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Crytek VS Star Citizen – Did They Switch to Lumberyard or Not?

More Updates to the Crytek vs CIG Star Citizen Lawsuit… There has been a load of confusion, speculation and downright misinformation flying around about the Case since day one BUT especially since Crytek’s Motion to Dismiss their own case. I have done a video going over that in some detail. I am not a Lawyer BUT I have read all of the legal documents available to me and I want to have a bit of a rant and explain at you for a bit. There is a link to more details and my previous Article / Video here.

Crytek are suing CIG currently for developing 2 games with 1 licence as well as using the CryEngine without fulling crediting Crytek. This has changed from what they were originally suing them to some extent as they had some parts of their case dismissed and refined others.

BUT today I wanted to look at some specifics of what Crytek has said in it’s most recent documents:

  • Did CIG Switch over the the Lumberyard Engine BECAUSE Crytek say they didn’t.
  • Crytek implying that Squadron 42 was supposed to be out by now and that’s one of the main reasons they are suing or should be allowed a dismissal without prejudice. (Just to reiterate without prejudice just means they can bring back the case to court at a later time.)
  • What’s been found in Discovery And some of the reasons why Crytek might want to pay CIG’s legal fees.

Crytek Original Suing vs Current – There were some updates to the Crytek vs CIG (Star Citizen) Lawsuit recently. Currently Crytek are trying to dismiss their own case without prejudice, asking the court for the ability to refile the case later without condition. The reason that Crytek are having to do this is because according to them in discovery they had responses from CIG that mean that it’s claims against Squadron 42 will not be ripe, implying that the game might not be coming out for a long time OR what is more likely that CIG said they don’t have a release date for it planned yet.

Crytek say they as CIG have been stating Squadron 42 was near completion and release a VS a while ago for the game that they expected SQ42 to be released around the trial or already and that their case is dependant largely on that and why they were suing.

They are arguing that they shouldn’t pay for CIG’s legal fees (with the $500k bond that Court Currently Hold that Crytek were required to pay) as they will bring the action back to court in the future. They are basically wanting to pause everything…

Now there are a lot of issues with these statement imo.

Number one being that Crytek are saying that they were suing based on the assumption that Squadron 42 was going to be released by now and that they will re-file once the game is out.

Why didn’t they sue when the game was out anyway? 

More over in the Original Complaint to the Court Crytek requests a Prayer for Relief of 

“entering a permanent injunction enjoining and restraining Defendants from continuing to possess or use the Copyrighted Work and a preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendants, and all those acting in concert or participation with Defendants, from infringing or encouraging, aiding or abetting others to infringe the Copyrighted Work “

“entering a permanent injunction enjoining and restraining Defendants from continuing to possess or use the Copyrighted Work and a preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendants, and all those acting in concert or participation with Defendants, from infringing or encouraging, aiding or abetting others to infringe the Copyrighted Work “

They later go on to say in later documents that “Crytek is fairness driven, not money driven, and if fairness ultimately means nothing more than stopping CIG in its tracks because monetary relief is not available, that would meet Crytek’s objectives.”

That does not sound to me like a company who was only suing because they thought SQ42 was going to be released by now… far from it, it sounds like they might of gone down the route of stiflingly or preventing it’s continued development.

Lumberyard “Quote” CIG Lied about the Lumberyard Switch?

Crytek said in their most recent documents and something that is being bound around the internet that the Switch to the Lumberyard Engine never occurred:

“at the outset of this case, CIG had publicly claimed it had switched to using the Lumberyard Engine for both Star Citizen and Squadron 42, but was forced to confirm during this litigation that no such switch had taken place. (See Crytek’s Response to CIG’s Motion). The fact that CIG denied Crytek the credits to which it was due under the parties GLA without actually switching game engines is the basis for Crytek’s “credits claim” in this case.

People online were saying that this is something that Crytek learnt in discovery and that the Lumberyard Switch has not taken place… However this is far from the truth.

The actual statement CIG made was before discovery (I’ve linked the Crytek’s Response to the Bond Motion Document) and in reference to the similarity of CryEngine and Lumberyard code… Because you know it is basically the same:

The exact statement was “Crytek makes much of the fact that the code is the same, but that is only because Crytek cashed out on the code by selling it to Amazon, making CIG’s license from Amazon possible. If Crytek did not want Amazon to take credit for the code, Crytek should not have sold the code to Amazon. Suing Amazon’s licensees is not the solution.”

That statement does not state that the change to lumberyard never took place… Crytek is misrepresenting it.

CIG have stated they have moved over to the Lumberyard Engine and Developing their Own tools and code as well for it… I believe that to be true!

Crytek were certainly not referencing anything they discovered in discovery… if they had THEY WOULD CONTINUE TO SUE NOW! 

The other thing is that Crytek don’t have to Re-file, they could get it dismissed and not refile and not be liable for any of Star Citizen’s Legal Fees.

It’s my understanding that this is just posturing for a better settlement, to fix deficiencies in Crytek’s case and to get into a better position if they don’t want to sue.

They could say, look CIG changed the code enough and released Squadron 42 as part of the Star Citizen Launcher…

That was the other point being made, Squadron 42 under the GLA for Crytek should not of been marketed or developed as a standalone game. In my opinion SQ42 has been sold as a standalone game… as you could buy it separately from a PU package simple HOWEVER assuming Star Citizen has moved over to the lumberyard engine then they can probably do whatever they please under their license with Amazon… It’s not a concern of Crytek what the do outside of the CryEngine.

They are arguing that they are effectively they shouldn’t have to pay CIGs fees and that they should be able to pause the litigation and it looks to me there are some contradictions in what they are currently arguing.

It is Crytek’s lawyers jobs to get their clients in the best possible position and that is what they are trying to do here. I wouldn’t attribute malice towards any of Crytek’s Staff, I quite like Hunt Showdown, it’s a good game.

If you think this Lawsuit is a cash grab then welcome to the world of contracts, it’s not a moral obligation a contract exists at least in this situation to help measure damages and prevent actions in the case of a breach… it’s mostly about getting money from the other party. Crytek are saying that continuing with discovery now would be costly to both companies BUT it does appear that Crytek are seeking a protective order or delay to depositions of their CEO and corporate designees that CIG have requested… which I found interesting.

This is not to say that Crytek haven’t been wronged in some way… I don’t know.

I don’t know for sure if all the code in SC and SQ42 is 100% Lumberyard and new code or if there is an errant string of CryEngine Code that CIG shouldn’t really be using without crediting Crytek now.

The only thing that looks like Crytek have found in discovery is that Squadron 42 potentially doesn’t have a release date yet and that CIG are unsure if it’s going to have SC access with SQ42 packages or if it’s going to be part of the same game launcher.

Has this lawsuit caused Squadron 42 to take longer to come out or slow development… maybe? Even if it’s minor it’s got to have been a drain on someones day. Is SQ42 being delayed specifically because of the lawsuit for some sneaky legal reason UNLIKELY at best

Will Crytek have their no Case Dismissed without conditions? Unlikely in my opinion, I would expect them to have to pay CIG’s legal costs and to have a couple of points dismissed.

And you need to remember that Crytek has already had a major part of their case dismissed by the court with their colorful interpretation of the GLA saying they believed it to mean that Star Citizen had to use the CryEngine and couldn’t move engine… now they are saying they never moved engine and implying they have somehow proved that.

CIG clearly want to have the case dismissed permanently or with a load of conditions AND it doesn’t seem they have found common ground yet to make a settlement BUT at least they are having settlement talks. It’s possible the trial will instead get pushed back to the 13th of October 2020 BUT it looks more likely some form of dismissal will happen.