 Hey, this is Ross Miller with The Verge. We're here at South by Southwest, and I am here with Chris Roberts. He's the mastermind behind the Wing Commander series. He just got done with the Oculus Rift panel, basically talking about how virtual reality will make space exploration in the future, in the fantasy setting, even better. So how did you get involved with the Oculus, basically the project? Well, essentially, I mean, I got involved like I think a lot of the other people have backed it. I mean, I was sort of tracking it because John Cormac was talking about VR, and he thought that this one particular prototype headset where he was working with this young kid down in California that had developed this thing, and it was really cool. And he was raving about it, and he's generally not someone that raves about something unless it's good. And so the project came out, and I'm like, this looks great. From what I was building in Star Citizen, I'm like, yeah, I absolutely want to sit in the cockpit and turn my head around and feel it and have it all be there in full stereoscopic 3D. How was it? What was it like to meet Palmer for the first time? Great. I mean, he's just so enthusiastic. I mean, he loves this stuff. I mean, I've got a lot of passion for making great games or great space games, especially. And he definitely has the same passion for VR and making this experience that is going to just be taking you to other worlds and places, which is a big thing for me. I mean, my whole career has always been about building worlds and environments and going and when I took a break and was doing movies for a while, that was all about going to different worlds. So my old company origin was we create worlds. And that's, I think, with Oculus Rift, it makes it easier to- A much more immersive world, so to speak. Yes, exactly. So it's going to be compatible with Star Citizen on day one. First question I have to ask is when is Star Citizen coming out? Well, so Star Citizen is going to come out. The final version will probably go live at the end of 2014 or the very beginning of 2015. The end of this year, there's going to be the dog fighting module where you can fly the ships that you've backed and it'll just be more deathmatch in space. It won't have the persistent universe, it won't have the story, but we'll use that to sort of balance the different ships, get the feedback from the community, what's fun, do things like maybe we'll have Oculus Rift running by then and you'll be in the cockpit. And so we're constantly going to be sort of sharing builds of components of the game during the next two years and then when we finally release it, it's sort of like we've been taking these components that we've hopefully battle tested and maybe gotten some of the kinks out and some of the bugs and hopefully the final sort of full live release will be maybe more polished and stable than it would normally be. I don't know, we'll see, it's a theory, it's the first time I'm doing it. Speaking of theories, one of the hypothetical game designs you kind of talked about on the panel was the conversation, actually we never really thought about. Like you have to focus eye gaze at a person, they know you're watching, pay attention. Is that something that's actually going to be in Star Citizen? That was actually a conversation method that I've been thinking about for quite a while because I've sort of, for me, I did a lot of things in the old Wing Commander because that's what I could do with the technology and the technology has changed so much now that I sort of feel in a 3D environment I can render like really great looking, not lifelike but pretty cinematic characters and so I want to keep you in that moment. I don't want to be cutting away, like in Wing 3 we had full motion video because that was the best way to be able to tell the story and that kind of thing. And now I want to sort of put you in the moment and I want it to be very much like it is right now. My experience talking to you is I'm looking you in the eyes talking to you and if I just sort of looked away you'd be like, hey, are you ignoring me? You're just losing points right now. Exactly. So the way I'm thinking about the conversations in Star Citizen and Squadron 42, which we'll have more of it because Squadron 42 is a single player, more Wing Commander style component of Star Citizen, is you're sort of managing a relationship with someone. So it's not so much about quizzing them about A, B, C, or D, it's sort of you're managing like a, do I like you? Or can you pay attention to? Yeah, and also, yeah, like I want to hang out with you, I think you're funny or I don't like you at all and you sort of manage that relationship and how you manage them will depend on how they fly with you and depend on how they will interact and act with you. So if you start to blow someone off or you're rude to someone several times later on, they're not going to help you if you're getting a pickle in space and they'll be like, get lost or they won't, they'll just walk past you on the corridor. Whereas if you're friendly with them, maybe there's a wingman that has a great sense of humor and has all these jokes and if you engage with that wingman and you sit down with them, you get new jokes as the game goes on. Chris, thank you so much.
 Hey, this is Ross Miller with The Verge.
 We're here at South by Southwest, and I am here with Chris Roberts.
 He's the mastermind behind the Wing Commander series.
