In June 2000, Microsoft started talks to buy Digital Anvil. Roberts admitted that his team required large sums of money, which only a huge company could provide, to continue developing
Freelancer with its "wildly ambitious" features and unpredictable schedule; the project had overshot its original development projection of three years by 18 months. Roberts trusted that Microsoft would not compromise his vision for
Freelancer, and was convinced the software giant would not attempt the takeover if it did not believe
Freelancer could sell at least 500,000 copies when released.
[39] Roberts left the company on completion of the deal, but assumed a creative
consultant role on
Freelancer until its release.
[40] Microsoft instructed Digital Anvil to scale down the ambitions of the project and focus on finishing the game based on what was possible and the team's strengths.
[13][19] Features such as the automated flight control, conversations that had different choices of responses, and sub-quests were abandoned.
[12] Despite the reductions, several reviewers believed the resultant product was still true to Roberts' vision
