Cloud Imperium Seems Untroubled By Crytek Lawsuit
Aidan O'Brien
Last month, CryTek filed a lawsuit against Cloud Imperium Games, the makers of Star Citizen. The lawsuit alleged that Cloud Imperium had breached the game license agreement that they signed with CryTek for use of the CryEngine. The complaints within the suit were varied, from accusing CIG of underselling the engine’s impact on the game, to using it to make a second game outside of the agreement without permission.
Yesterday, CIG responded by filing a request for dismissal. Along with the request they have provided a document detailing why they feel the CryTek suit has no merit. They specifically state that the suit should “never have been filed” and that CryTek “sacrificed legal sufficiency for loud publicity”. Ouch.
If you wish to read the document you can do so, because the internet is just like that, I guess. Two of the bigger claims are that CIG used the engine to make another game without permission, and that there was a conflict of interest at the time of negotiation. The document shows that CIG did, in fact, have permission to use it to make Squadron 42. The second claim is a conflict of interest on the part of a CIG exec, who had previously been an employee of CryTek. The document also details how the employee in question received a signed waiver from CryTek at the time, dismissing any conflict of interest.
Legal struggles between corporate entities can often get messy, but this one appears to be particularly so. Obviously I am not a lawyer, so can’t really give any insight into how this thing might go, but to a layman things are not looking that good for CryTek right now. Things have not being going well for CryTek of late, with a string of troubling developments including the non payment of staff, and layoffs. The engine market has also become very competitive, so they may be feeling the sting from that as well.
We will keep you up to date as this story unfolds.
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