The verbal disputes between the developers of the space online game Star Citizen and Derek Smart seem to be escalating.
Derek Smart, developer of the Battlecruiser series, responds after: After claiming that Star Citizen would never be released in the promised form and the developer studio Cloud Imperium subsequently revoked his backer status and refunded his money – explaining that they do not want people who speak poorly about the game publicly as backers -, Smart comments again on the situation and does not hold back.
I believe I can clarify this. We refunded Mr. Smart’s package because he was using Star Citizen as a platform to gain attention as part of a campaign to promote his ‘Line of Defense’ space game. Our ToS (or in this case, the Kickstarter ToS) allows us to refund troubled users who we would rather not have interacting with the community. – Community Manager Ben Lesnick, in the official Star Citizen forum.
Derek Smart threatens Star Citizen developers
He is extremely angry that they refunded his backer amount without asking him. He believes that the developers want to silence him. He claims that they have set an army of “cranks” and “cult followers” on him, but he will not be discouraged by antisocial outsiders who were still in diapers and smeared their faces with feces while he was already earning his bread as an “internet warlord”.
On his blog, he continues that Chris Roberts and his wife Sandra should resign as CEOs of Cloud Imperium. They both know exactly what he is talking about and where this is leading. Furthermore, the company should refund the Kickstarter backers their money if they want it back. He would also give a million dollars for an independent auditor to review the company’s books and provide a statement on whether Star Citizen could actually be completed.
Alleged exposé articles are supposed to reveal the truth
If these demands are ignored, Derek Smart plans to publish further “exposé articles” about Star Citizen. He knows quite a bit. He is also aware that all of this could end up in court, but that would suit him just fine, as the truth would definitely come to light. You can read the blog article where he defends himself against CIG’s accusations in full length here: dereksmart.org.
Currently, there has been no reaction from Cloud Imperium. Presumably, they do not want to be intimidated and may take legal action. What exactly Derek Smart believes he knows and whether there is really something to his claims is unknown. Cloud Imperium itself recently responded to his accusations that Star Citizen would never appear as it was announced and stated that the game was on the right track – the shooter module would be released in three to five weeks – however, it will certainly be interesting to continue to follow this case.
