Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has hit back in its ugly legal battle with Crytek.
In a court document filed on 17th January, CIG claimed Crytek’s recent move to dismiss its own lawsuit against the Star Citizen maker was because “Crytek can no longer delay the inevitable reckoning that its claim is and has always been meritless”.
In January, Crytek said it wanted to dismiss its own lawsuit against CIG until the standalone single-player Squadron 42 comes out. Crytek added it believed there was no point in going ahead with a trial in June 2020 as planned because its claims revolve around the release of Squadron 42 as a standalone game – and it didn’t look like that would happen anytime soon.
Squadron 42 Cinematic Teaser Watch on YouTube
For background, Crytek licensed CryEngine to CIG back in November 2012. According to the court document, CIG paid Crytek a $2m buyout licence fee for the right to use CryEngine.
Amid financial trouble that threatened the future of the company, Crytek entered into a licence agreement with Amazon, resulting in the Lumberyard Game Engine derived from CryEngine.
CIG says it began discussing a potential licence agreement with Amazon in March 2015, when Amazon told CIG it was developing Lumberyard based on CryEngine. Amazon then granted CIG the right to use Lumberyard in April 2016, and CIG began switching its engine code to Lumberyard. In December 2016, CIG began displaying the trademark for Lumberyard instead of CryEngine on the opening splash screen for Star Citizen. On 23rd December 2016, CIG announced the switch to Lumberyard and, apparently, Crytek did not object.