A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted
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News about the other main target of my schadenfreude these days, Star Citizen.
Today: Star Citizen lies about moving off CryEngine to using Amazon's Lumberyard game engine, Crytek is suing both companies over illegally removing their start-up logo from the game.
They're also claiming that since they're two companies selling two distinct games but have only licensed CryEngine once, they're in breach of contract due to that as well. Honestly that seems open-and-shut, especially since Star Citizens' own marketing materials shows CryEngine-specific code.
Delicious.
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@blakeyrat said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Delicious.
Wow, Star Citizen is STILL in production?
Chris Roberts' reputation will be mud once this is over with.
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@cartman82 If by 'in production' you mean 'taking money' - yes absolutely. And why would they let this stop them?
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@cartman82 said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Wow, Star Citizen is STILL in production?
It still makes noises every so often.
The single player spin-off game, Squadron 42, hasn't had any updated information in over a year.
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Interestingly, Kotaku's article on the same issue gives a totally different reason for the lawsuit:
Gaming journalism is just as awful as any other journalism. Which story is right? Who knows.
The Kotaku article basically says that the switch to Lumberyard is the source of the complaint-- apparently way back Cloud Imperium Games signed a deal with Crytek promising to use the CryEngine game development platform exclusively and to promote it from within the video game (aka, showing the logo when it starts up.)
The Polygon article implies the lawsuit is over Star Citizen claiming to switch engines when, in fact, they were still using CryEngine.
Well either way sounds like Crytek has a pretty solid case.
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Here's a copy of the actual complaint, for those who want to look:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CTr-V92Hrav-HZQ20ICI9ooWkFK6rQXC/view
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@blakeyrat said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Which story is right? Who knows.
Someone who reads the lawsuit? (Kotaku's summary seems about right to me based on it. Polygon's... not so much.)
@blakeyrat said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
The Polygon article implies the lawsuit is over Star Citizen claiming to switch engines when, in fact, they were still using CryEngine.
Between marketing materials not necessarily being up-to-date in terms of source code screenshots, and the fact that Lumberyard's a fork of CryEngine that still has the original name all over the source code, I don't see any reasonable basis for Crytek to believe that their engine is being improperly used.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't switching game engines a huge amount of work? Basically involving a complete rewrite of the logic (not the assets, but the actual ruleset)? That seems a bigger problem than a lawsuit here, at least if they want to release an actual product.
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@benjamin-hall They switched from CryEngine to a CryEngine fork. It would be some work, yes, but presumably not as much as your usual wholesale switch.
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@unperverted-vixen said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Someone who reads the lawsuit?
That feels like cheating somehow...
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@benjamin-hall said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
if they want to release an actual product
They want to release? Or will it be another
Duke Nukem ForeverHalfLife 3?
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@unperverted-vixen ah. So something like switching from mono to regular .NET (but different)?
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@benjamin-hall Probably a little more involved than that, depending on how heavily Amazon has changed their fork. I think ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core (running on full .NET Framework, not .NET Core) is probably a better analogy. Not painfree, but doable in a reasonable amount of time, if you think you'll benefit from the new toys.
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@cartman82 said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Wow, Star Citizen is STILL in production?
Yeah, and I have certain people trying to make me to buy it...
I loved Freelancer and similar games, I have 1200h of playtime in another early access game already, and even given those facts Star Citizen was something I didn't want to touch with a 2m pole. After this, I don't want to touch it over WiFi.
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@onyx said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
@cartman82 said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Wow, Star Citizen is STILL in production?
Yeah, and I have certain people trying to make me to buy it...
I loved Freelancer and similar games, I have 1200h of playtime in another early access game already, and even given those facts Star Citizen was something I didn't want to touch with a 2m pole. After this, I don't want to touch it over WiFi.
Would you touch it over HAM?
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@tsaukpaetra said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Would you touch it over HAM?
Not even with a side of green eggs.
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@blakeyrat said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Well either way sounds like Crytek has a pretty solid case.
It smells like from Star Citizen's side, they split their game into two games with different names and thus feel any agreements made for the original game no longer apply.
Whether that'll hold anything in court is anyone's guess. (Or a lawyer's)
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@tsaukpaetra said in A fool and his not-really-a-video-game are soon parted:
Would you touch it over HAM?
Would you click the link in spam?
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YouTube's Favorite Copyright Lawyer had some things to say about the case, as I posted elsewhere. Actually, he had a hell of a lot to say, so I doubt many people (here or elsewhere) will watch all 3+ hours of those three videos, but whatev'.
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@scholrlea I'd ask you to sum it up, but your summary would take longer than 3 hours to read.
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@scholrlea tl;dw. Give me the Cliff's Notes version.
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1:00 he's listening to music and looking at his screen
2:00 he's listening to music and looking at his screen
2:12 he smiled
3:00 he's listening to music and looking at his screen
3:02 another smile
3:20 remembered to do the intro