Conflict of interest?

BrynS

Mr Kat says...
While scanning through my usual round of tech and gaming websites this evening I came across this seemingly odd remark in an article titled, "What's Killing Game Development" from the usually quite authoritative Jakub at Firingsquad (emphasis added):

Firingsquad said:
[...]
Where are the great designers?

With the exception of Will Wright, few of the any old, great designers have done much lately. Sid Meier's name is on a bunch of games, but it's not actually Sid in charge of development or design. Chris Roberts, of Wing Commander fame? Let's just say he had a conflict of interest with the Wing Commander movie and his projects at Digital Anvil, and that Microsoft's sudden, detail-free take-over of Digital Anvil has quite a few details if you scratch beneath the surface. Lord British? He's heading a studio more than dealing with development itself. Warren Spector? I can't speak with certainty, but it's likely he passed on the reigns of Deus Ex 2 to Harvey Smith for a reason. And finally, there's John Romero, who in his own way inspired this article.
[...]
Not wanting to dredge up any buried hatchets, but I really don't recall there ever being any kind of conspiracy regarding Chris Roberts departure from Digital Anvil -- the official line that he had moved on to work in the film industry would appear to hold true given his growing list of producer credits amongst others.

Perhaps I'm forgetting much of the discussion within the community at the time, its just if there was a hint of some conflict of interest or foul play leading to his departure, I thought I would have remember talking and/or reading about it. Is there any truth to this suggestion or is it likely some sort of miscontrued tidbit hanging on the grapevine for too long?

Cheers,

Bryn
 
I don't think conflict of interests is quite the right term - at least as used in the legal/buisness sense of the term. However it may be fair to suggest that his interests had shifted more to film and less to gaming. What's more, the WC movie was done long before he sold DA to Microsoft, So I really don't know where they're comming from with that one.

Were there internal politics and strugle? You can probably guarantee it. That kind of stuff seems to go along with the buisness. If they're trying to suggests he used his clout to push through the WC movie at the expense of their game development, their interpretation is a little off, because I'm fairly certain that DA was formed partly with the intent of producing effects for the WC movie.
 
Oh yeah, I'm sure there were some bones of contention and 'issues' between the various parties, but essentially I don't recall anything acrimonius or damaging spilling over into the media coverage, like certain other high-profile separations have done.

Didn't DA recycle some of their WC movie models (e.g. Confed SuperCruiser design) in Starlancer?
 
Not wanting to dredge up any buried hatchets, but I really don't recall there ever being any kind of conspiracy regarding Chris Roberts departure from Digital Anvil -- the official line that he had moved on to work in the film industry would appear to hold true given his growing list of producer credits amongst others.

I don't think this was ever covered in the press. As far as I know the 'buried hatchets' have more to do with Roberts' sale of Digital Anvil to Microsoft in late 2000 and not his later departure from the studio.
 
I looked at the article and reacquainted myself with the background to do a front page update. I'm pretty sure it is referring to Roberts' spending quite a bit of Microsoft's money to finish work on the Wing Commander movie...

I disagree with the basic premise of the article, though. The 'great' game designers are gone because game companies go through stages in how they promote them. In 1990 Origin wanted to build up some 'rock stars' - which is why everyone is familiar with Chris Roberts as the man 'behind' Wing Commander.If they hadn't, it's possible we wouldn't even worry about him in hoping for new Wing Commander games...
 
I looked at the article and reacquainted myself with the background to do a front page update. I'm pretty sure it is referring to Roberts' spending quite a bit of Microsoft's money to finish work on the Wing Commander movie...
I'm assuming that wasn't a direct transfer of some of Microsoft's investment in DA in to the movie budget, but rather the use of DA modellers, artists, etc and their time to complete the movie's visual effects?
 
I would hate to speculate too much... but the movie went significantly over budget, and that money must have come from somewhere.
 
Oh yeah, I'm sure there were some bones of contention and 'issues' between the various parties, but essentially I don't recall anything acrimonius or damaging spilling over into the media coverage, like certain other high-profile separations have done.

Didn't DA recycle some of their WC movie models (e.g. Confed SuperCruiser design) in Starlancer?

They use a fair amount of stuff from the movie in starlancer, including a nice one with Blair approaching Angel's ejection pod...
 
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