The near vapourware project Star Citizen from Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) could be in trouble as German game publisher Crytek is suing the developer for breaching its contract and infringing on its copyright.
Initially, CIG and Crytek had been working together on the development of Star Citizen with CIG using Crytek's CryEngine to develop the game. CIG also worked with Crytek to help along with marketing and a few other bits and pieces here and there. As Kotaku puts it the relationship between the two went sour as Crytek began to lose money and staff left to join CIG's Frankfurt office instead. Then CIG switched from CryEngine to Amazon's Lumberyard, an engine based off the same tech found in CryEngine after Amazon bought the technology to save a faltering Crytek.
Because CIG made the switch to Lumberyard, Crytek is wheeling out a lawsuit against them. The lawsuit, filed in California, claims that CIG "promised, among other things, (i) to use the CryEngine game development platform exclusively and to promote that platform within the video game, (ii) to collaborate with Crytek on CryEngine development and (iii)( to take a number of steps to ensure that Crytek's intellecutal property was protected."
The lawsuit also states that "[CIG] utterly failed to follow through on those promises, and thier actions and omissions constitute breaches of contract and copyright infringement and have caused substantial harm to Crytek."
Crytek's complaint also states that CryEngine was used for another game – the upcoming standalone Squadron 42 – while CIG also failed to collaborate and in doing so shared Crytek's code with other parties in dirtect violation of confidentiallity agreements.
Currently CIG are shrugging the lawsuit off as "meritless", stating that they will "defend vigorously against" it and plan to recover any costs incurred by the lawsuit from Crytek.
What this means for Star Citizen is unclear, but if Crytek is found to be correct in its claims, CIG may have to fork over a lot of crowd-funded money to Crytek – putting the game in serious jeopardy.
Star Citizen release date rumours and news: Project could be in Jeopardy as Crytek sues CIG
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