This PDF is a legal motion from the future (it's dated February 9th) with a
response from Crytek to Cloud Imperium Games'
recent motion to dismiss
their lawsuit over Star Citizen, the
upcoming crowdfunded space game (thanks
PC
Invasion). Crytek originally sued over the use and marketing of their
CryENGINE as part of the project, and CIG responded saying they are not even
using that engine anymore. Here's a bit from how Crytek is hitting back:
Defendants' Motion seeking dismissal and other relief is without merit.
Rather, that Motion is a blatant effort to impose delay and burden on Crytek as
it seeks to vindicate its rights under its contract with Defendants and its
copyrights.
The facts here are straightforward: Plaintiff Crytek GmbH ("Crytek") granted
Cloud Imperium Games Corp. ("CIG") and Roberts Space Industries Corp. ("RSI")
(collectively, "Defendants") a license to use Crytek's powerful video game
development platform, CryEngine, in the development of Defendants' video game
called "Star Citizen." Pursuant to that Game License Agreement (the "GLA"),
Crytek agreed to provide technical support and know-how to Defendants and
licensed CryEngine to Defendants at a discounted rate, in return for certain
promises from Defendants.
But after accepting Crytek's assistance — and after raising record-breaking
amounts from video game consumers in a crowdfunding campaign — Defendants began
to break their promises to Crytek:
- Defendants promised that they would develop Star
Citizen with CryEngine, not any other development platform. But Defendants
now boast that they have breached that promise, and are promoting a
competing development platform.
- Defendants promised that they would prominently
display Crytek's copyright notices and trademarks both within Star Citizen
and in any marketing materials for Star Citizen. But Defendants have
admittedly breached that promise.
- Even though Defendants had licensed Crytek's
technology to develop only one game (Star Citizen), they later separated
Star Citizen's feature "Squadron 42" into a standalone game without
obtaining a license to use Crytek's technology in two games.
- Defendants promised to provide Crytek with any
improvements or bug fixes that they made to CryEngine while developing Star
Citizen. Defendants never made a good faith effort to honor that promise.
- Defendants promised that they would maintain the
confidentiality of Crytek's valuable technology. But they published excerpts
of Crytek's source code unilaterally and shared Crytek's technology with a
third-party developer without obtaining Crytek's approval.