This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of use.

Star Citizen'due south development process has been fraught, with marked disagreement among both developers and the gaming community over whether Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) tin really bring its incredibly ambitious product to market. I rare point of agreement among the various parties is Chris Roberts' determination to use the Crytek engine for a space sim equally complex equally Star Citizen is didn't pan out well, and the CIG team had to spend a great deal of time rewriting the game engine. Now, Crytek is suing CIG and RSI (Roberts Space Industries is the parent company of CIG) for breach of contract and unauthorized employ of Crytek assets.

In its complaint, Crytek lays out several arguments. Offset, it alleges CIG's decision to split up Star Citizen into two split up titles, Star Citizen (multi-player) and Squadron 42 (unmarried-player), meant Crytek was now owed a licensing fee on the 2nd title, as the agreement every bit written but covered one game. Crytek informed CIG it was in breach of its own agreement in February 2022, but it'south not articulate if CIG or RSI ever came to the negotiating table.

StarCitizenShip

Second, Crytek alleges CIG broke the terms of its licensing agreement by removing required trademarks and copyright notices. Ane of the terms of the license was that Crytek branding and trademarks would be prominently displayed. At commencement, RSI followed these rules, but by September 24, 2022, Crytek notes Chris Roberts was referring to CryEngine every bit "Star Engine." Shortly afterwards this, Crytek trademarks and copyright notices were removed from the game.

3rd, Crytek alleges that Section ii.1.2 of its Game License Agreement (GLA), CIG was explicitly forbidden to apply some other game engine also CryEngine to develop Star Citizen. Star Citizen'southward decision to use Lumberyard was, co-ordinate to Crytek, a breach of the previous agreement.

Fourth, Crytek alleges that CIG broke its written agreement to periodically contribute all bug fixes and optimizations it developed to Crytek itself. Crytek notified CIG it was in alienation of this aspect of its agreement on iii separate occasions in 2022, 2022, and 2022. CIG, while challenge to exist ready and willing to provide relevant optimizations and bug fixes, supposedly never did and then.

Fifth, Crytek alleges CIG shared source lawmaking with third-party developers without seeking license-mandated prior blessing from Crytek, or even informing Crytek it had done then. This breached multiple sections of the license understanding, including an understanding that tertiary-party developers could be brought in to work on the projection, provided Crytek acquiesced offset.

Crytek has requested a jury trial in this matter and claims overall amercement in excess of $75,000.

Does Crytek Take a Case?

I'chiliad not a lawyer, so I can't exactly return a verdict on this indicate, but if the language of the license is as clear as Crytek makes it sound, the company very well may. Our GameWorks investigations several years agone illustrated only how important source lawmaking access can be to game developers, and how carefully companies guard their code. Crytek claims to have given CIG a license fee well below the marketplace rate in exchange for prominent trademark and logo placement, and an exclusivity understanding. We don't know if the situation is as airtight as Crytek makes it audio, but the underlying concept seems reasonable. When Roberts announced the switch to the Lumberyard engine, he talked most it every bit a matter of adopting more than robust netcode. That may well be true, but it doesn't automatically mean CIG was free of its obligations to utilise CryEngine or that any understanding Crytek struck with Amazon would encompass Deject Imperium Games' decision to switch to Amazon'due south game engine.

In short? Information technology's complicated. CIG has weighed in on the topic, telling Polygon:

Nosotros are aware of the Crytek complaint having been filed in the United states Commune Court. CIG hasn't used the CryEngine for quite some fourth dimension since we switched to Amazon's Lumberyard. This is a meritless lawsuit that we will defend vigorously against, including recovering from Crytek any costs incurred in this matter.

One matter that leaps out in that quote is the line nearly not using CryEngine for "quite some time." According to Crytek, CIG'southward license agreement required them to use CryEngine, and only CryEngine. If Crytek's summary of the license requirements is accurate, CIG just admitted its in violation of a primal part of the GLA.

We're not saying that's the instance, to be clear. That'll be for courts to decide. It's just another interesting chapter in the development of a game that'll make for interesting reading one twenty-four hours, regardless of how well Star Citizen succeeds — or doesn't.