to burn it all down anyway.
- If you ignore this, the more time passes, the more articles that myself, and investigative media write, revealing what we know, the more likely it is that this will end in legal (someone suing someone, and opening the flood gates) action, thereby forcing you all to come to court and answer these questions.
Chris Roberts has yet to respond.