Thread by @dsmart

Latest in the Crytek v CIG lawsuit.

On Dec 6th after the judge granted an MtD in favor of CIG, they gave Crytek 21 days to file a third amendment if they wanted to.

Some were speculating that the case was "over" (lol), that Crytek won't file another amendment etc.

The primary reason for Crytek filing a third amendment would be to provide evidence that CIG were engaged in a protracted effort to market their use of Lumberyard|Star Engine, in violation of the license agreement.

Though with the judge's ruling, I now believe that it would be a stretch for Crytek to prevail in that argument, the one shot I believe they DO have, is if the judge finds that the display of the Lumberyard logo in the game, constitutes "continuous promotion".

Most third-party game engines such as Unity3D, UE, Lumberyard etc, require you to display their product logo at all times in the game. It's a sort of promotion of the engine, in exchange for favorable (in some cases free) licensing terms for the use of the engine.

In the case of Lumberyard, section 57.7 of the licensing agreement requires licencees to display the engine logo in all promo materials and the product (game) itself.

Which is why the logo appears in the Star Citizen opening screen.

aws.amazon.com/service-terms/…

section 2.4 of the current CryEngine license says you can't

"combine CRYENGINE with code from other game engine providers"

And section 4 requires all their marks & info to be prominently displayed.

cryengine.com/ce-terms

Crytek appears to have tightened their language regarding these because the custom licensing agreement (made public by CIG on 01/05/18) has different terminology (hence all this back and forth)

scribd.com/document/36854…

Sections 2.1.2 and 2.4 have been the most contested during the lawsuit because they appeared to not only prevent CIG from using any other engine, but also from having anything to do with a competing engine.

The judge threw out 2.12 back in Aug.

i.imgur.com/LBjig3J.png

Then on Dec 6th, the judge threw out everything from section 2.4 related to both StarEngine (the custom engine build with CryEngine) and Lumberyard.

docdroid.net/Jv5BRif/031129…

She then gave CIG 21 days (to Dec 27th) to amend their response. Of course since she granted them the entire 2.4 MtD, there is no reason for CIG to file anything else.

However, Crytek also had 21 days from any CIG filing, to amend their filing & convince the judge otherwise.

However, on Dec 21st (during the alarming news of the CIG investment deal), Crytek filed for an extension to a response.

docdro.id/R11BU1y

docdro.id/5iiTOHk

As I was discussing with the guys over at @GuardFreq in a recent Twitch stream, I still believe that the case will settle, rather than going to trial in 2020. Whether that happens before or during discovery (which is on schedule to start) is unknown.

twitch.tv/videos/3520385…

But here's the thing.

Since they were sued in Dec 2017, I had repeatedly said that 1) this lawsuit wasn't primarily about money for Crytek; it's personal because of what CIG did to them 2) CIG didn't even have the money to settle a lawsuit of this scope and magnitude.

The shocking news of the CIG $46M investment deal this past Summer, which showed that they were bleeding money for YEARS and barely had $14M end of 2017, pretty much confirms what I had stated about their not having the money to settle a lawsuit of this scope.

I mean, in May 2018 when sources told me they were running on empty, unable to find any "takers" in Chris's latest scam, and on the verge of insolvency, they were frantically trying to close this deal. It only became public this month.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/993979761532854272

I mean, take a look at the financial brochure (it's not an official statement of accounts because it has no cash basis, no balance sheet etc) they released days ago and draw your own conclusions.

cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate…

Do you want to see what a real financial statement looks like, and which isn't designed to appeal to complete morons who think math is a foreign language? Take a look at Frontier (another space game dev) accounts statements.

frontier.co.uk/annual-report

So, not only did they NOT have spare change to even settle (they tried) the Crytek lawsuit, they had to go and sell 10% of the company for $46M, and which came with a babysitter in the form of an industry heavy weight like Dan Offner. Because, you know, that's perfectly normal.

In my latest full blog, "Star Citizen - A New Dawn", I layout how we got to this point, amid all the lies, fabrications, puffery etc from Chris Roberts and his gang of scam artists.

dereksmart.com/2018/12/star-c…

CIG still has licenses for both CryEngine and Lumberyard.

The remaining major allegation (which survived MtD) relates to copyright infringement in them using CryEngine for SQ42.

Now we wait to see if they settle or foolishly drag it out to a 2020 trial.

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