People often forget that this is a not a new situation for Chris Roberts, his last game had more or less the same story: after a great but relatively classic game in Starlancer, he set out to make Freelancer, with grandiose claims and everything ever will be in it in a global universe. After years of development with no game in sight his studio ran out of money, was bought by Microsoft and the game was streamlined and released with a lot of features cut. As a (slightly obsessed) fan of the genre Freelancer has the aura of a "great" game, but in truth it was not top of its line, but good space game were already very rare back then and it touched a lot more people.

> The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999, and following many production schedule mishaps and a buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, it was eventually released in March 2003.

> Originally, Roberts promised features such as automated flight maneuvers, dynamic economies, and a multiplayer mode that could host thousands of players, but diminished versions of these features were implemented in the final release. The game's initial technical demos impressed reviewers, but after the Microsoft buyout and Roberts' departure from Digital Anvil, critics had doubts about the game. Reviewers judged the final product technically good but failing to fulfill their initial expectations.

Personally I hope SC will succeed, but I backed for the solo campaign (squadron 42) with lot of nostalgia for wing commander and Starlancer, and I have absolutely no hopes of the promises holding for the multiplayer, never had. In the meantime Elite 4 with all its own flaws scratched my itch for multiplayer (I would have loved for that one to be more solo like First Encounter).

Note that the game draws extreme and usually critics are very aggressive, and defenders of the game as well, I merely wants to point out the parallel to the last time Roberts did this.