Back in December 2017, Crytek sued Cloud Imperium for violating their contract. It took some time but Cloud Imperium has finally responded to this lawsuit. Cloud Imperium has shared the full license agreement which, according to the team, eliminates virtually every claim and remedy Crytek seeks.
But let’s take things from the beginning. According to Crytek’s suit, Cloud Imperium was to develop only one game with CRYENGINE (Star Citizen) and not two (Star Citizen and Squadron 42). Moreover, Cloud Imperium broke the contract when it switched engine, and was meant to use all of Crytek’s logos everywhere.
Regarding the use of CRYENGINE for two separate games, Cloud Imperium stated that the Game License Agreement defines “the game” as both “‘Space Citizen’ and its related space fighter game ‘Squadron 42′”, with a passage allowing for name changes (Space Citizen > Star Citizen). Moreover, this term does not apply to any games made without CRYENGINE, and as we all know both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are now using the Lumberyard Engine.
Regarding the switch from CryEngine to Lumberyard, Cloud Imperium stated that the Game License Agreement says that they are given “exclusive rights to use CryEngine” and the right “to exclusively embed CryEngine in the game”. This basically means that the right was given only to them to use CRYENGINE, and not that they were only allowed to use that particular engine. As such, and given the fact that Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are no longer using the CRYENGINE, Cloud Imperium is not obliged to use any Crytek logo.
Regarding Ortwin who was employed by CRYTEK prior to becoming CIG’s attorney and co-founder, Cloud Imperium claims that Ortwin received a signed waiver from CRYTEK dismissing any conflict of interest.
Last but not least, Cloud Imperium did not provide any defense regarding the claim that confidential source code from CRYENGINE was shown on Bugsmashers and disclosed to FaceWare, and regarding the CRYENGINE bugfixes they were meant to provide CRYTEK with (up until the game’s launch).
Those interested can read the full license agreement here and Cloud Imperium’s response here.
Kudos to Reddit’s member ‘Liudeius‘ for collecting the information!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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5$ that they want AMAZON to pay more to stop harassing their clients 😀
There was an excellent summary provided by a lawyer on Reddit. It seems both Crytek and CIG have inconsistencies in their arguments. CIG circumvented quite a few contentions but Crytek still has some strong arguments / ammo.
The summary is posted below:
“Just my thoughts, chronologically.
Good lawyers.
Apparently Crytek signed a waiver accepting the negotiation by Ortwin. The allegation was just small fries anyways but it’s good that it seems to be out of the way.
On to the juicy part, the Agreement.
Preambula: Wasn’t one of the main points of Crytek that CIG split the game in two, even if they were not allowed to? According to the second sentence this is not true. The license was granted for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. So that is probably out of the way, too. But maybe the rest of the contract tells us more.
1.6: Aha, the sequels of Squadron would need a new License Agreement, since they are sequels or prequels, at least it could be argued, maybe it can be defined as DLCs? Tricky. I’d say that would be hard to argue. Also about the changing of names: That has nothing to do with the main points of Crytek. It only allowed CIG to change their name from Space Citizen to Star Citizen before we hit 500.000 players.
2.1.2: That could be a problem. Lumberyard is based on CryEngine, sure, but it is not CryEngine. But let’s see what else we find.
2.1.3: Someone said that this would include splitting the game. That’s a very free interpretation, but you have got a point. If the Squadron Sequels would be so similar to each other that splitting them would be only a marketing ploy this might be covered, but let’s hope they don’t do it like this.
2.2: The restrictions. Crytek will find their weapons here.
2.2.1 and 2.2.2.: Maybe CIG has done this, we don’t know.
2.2.4.: They are not allowed to do that? oO How do you work with an engine if you can’t reverse engineer it? Well, I didn’t work in the games industry so I don’t know, maybe someone can enlighten me.
2.4.: Whew. StarEngine anyone? Does this compete with CryEngine? Might be a hot topic. Citizens, debate it, let’s go!
2.8.1: I hope CIG have good arguments about why they didn’t do that. Anyway, that won’t bring CIG down. Could be breach of contract, could cost money.
4. Support blah blah.
5. There is a lot of money in software. But Crytek would have gotten more if they only had known how big SC will get. So I’d be salty about this.
5. It is always good to duplicate pages in contracts to irritate the other side. Little known fact about pro lawyering.
Ok, I have to go. I will continue in a few hours.
Ok second part of my thoughts:
6.1.4: The Indemnification Disclaimer is a bit confusing, since it could be read like: We can’t sue each other for damages. This is not the case. In non-legalese: The clause talks about damages not resulting from any willfull acts. Both parties can still sue for breach of contract.
