Before he spent thirteen years struggling to finish Star Citizen, Chris Roberts spent six years struggling to finish Freelancer. Digital Anvil's third-person space-sim was conceived by Roberts in the late nineties. But after blasting through both Freelancer's budget and its planned two-and-a-half-year development cycle, Digital Anvil was acquired by Microsoft. Roberts left the company shortly after the buyout—though he remained involved with Freelancer as a creative consultant.
Freelancer eventually released in 2003, more than three years later than originally planned. Its cinematic, arcade space combat was generally well liked. But the game was also criticised for being simplistic compared to other space sims—a consequence of Microsoft scaling down the project following their acquisition of Digital Anvil.
