I didn't find anything on Roberts consulting but here is an exerpt from CGW:
Despite the departure of Chris Roberts and acquisition by Microsoft, Digital Anvil's epic space sim is still under intense development. And scrutiny. At press time, both companies were examining the project to determine two things: how much more development time would be needed, and what would be the scope and feature set of the project. Encouragingly, Microsoft officials vowed to give Freelancer "as much time as they needed."
...and it finishes with:
Count on Freelancer to be released sometime between November 2001 and April 2002.
Computer Gaming World [posted on: Mar 07 2001 12:00:00:000AM][\i]