Crytek accused the authors of Star Citizen in breach of contract
Another scandal at the end of the year. The German developer Crytek has sued the Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) team, which is working on the legendary cosmosim Star Citizen without five minutes.
The companies have a long history of relationships. Initially, they agreed that Star Citizen would be created on CRYENGINE. At first, the game, which has collected $173 million by crowdfunding, was developed on it.
The collaboration lasted until 2016. After Crytek started having financial problems and started losing employees, CIG announced a change in the engine. Star Citizen was transferred to Lumberyard, which is based on CRYENGINE and whose purchase most likely saved Crytek from bankruptcy in 2015.
Just the engine change is the reason for Crytek’s lawsuit against CIG. They say that the authors of Star Citizen have not fulfilled a number of their obligations. According to the German team, the developers of Kosmosim, signing the license agreement, guaranteed that:
- will use exclusively CRYENGINE;
- they will promote the engine with the help of the game;
- will collaborate with Crytek on CRYENGINE;
- will contribute to the protection of Crytek’s intellectual rights.
None of the promises were fulfilled by CIG,” the lawsuit says.
Among other things, the company is accused of disclosing confidential information about the engine and launching another project on the engine (Squadron 42), although no consent was requested for its development.
Crytek lawyers estimate the damage in the amount “exceeding $75 thousand”.
The authors of Star Citizen disagree with the accusations and are ready to defend their position.
CIG does not appear in the most beautiful light in this situation. But Crytek is suing an unreleased game that has decided to switch to a new technology, chopping the branch on which it sits. The engine (as well as its creator) already has not the best fame in the industry. Today it is difficult to find a team that has decided to make a game on CRYENGINE. It’s about both the high entry threshold and the lack of a large number of specialists in the market. The story when the engine sues the team that decided to change the technology will only scare away potential customers.
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