Chris Roberts Needs A New Ortwin Freyermuth

I've covered Cloud Imperium Games and Star Citizen for quite a few years now. Out of all the figures who have left the company in the past 5 years or so the one I miss most is CIG co-founder and former legal consul Ortwin Freyermuth. The long time entertainment lawyer first worked with Chris Roberts on what I consider Roberts' most successful moving, Lord of War. That 19-year partnership ended when Freyermuth sold off his share of CIG back in the summer of 2024. Freyermuth wore a lot of hats at CIG and, in my eyes at least, some stability and a check on Roberts' worst impulses outside of game development. After reading the latest Letter from the Chairman, I think Roberts needs to find a new Ortwin Freyermuth.

I realize Roberts had to address the 800 pound gorilla in the room: the game engine. After the embarrassing stream of the Siege of Orison run-through with 4 CIG employees one could naturally wonder how an engine designed for FPS games could operate so poorly. But the subject did bring back memories of the CryTek lawsuit.

The basis for the CryTek lawsuit was CIG switching to Lumberyard and CIG creating a second game based on CryEngine 3 (Squadron 42) without a license. As late as January 2020 CIG argued in court that Squadron 42 and Star Citizen were one game as they were accessed from the same launcher. But in February 2020 the two sides came to an agreement, still largely under an NDA, bringing the lawsuit to a close with prejudice, meaning CryTek cannot sue again.

But the following paragraph from the latest Letter from the Chairman had me wondering if Roberts had violated the NDA.

In 2020 we came to agreement with Crytek that gave us a perpetual license for the branch of CryEngine we were on for all our current and future games, giving us full control over the use of Star Engine going forward, which you can appreciate is important due to the investments we have made into our technology.

Then the word "gave" induced a flashback to The Princess Bride.

I've covered CIG long enough to remember this passage from the 2020 financial analysis published on CIG's corporate website.

Capex spend in 2020 was significantly up on 2019, which in part was driven by the headcount increase, but in the year we also purchased a perpetual worldwide license for use of the CryEngine, which provides us greater flexibility in how we develop and deploy the engine within our existing and planned future business.

Perhaps if Roberts had someone like Freyermuth to run the letter against the wording wouldn't have come close to raising any red flags. Just on the face of it, Crytek didn't give CIG anything. CIG had to purchase a second license.

The section of the letter, however, that really raised eyebrows was the claim of when development on Squadron 42 began.

At CitizenCon 2024 we announced we would ship in 2026. Our plan was to release in Q4 around IAE. But much like the rest of the industry there is no way I want to launch my spiritual successor to Wing Commander, a game that has had twelve years of blood, sweat and tears invested into it (we started Squadron 42 development in 2014 as 2013 was opening studios, hiring people and getting the Hangar module out for Star Citizen) launching into the attention buzz saw of GTA6. While GTA6 isn’t launching on PC this November, pretty much all outlets and most content creators will be all over it, not leaving a lot of room for other coverage. [emphasis mine]

Is it true that development of the single player campaign really didn't begin until 2014? Or did Roberts really just make something up to avoid people thinking that Squadron 42 took longer to develop than Duke Nukem Forever? 

I ask because the date matters. The original Kickstarter campaign gave an estimated date of release of November 2014. In my opinion, not starting development on the single player campaign until 2014 meant Roberts knew that November 2014 date was made up out of thin air and not possible to achieve.

So what should I believe? That Roberts is lying now in order to avoid embarrassment? Or that the original release date was thrown out there in order to entice people to give him money because 2 years doesn't sound that far off? What's the difference if the second case is true? About $35 million, the amount collected from the launch of the Kickstarter to the end of 2013. Without that, does CIG wind up selling $1 billion in digital assets and last 14 years?

Of course, if Roberts had a trusted advisor or lawyer he could run statements past maybe he could avoid making stupid statements that raise more issues than they put to bed. But as long as Roberts continues to make statements in an effort to avoid short term embarrassment, perhaps the staff at CIG should do their best to keep Roberts away from the public. I don't see another Ortwin Freyermuth coming along anytime soon.