Our friends at the Wing Commander CIC are reporting on a very interesting development regarding Chris Roberts, who for some time now has been the subject of a most interesting rumour suggesting he is aiming to make a triumphal return to the gaming world.

There has been considerable excitement and discussion on the Freelancer fansite The-Starport.net and on Reddit regarding Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games, and frankly we’re intrigued!

Both websites seem linked to Chris Roberts’ newest business endeavor. Chris Roberts’ public linkedin profile now lists his current position as “Chairman & Chief Creative Officer at Cloud Imperium” having apparently moved on from Bl!ink Media Inc.

If there is any doubt that the Cloud Imperium Games website is connected to the Cloud Imperium Chris mentions on his linkedin profile, note that the domain name was registered by Freyermuth and Associates Inc. Ortwin Freyermuth was a lawyer/producer hired by Mr. Roberts to work as legal advisor on several of Ascendant Pictures’s films. In 2007 he was listed as being on staff at Ascendant as “production counsel”.

While we’re certainly excited, we’re not entirely surprised fans have dug up some pretty cool breadcrumbs.

Click on through to read the rest; there’s a bit more information and speculation to be found there, as well as a much larger version of the image which graces this article, above.

Chris Roberts is up to something, Dragons and Dragonettes. Will it be a return to sci-fi space flight sims? Or something else?