Smart Offers $1M to Investigate, RSI Responds to Concerns

Derek Smart is not mincing words when it comes to Star Citizen and his contention that Roberts Space Industry is conducting shady business. He has written several blogs, participated in interviews and been the subject of countless forum threads around the game space. Today he has written another article which, at first glance, might appear to be more of the same. However, he is serious in getting to the bottom of what he believes is going on to the tune of one million dollars out of his pocket.

Smart is calling for a forensic accountant and an executive producer to get to the bottom of all of his allegations one way or another.

Give backers the opportunity to hire an independent forensics accountant, and an executive producer, to audit the company records, and give an accurate picture of the financial health of the company, and it’s ability to complete, and deliver this project in a timely fashion. I hereby offer to foot the entire costs of this effort. And I will put up to $1m of my own money, in an escrow account of an attorney’s choosing, to be used as-needed for this exercise. I will pay this price to prove that I had every right to seek these answers. So this money can either go toward a good cause (righting this ship), or to attorneys who are most likely to burn it all down anyway.

You can read Smart's latest post on his personal blog.

Polygon also has a short article that reveals the first smatterings of response from RSI to the issues raised by Derek Smart. Community Director Ben Lesnick was interviewed by a German site about Star Citizen and, for the first time since the war of words began, issued a few statements addressing player concerns:

"I keep going back to the John F. Kennedy moon quote, that we're going to go to the moon... not because this is easy, but because it is hard. That's Star Citizen. We're not as important as the moon shot, but we're here to meet that challenge. We're here to do something incredible. We reached out to the community because they are the ones that would understand what a publisher wouldn't. And I think that stands today. You're going to see incredible progress in the next few weeks. It's going to be good. But none of that criticism worries me because it's not correct."

Check out the full article, along with a link to the German site at the link above.