Great read, its seems in the link provide that even if they switch to LY that they may not be able to delivered what was promised. Do you think that at any point crytek devs have given Chris false info from the earliest demo on what they could do? I have always wondered at one point and I believe it had to happen that Chris was aware he could not deliver on the stretch goals? I personally believe he would of know much earlier looking looking at the 3.0 release issues.
Did CryTek give CIG false info?
IMO.....no.
Chris Roberts had a vision. A spiritual commander to Wing Commander with multiplayer and a few open world elements.
CryEngine would not have been perfect for such a game, but few non custom engines are. That's why licenses often include the right to tweak the engine. CryEngine...for that game...would have worked. Its basically CODIW.
But Chris Roberts got ambitious. The game went from limited multiplayer to a full fledged MMO. It went from a few locations you could visit at will to a full fledged open world set up. It went from a few basic game mechanics designed to add a little depth to the universe to a full fledged life simulator.
And with that upgrade in scope came a requirement for better AIs. A 64 bit engine. Better physics modelling. Server and network coding that could handle instances and meshing. And more.
Chris Roberts went from a game that CryEngine could easily handle to one which required a near total engine rewrite.
Unfortunately....it looks that by the time he'd made that decision, contracts had been signed and third parties already engaged.
But Chris Roberts change in scope doesn't reflect on CryTek at al. He chose an engine that was suitable for the game he was creating. It isn't CryTeks fault he later changed the scope.
Chris Roberts should have dropped CryEngine at this stage. He should have created a new engine. He should have continued development of Star Citizen using CryTek and then built his MMO as a side project. He should have tried to terminate the contracts he had.
Instead....I honestly don't know why he did what he did. If CryTeks charges are true, CIG dug themselves a deep hole...
And the simplest explanation is either that they honestly believed they had more rights or freedoms than they did, or they decided CryTek was going down and they could do what they wanted because CryTek could never object.
So they stopped promoting CryEngine and they merged LumberYard with CryEngine. They used code in Bugsmashers and they didn't buy a second license.
This might be excused as an oversight or misunderstanding...bit if CryTek really has been talking to them for two years then that becomes unlikely. Wilful and Intentional as they believed CryTek was going down becomes believable.
Add in the mess over the lawyers, and the way they hired exCIG devs to change CryEngine and then promoted it as StarEngine, the way they talked down CryEngine instead of promoting it and that the main benefit of switching from CE to LY was the possibility of sidestepping royalties and fees and CryTek can make a fair case that CIG knew exactly what it was doing
Its quite a mess.
I can't wait to hear CIGs defence.
