Freelancer (video game)

Freelancer is a space trading and combat simulation video game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

It is a chronological sequel to Digital Anvil's Starlancer, a combat flight simulator released in 2000. The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999 and has been shown at E3, winning awards for the best game of the show, and following many production schedule mishaps and a buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, it was eventually released in March 2003.

Freelancer was to bring a persistent world with a full economy and dynamic weather system on each world, as well as thousands of players. This proved costly and time consuming, causing delays, and when Microsoft bought Digital Anvil they stripped much of the game while Chris Roberts became a creative consultant. He left four years into Freelancer, and two years before it game out.

Martin Galway was audio director.

Reception
Freelancer was not a huge commercial success, but it was memorable.

Despite its age it still has active private servers. It also has among others a Wing Commander mod.