7.2.: Also interesting. CIG shall not represent or assert ownership interest in the intellectual property rights. Could renaming CryEngine to StarEngine be such a case? Unlikely. What CIG did was changing a lot about the engine and signifying this with the new name. They didn’t say: CryEngine is ours now.
7.3.: The Bugfix topic. Let’s see what comes out of this. If CIG really didn’t send those fixes maybe they have a small case, but that depends on a lot of details, it does not make sense to speculate here.
8.2.: Oh no, Crytek can terminate the Agreement! What other engine will CIG be able to use on such short notice!
8.3.: All jokes aside, this is pretty complicated. The change to lumberyard brings a lot of tough legal questions with it. For example: What is the “material related” to the CryEngine? Did that become material related to Lumberyard instead?
EXHIBIT 1: Source and Objectcode? Have fun, judge.
EXHIBIT 3: Illfonic lul.
Exhibit B: The first amendment was made 2014. That is already a long time ago.
Actually, that’s it. The rest is not very important for us right now. If you have any questions hit me up. I’ll answer, even if it takes some time
Thanks for the gold by the way. Never thought I’d make money from my main profession!”
Crytek : bunch of losers.
Sad, such a potential devs.
Well most of the original devs who made the Far Cry and Crysis are long gone…. And are working over at Cloud Imperium Games.
So the ones left at Crytek haven’t made a good game since and because of that they are nothing more than just money hungry moochers.
BOOM down goes Crytek.
I highly doubt it.
You wouldn’t if you’d read the contract. It’s pretty clear that Crytek doesn’t stand a chance.
Oh, pardon me, I didnt realize you’d passed the bar and were working directly on this case, my mistake.
CR and this demo is done not only due to this lawsuit, its just the tip of the iceberg. Only an idiot would back this incompetent buffoon.
Oh tell us more about why CR and this demo are done. Please elaborate. Maybe without insults… I know you can do it.
Don’t be a tool.
Look it all up yourself, its all right there, Im not here to hold your hand or justify my opinion to zealot backers who refuse to see the truth/ facts, read between the lines, all because they’re too emotionally and financially invested in this joke project. Cognitive dissonance.
When this game goes to the bin, people will blame Crytek when the fact of the matter is CR is to blame and is an imbecile who couldnt manage his way out of a wet paper bag. History has proven that FACT already and now history is repeating itself.
I fell no mental discomfort. Don’t know where you saw cognitive dissonance in my posts. Maybe you are projecting? I was just asking a question and gave an advice. You did not answer the question but went into attack mode.
When you post with a condescending manner, that is the kind of response you’ll usually receive.
Lets try this again, Its >not< my job to lay out the mountain of BS surrounding this project. The whole entire internet is right there at your fingertips so by all means research this gong show yourself. (Read that again)
I didnt target you specifically, I used "they're" when referring to those displaying cognitive dissonance. Simple reading comprehension man, work on it. Dont be a tool.
they can’t even play their employees on time. this was their last straw. they are DONE.
Go Cloud Imperium! (unless of course they actually did screw Crytek over).
Crytek should stick to what they do best: Fake games that are more tech demos than games.
Chris Roberts should stick to what they do best: Fake games that are more tech demos than games. ZING!
You have never played Chris Roberts Wing Commander game series I hear. Sad! Its clear that Star Citizen is Wing Commander 6 but with a different name, even Mark Hamill is back! Look for Wing commander games on youtube in particular Part 3, 4, 5 and that was 20 years ago so they are older than you boy!
Id bet Im old enough to be your dad. (Shudder)
Mark Hamill, yes thats wonderful. Perhaps Mr Hamill should be directing this project as we’d probably have something worth while by now. …and I just wasnt into WC back then.
You should try them out as they have been fixed for modern PC:s. They are still great space combat games with decision making. Wing Commander 4 was the most expensive game when it was new.
Gary Oldman and that woman from X-files is in it too also I dont think Chris Roberts is plotting to kill off Mark Hamills character in Star Citizen unlike what they did in Star wars 8.
Yeah sure, maybe I will try them out after all. I’ll add them to my list.
Ive been following SC very closely right from its inception which is exactly why Im so peeved about what is IMO a bloody trainwreck of mismanagement along with an insulting level of lip service. The more they release, the more I’m disappointed and it should be the opposite. I understand game dev and its hurdles and IMO how CR is running this show is not how games are made. As much as I would love to see this game succeed, based on everything Ive read and witnessed as well as some basic gut instinct is that this particular project will not. Hope Im wrong but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Enter the armchair lawyers! And FIGHT!
The only thing that this suit is going to accomplish is that no game developer ever uses CryEngine. It will be blatantly apparent that CryTek sues it’s own customers without merit and seek monetary damages.
HA HA, Derek Smart and his goons were so salty over the reply that they were starting a support group over the weekend to get themselves to work on monday.
talk about their armchair lawyering making them look like fools.