They're requesting an injunction, so they seem to think that this is the most money the game is going to make and they need to keep CIG from spending more of it.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Crytek sues Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium, alleging copyright infringement
- Thread starter Spongebob
- Start date
They're requesting an injunction, so they seem to think that this is the most money the game is going to make and they need to keep CIG from spending more of it.
Yeah, you'd think the person who negotiated the contract from Crytek who went on to join CIG would be aware of the requirements they had to meet.
Seems like a lot of people are playing/paying for this unreleased game,
Seems like if this is legit, Roberts has all his generous backers to thank for the legal bills. I'd be pissed if i dumped thousands into this. Only dumped 30$
This I am very interested in. Crytek seems to have some good reasons here.
Was there ever any proof they actually switched things over to Lumberyard. I thought people were finding in current builds coding that said said things were still running in CryEngine. Yet CIG were claiming otherwise? As a result removing the Cry logos, etc.
Ether way the things listed seem pretty clear and direct. Easy enough to prove as well. No statement yet from CIG?
Ether way the things listed seem pretty clear and direct. Easy enough to prove as well. No statement yet from CIG?
Lumberyard is a fork of Cryengine. Amazon paid $50 million to use it.
So names of things stay the same in the code and doesn't get renamed to reflect the new engine that is being developed?
Legacy code like that is pretty common. Easier to keep the names than risk breaking something.
Crazy stuff. I got the impression that Ortwin Freyermuth was pretty capable, so it'll be interesting to see how this develops.
Lots more in the reddit threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/7jkocy/crytek_gmbh_v_cloud_imperium_games_corp_et_al/
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/7jkufv/crytek_v_cig_complaint/
Lots more in the reddit threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/7jkocy/crytek_gmbh_v_cloud_imperium_games_corp_et_al/
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/7jkufv/crytek_v_cig_complaint/
Last edited:
I don't know what Lumberyard currently contains re: Crytek references, I think Amazon have a certain period of time before they need to replace everything with their own code? So not sure if recent Bugsmashers footage would be relevant or not, but Crytek have an issue with the code being shown on Bugsmashers prior to the Lumberyard switch anyway.
I find it surprising that everything wasn't renamed via few days of heavy find & replace use tbh, that should be within Amazon's abilities.
Literally a text string of "CryEngine warning" in the recent example, which wouldn't break anything to change, but again I don't know what Lumberyard contains in that regard.
edit: looking at the documentation there is still a lot of 'Cry' in Amazon's version.
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/latest/developerguide/system-intro.html
I find it surprising that everything wasn't renamed via few days of heavy find & replace use tbh, that should be within Amazon's abilities.
Literally a text string of "CryEngine warning" in the recent example, which wouldn't break anything to change, but again I don't know what Lumberyard contains in that regard.
edit: looking at the documentation there is still a lot of 'Cry' in Amazon's version.
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/latest/developerguide/system-intro.html
Last edited:
Merge Squad42 and MP back into a single game package.
Problem solved.
1 game. 1 license.
Problem solved.
1 game. 1 license.
Last edited:
Folks on the SC subreddit dug up a 2014 post from Erin Roberts on the SC forums, with Erin claiming that:
Adds another wrinkle to the events.
Adds another wrinkle to the events.
This is the sort of thing that will probably be addressed in CIG's answer which should be filed within 30 days. I'd be surprised if a firm like Skadden hasn't looked into this issue already
Can you sue someone for selling a game that' isnt completed yet?
It is curious how this is going to play out because between the agreement they stated they made with GLA, CiG claiming to purchase engine build and source code also deal with amazon lumberyard which is also a build of cryengine.
Post from Chris roberts:
The fact that they mentioned they were making both SC and SQ42 as distinct entities as far back as kickstarter, and the game is not finished being made yet, brings up some interesting questions. Knowing more of the details makes Cryteks claims seem like they are reaching. But I would imagine it is dependent on the terms of the original GLA and whether or not the engine/source purchase superceeds that.
Law firms, even the largest ones (and you're right that Skadden are huge), aren't actually that choosy about cases, provided that the client can pay. (And provided that it isn't some sort of contingent fee arrangement.)
Why would it be in jeopardy? At worst, Crytek will get a payout but Cloud Imperium has bank, they can handle it.
Bank, "backed" to them in good faith and with much shouting from the roofs of how the evil publisher is eliminated from the equation in their approach, for the purpose of delivering the "Best damn space sim ever" (CIGs own claim before having produced a released game). Not to majorly fuck up and settle lawsuits with it.
In this case I guess I was thinking that Crytek may not be the most financially solvent company right now, so Skadden would have really confirmed that the claims are credible before taking the case
This kind of stuff is as much a part of operating a business and making shit as paying the rent especially if you have a lot of money. People come after it, that's why they have counsel on staff.
It's not even clear as yet that they fucked up. Obviously, the opposition is going to make their side appear as angelic as possible.
Crytek requires an up-front license fee; the Star Citizen team only paid that fee for one game, but at some point changed their minds to release two separate games. They then decided to change game engines, which means they won't be putting in the logos they agreed to put in the game to get a discount on that fee.
I don't get one thing. They had agreement for one game and deal that such game could only be built in CryEngine. Since Squadon 42 is separate game and it's using different tech how would that fit into the suit? The game isn't out yet, even in alpha state, so Squadron 42 shouldn't be affected by it.
Just to be clear, that doesn't actually mean that. They could potentially keep the logos since they did part of the development in Crytek.
2012 - SQ42 and Star Citizen are one game.
2014 - CIG buyout their fork of the engine (cost would be in the millions).
2016 - CIG split SQ42 and Star Citizen into two different packages.
Why would SQ42 be part of that crytek agreement if they own their fork of Cryengine?
Maybe if Crytek got their injunction, which is doubtful at the moment.
Kotaku article: https://kotaku.com/crytek-sues-star-citizen-makers-for-breaching-contract-1821269577
CIG gave them a statement:
The statement is interesting in that one of Crytek's main claims was that they switched engines and violated the agreement. So they must have a different understanding of the GLA
CIG gave them a statement:
The statement is interesting in that one of Crytek's main claims was that they switched engines and violated the agreement. So they must have a different understanding of the GLA
Erm - not really when you're trying to market it as a different product/IP. And definitely not 3 years in.
It's hard to know who's right without the original agreement's wording.
Marketing doesn't normally matter for internally used code. No one else usually sees it.
I've never even heard of Lumberyard before this. So Amazon licensed Crytek in order to (I assume) make games in their internal games studio, but also somehow got a license from Crytek to sublicense Lumberyard to other developers without Crytek seeing any money for that? Sounds like a bad deal on Crytek's part, this lawsuit notwithstanding.
Didn't this deal save them from Bankruptcy. Maybe they had no choice.
Maaaate. About 7 years ago my company consumed a smaller one... today we still have all kinds of horrible code referencing the previous variable names/etc...
Commenting almost never gets updated.