Wing Commander to get a multi-player successor

Bit Tech spreads word that Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts returns to the games industry after taking a 12 years leave. Roberts is currently working on "Star Citizen", a big budget hardware-heave space simulator for the PC. that promises to deliver a much more immersive experience than the Wind Commander series.

The project is seeking between $2 million and $4 million in crowdfunding via his new company, Cloud Imperium Games, and has currently raised over $120,000. Star Citizen is anticipated to be released in 2014, it will deliver a monetisation model similar to Guild Wars, gamers buy the game and then play online for free.

Star Citizen will set out to tax modern PC gaming rigs and Roberts intends to bring back a hardware-challenging mentality to the PC gaming scene and to help bring back the space sim genre.

'The traditional publishers don't believe in PC or Space Sims. Venture Capitalists only want to back mobile or social gaming startups. I say they're wrong,' says Roberts on Star Citizen's crowd funding page. 'I say that there is a large audience of PC gamers that want sophisticated games built for their platform.'

In terms of funding, Roberts is seeking between $2m-$4m through crowdfunding which his new company, Cloud Imperium Games, is handling directly as opposed to going through a platform like Kickstarter. The project has already raised more than $120,000.