 He just got done with the Oculus Rift panel, basically talking about how virtual reality
 will make space exploration in the future, in the fantasy setting, even better.
 So how did you get involved with the Oculus, basically the project?
 Well, essentially, I mean, I got involved like I think a lot of the other people have
 backed it.
 I mean, I was sort of tracking it because John Cormac was talking about VR, and he thought
 that this one particular prototype headset where he was working with this young kid down
 in California that had developed this thing, and it was really cool.
 And he was raving about it, and he's generally not someone that raves about something unless
 it's good.
 And so the project came out, and I'm like, this looks great.
 From what I was building in Star Citizen, I'm like, yeah, I absolutely want to sit in
 the cockpit and turn my head around and feel it and have it all be there in full stereoscopic
 3D.
 How was it?
 What was it like to meet Palmer for the first time?
 Great.
 I mean, he's just so enthusiastic.
 I mean, he loves this stuff.
 I mean, I've got a lot of passion for making great games or great space games, especially.
 And he definitely has the same passion for VR and making this experience that is going
 to just be taking you to other worlds and places, which is a big thing for me.
 I mean, my whole career has always been about building worlds and environments and going
 and when I took a break and was doing movies for a while, that was all about going to different
 worlds.
 So my old company origin was we create worlds.
 And that's, I think, with Oculus Rift, it makes it easier to-
 A much more immersive world, so to speak.
 Yes, exactly.
 So it's going to be compatible with Star Citizen on day one.
 First question I have to ask is when is Star Citizen coming out?
 Well, so Star Citizen is going to come out.
 The final version will probably go live at the end of 2014 or the very beginning of 2015.
 The end of this year, there's going to be the dog fighting module where you can fly
 the ships that you've backed and it'll just be more deathmatch in space.
 It won't have the persistent universe, it won't have the story, but we'll use that
 to sort of balance the different ships, get the feedback from the community, what's fun,
 do things like maybe we'll have Oculus Rift running by then and you'll be in the cockpit.
 And so we're constantly going to be sort of sharing builds of components of the game
 during the next two years and then when we finally release it, it's sort of like we've
 been taking these components that we've hopefully battle tested and maybe gotten some of the
 kinks out and some of the bugs and hopefully the final sort of full live release will be
 maybe more polished and stable than it would normally be.
 I don't know, we'll see, it's a theory, it's the first time I'm doing it.
 Speaking of theories, one of the hypothetical game designs you kind of talked about on the
 panel was the conversation, actually we never really thought about.
 Like you have to focus eye gaze at a person, they know you're watching, pay attention.
 Is that something that's actually going to be in Star Citizen?
 That was actually a conversation method that I've been thinking about for quite a while
 because I've sort of, for me, I did a lot of things in the old Wing Commander because
 that's what I could do with the technology and the technology has changed so much now
 that I sort of feel in a 3D environment I can render like really great looking, not
 lifelike but pretty cinematic characters and so I want to keep you in that moment.
 I don't want to be cutting away, like in Wing 3 we had full motion video because that
 was the best way to be able to tell the story and that kind of thing.
 And now I want to sort of put you in the moment and I want it to be very much like it is right
 now.
 My experience talking to you is I'm looking you in the eyes talking to you and if I just
 sort of looked away you'd be like, hey, are you ignoring me?
 You're just losing points right now.
 Exactly.
 So the way I'm thinking about the conversations in Star Citizen and Squadron 42, which we'll
 have more of it because Squadron 42 is a single player, more Wing Commander style component
 of Star Citizen, is you're sort of managing a relationship with someone.
 So it's not so much about quizzing them about A, B, C, or D, it's sort of you're
 managing like a, do I like you?
 Or can you pay attention to?
 Yeah, and also, yeah, like I want to hang out with you, I think you're funny or I don't
 like you at all and you sort of manage that relationship and how you manage them will
 depend on how they fly with you and depend on how they will interact and act with you.
 So if you start to blow someone off or you're rude to someone several times later on, they're
 not going to help you if you're getting a pickle in space and they'll be like, get lost
 or they won't, they'll just walk past you on the corridor.
 Whereas if you're friendly with them, maybe there's a wingman that has a great sense of
 humor and has all these jokes and if you engage with that wingman and you sit down with them,
 you get new jokes as the game goes on.
 Chris, thank you so much.