Poll Archive

Chris Roberts is one of the most recognizable names in entertainment software. At an early age, Chris became one of England's best-known game designers and by 1987 had three #1 hits in the United Kingdom: Match Day, Wiz Adore and Stryker's Run.

Prior to forming Digital Anvil, Chris Roberts was Vice President of New Technology at Origin Systems as well as executive producer for Origin's parent company, Electronic Arts. As a member of Electronic Arts' Development executive staff, he helped formulate the company's interactive movie and flight simulation strategies. Roberts' first project during his eight year tenure at Origin was Times of Lore, which hit #1 on Ingram's Best-Seller List in 1988. He followed that achievement with Bad Blood, a post-holocaust role-playing game in 1990.

His next project, Wing Commander, skyrocketed to the top of the charts, where it remains today. Chris' game designs, combined with advances in PC technology, made Wing Commander the new standard in PC games. Wing Commander created a whole new genre within the gaming world known as the "interactive movie."

In 1993 Chris released Strike Commander, a military flight combat simulator. It immediately became an international best-seller and showcased Origin's revolutionary new 3D REALSPACE graphics system, one of the most powerful 3D systems ever produced for the PC. Until Wing Commander III, Strike Commander was Electronic Arts' top selling PC game of all time, selling over 500,000 units.

Chris was instrumental in Origin's growth from a $4 million a year company to nearly $50 million in 1995. His Wing Commander product line has accounted for more than 60% of Origin's revenues for the past five years, and has generated over $110 million since its creation. To date, Wing Commander III has generated over $30 million in revenue, making it the most profitable single title in Electronic Arts' history.

On the heels of the success of the Wing Commander series, Chris decided to attempt what no other game developer had ever done: to write and direct a feature length film based on the game he created. The Wing Commander movie was released nationwide on March 12, 1999 to over 1500 theaters. Chris was developing the in-depth space trading and combat game, Freelancer, which is currently set for release in the fall of 2001.

Freelancer won rave reviews at the 1999 E3 show and won four 1999 E3.net awards. Also at the E3 2000 Freelancer got several nominations and awards. After having had to delay, and thereby having an increasingly problem of funding the devlopement of Freelancer, Chris Roberts and the other founder of Digital Anvil sold the company in late 2000 to Microsoft.

Chris left Digital Anvil at that time, though promised to keep working on Freelancer as a creative consultant.

Erin Roberts joined Origin Systems in 1988, both designing and testing products. In 1990, he took on the formidable tasks of designing and scripting the artificial intelligence (AI) for enemy pilots in the original Wing Commander. That aspect of the game was cited as one of the keys to its blockbuster success.

By 1992, Erin had worked on a number of Origin's premier products and was named associate producer for Strike Commander, one of Origin's most anticipated games at that time.

Erin moved on to serve as one of the producers for Origin's follow-up title, Privateer. Privateer went on to win international acclaim and a number of awards, going on to establish yet another franchise line for the company. Erin's experience with Privateer led him back to his native England, where he headed Electronic Arts' first European development team in Manchester.

Erin managed all of the programmers, artists, musicians and writers and began work on EA's second-most ambitious interactive movie ever, Privateer II: The Darkening. The game, which featured an all-star cast, set new technology standards with a re-vamped, faster 3D engine and more visual effects than any other game on the market.

Erin worked as producer on Starlancer, and is currently developing a XBox title, which is rumored to be a landbased squad-game.