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Crytek sues Cloud Imperium for violating their CRYENGINE contract

DSOGaming writes: "Things are not looking good for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Crytek has sued Cloud Imperium and Roberts Space Industries for violating their contract. According to the suit, Cloud Imperium was to develop only one game with CRYENGINE (Star Citizen) and not two (Star Citizen and Squadron 42). And while some may say that Squadron 42 is just the single-player mode of Star Citizen, the game is being sold as a standalone title, thus giving the impression of a second, separate game."

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fluxmulder3070d ago

Somehow I don't think "pay for legal fees in future lawsuit" was something backers signed up for.

badz1493070d ago

I don't think those money poured to them all went into development either. at like 150mil now? I think they pocketed a good 20-30mil for their own

bluefox7553070d ago

$170 million last I heard.

Silly gameAr3070d ago

Of course they did. People keep giving the money though.

spicelicka3069d ago

That's a shit ton of money. Even pocketing a million from each exec would be unnoticeable!

Kleptic3069d ago

In no way a lawyer, and in no way pretend to be (an engineering degree)...but work in IT and we're constantly 'informed' through various continuing ed requirements about the legalize surrounding crowd sourced software...

and it's a joke. A single attorney can write up some off the wall licensing, and it basically can give the receivers of crowd sourced funding freedom to do whatever they want with it. Typically crowd sourcing is funneled through some sort of middle-man like agency (kickstarter, gofundme, etc.) that puts their own requirements in place, takes a cut, and overall keeps things on the up and up so that all parties are better off. To my understanding, everything related to Star Citizen's development budget is in house, right?

Crowd funding allows group(s) of people to do some amazing things that they couldn't otherwise do, but also can illustrate why a certain 'idea' wasn't funded in a traditional way in the first place. Start Citizen falls into the latter imo. Over half a decade, approaching 200 million in funding, and it's still not a product...or a service...in any tangible sense. The biggest question i've had for a while is what do the backers get, exactly? They get some online content and access to the 'game', but do they have to outright buy the 'real' title later on? A primary problem with situations like this is that the development budget flips into just revenue when everything is said and done, because backers get the game at release...and no one else ever cared to begin with.

Just under 200 million in development is crazy...200 million in 'sales', most of which already having been expensed, is...well, that's why it hasn't been picked up by any traditional publishers. But they're spending it, that's for sure. Every couple of months a few 30 minute videos show up with some extreme concept art, relatively underwhelming test footage of gameplay, and Chris Roberts w/ a girl talking in front of what seems to be a very expensive camera.

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kevnb3069d ago

If they got the money from a publisher would you say the same thing?

Cobra9513069d ago

If they got the money from a publisher, there would be lawyers and accountants protecting its use. How much protection does a crowd of unrelated strangers funding a game get?

kevnb3069d ago (Edited 3069d ago )

class action lawsuit? Publishers arent really all that protected unless they can prove they were getting screwed over.

UltraNova3070d ago

Yep! Great supporting character!

As for this lawsuit I was expecting it the same day I watched that developer progress diary that mentioned the issues they had with CE3 and why they wanted to switch.

Bhuahahaha3070d ago

hehehe, i wonder if all his fingers are intact here

xX-oldboy-Xx3070d ago

Watch HARRY BROWN for a different side to Sir Davos

Bahamut3069d ago

In GoT it's "Ser". Not that it matters.

NotoriousWhiz3069d ago

Didn't see your comment. Now mine feels redundant. Oh well lol.

Pantz3069d ago

You got the Ser part right

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bluefox7553070d ago (Edited 3070d ago )

Don't worry, I'm sure the backers will happily fork over a couple million more to settle the legal battle.

frostypants3069d ago (Edited 3069d ago )

Crytek could conceivably demand that they receive an ungodly percentage of every copy sold for eternity, in exchange for not killing the games outright. They are in a position to rake Cloud Imperium over the coals here.

rainslacker3069d ago

Kind of. More likely, given that it was done on the commercial license, they'd just have to purchase another commercial license. It kind of depends on the level with which the game was developed on the unlicensed game. That'll be something for the courts to decide, but I doubt the courts would award the standard freebie license fee which I believe is something like 50% of the game's revenue(not profit).

I haven't read Crytek's license, but there is probably something in there about fines should something like this be done. There's also the matter of if the code in the release is actually the same as from the unlicensed version because of the development schedule, or because LY is actually the same as the CryEngine in most ways.

Zeref3070d ago

I think Crytek should chill, This is the only major game that is using Cryengine, why are they trying to piss them off? they could have worked out a deal.

SunnyZ3070d ago

Apparently they are no longer using cryengine, That seems to be the whole problem here.
They are using assets that they made in cryengine in another game engine made by Amazon.
That's why they are butt-hurt

watchem3070d ago

But didn't Amazon buy up the Cry Engine?!

Mulando3070d ago

The Lumberyard engine is the cryengine, Amazon bought it from crytek. They are just trying to get some money because crytek was missmanaged the last years. If that doesn't work crytek is bankrupt (I think).

frostypants3069d ago (Edited 3069d ago )

"Butt-hurt"? It's called theft. Are you in the habit of doing business deals for free?

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70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.

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simulationdaily.com
Jin_Sakai11d ago (Edited 11d ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio11d ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing11d ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster9211d ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit11d ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing11d ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster9211d ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

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50°

Spiders Studio, Developers of GreedFall: The Dying World, Announce Liquidation of the Company

Spiders: "We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.

What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it.

We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years.

If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply."

40°

Koei Tecmo Announces Record Financial Results After Releasing Many Big Games

Today, Koei Tecmo announced its financial results for the full fiscal year 2025, related to the period between April 2025 and March 2026.

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simulationdaily.com