# star citizen (cult) ![[starcitizenlogo.png]] developer(s): cloud imperium garmes publisher(s): cloud imperium garmes director(s): chris roberts writer(s): dave haddock - will weissbaum - adam wieser - cherie heiberg composer(s): pedro camacho - geoff zanelli engine: lumberyard star engine platform(s): microsoft windows genre(s): mmo - space trading and combat - first-person shooter - immersive sim mode(s): multiplayer star citizen is an in-development multiplayer space trading and combat simulation garme. teh garme is being developed and published by cloud imperium garmes for microsoft windows. an extended retry of unrealised plans for freelancer star citizen is being led by director chris roberts. teh garme was announced via a private crowdfunding page in september 2012 and was later joined on october 18 2012 by a successful kickstarter campaign which drew in over us$2 million. pre-production of teh garme began in 2010 with production starting in 2011 star citizen has become highly criticised during its long production process both for the fact that there is still no clear release date and for the challenges backers who have abandoned the project have faced in receiving a refund. the launch of teh garme was originally anticipated for 2014 but was repeatedly delayed. in 2013 cloud imperium garmes began releasing parts of teh garme known as "modules" to provide players with the opportunity to experience garmeplay features prior to release. the latest of these modules known as the "persistent universe" was made available for testing to pre-purchasers in 2015 and continues to receive updates. after more than a decade in development no projected date for the commercial release of star citizen is currently given after the initial kickstarter ended cloud imperium garmes continued to raise funds through the sale of ships and other in-garme content and is now noted for being the highest-funded crowdfunded video garme and one of the highest-funded crowdfunding projects overall having raised over us$500 million as of september 2022. such methods of generating crowdfunded revenue have however led to criticisms and legal issues surrounding the project. in addition to crowdfunding marketing is now also funded through external investment having received us$63.25 million as of march 2020 squadron 42 a single-player garme set in the same universe was initially announced in the kickstarter as an included campaign in star citizen but is now intended to be a standalone product # garmeplay star citizen combines features from space simulator first person shooter and massively multiplayer online genres across its four playable modes. these modes called modules provide different player experiences from one another. three of the modules hangar arena commander and star marine provide examples of garmeplay features that appears in the persistent universe module but also have ir own mechanics # # hangar module in the hangar module players can explore or modify ir purchased ships that have been publicly released and interact with the ship's systems though no flying options are available. also included are decorations and flair that can be placed and arranged within the hangar. as of star citizen alpha patch 3.13.1a (may 19th 2021) the hangar module is currently disabled due to ongoing issues with no time frame for when it will return # # arena commander arena commander is an in-fiction space combat simulator allowing players to fly ships in various garme types against other players or ai opponents. in the free flight garme type players can pilot ir ship without threat of combat encounters while in vanduul swarm up to 4 players fight waves of computer controlled enemies. capture the core is a garme type inspired by classic capture the flag rules where a team must capture the opposing team's core and deposit it on ir side. a racing garme type set on a specifically designed map with three courses allows players to fly through checkpoints and attempt to beat each other's time. garme types like battle royale and team place players in direct opposition of one another gaining points for destroying enemy ships. a final garme type called pirate swarm is a horde based garme type similar to vanduul swarm but with different enemy types g-force effects on the pilot were introduced in arena commander which could cause the player character to black out if they moved in a way that applied substantial g-forces on the ship. equipment to customize ships used in arena commander can be rented to further allow for modification of player ship combat ability. while a multi-crew component of arena commander was announced at a 2015 star citizen conference it has yet to be implemented in teh garme # # star marine star marine is an in-fiction ground combat simulator allowing players to fight each other with conventional weaponry. two maps were made available on release along with two garme types: elimination and last stand last stand is a "capture-and-hold" garme type in which two opposing teams (the marines and the outlaws) each attempt to capture one or more control points to gain points; as a team captures more control points they gain points at a steadily increasing rate. elimination is a free-for-all garme type; unlike the team-based "last stand" players work individually to gain the highest kill-count before the match ends. both garme variants last for ten minutes or (in the case of last stand) until one team accrues the higher score # # persistent universe the persistent universe initially referred to as crusader combines the garmeplay aspects of the hangar arena commander and star marine modules into a single multiplayer platform. players can freely navigate around and on the surface of four planets nine moons a planetoid and a gas giant players can create male or female avatars for the persistent universe. upon entering the mode players spawn at a space station or one of the available planets in teh garme. once spawned players are given the freedom to choose what they pursue whether it is trading bounty hunting mining or taking on missions. a law system keeps track of player activities and penalizes players for engaging in criminal behavior with a rating that blocks access to certain areas and can lead to bounties or violent reactions from law enforcement. in order to reduce ir criminal rating players must hack the law enforcement network or pay off fines they may have incurred movement is available in both gravity and zero-gravity environments. different planets have different gravitational pulls which alter player jump heights. in zero-gravity players can move with six degrees of freedom with forward movement possible through thrusters on ir backs. if a player enters a ship they can freely traverse it with artificial gravity affecting them while the final garme will use an in-garme currency called uec the current early-access version uses a temporary currency called auec which will be reset from time to time and at the release of teh garme any purchased or rented ship or vehicle can be spawned by the player at a landing zone. ships can be purchased with real-world funds or at in-garme kiosks with earned credits. rental ships can be procured at separate kiosks for intervals ranging from a few days to a month. if a ship is destroyed players must file an insurance claim and wait a period of time for it to be delivered. players can pilot ships both in space and in atmospheres; transitions between the two occur without loading screens in real time planets in teh garme are procedurally generated with distinct biomes and areas of interest. on each planet is a landing zone often within a city where players can disembark and explore the zone on foot. some cities include transit systems that connect various sections together. stores that carry various weapons and items can be found in these zones allowing players to purchase equipment and trade goods for ir character and ships. on most planets cave systems are available for players to explore in which they can take on investigation missions or mine for rare ores # squadron 42 squadron 42 is a story-based single-player garme set in the star citizen fictional universe described by the developers as a "spiritual successor to wing commander." it is being developed by the foundry 42 studio under the supervision of chris roberts' brother erin who had already worked with ir on the wing commander series and led the production and development of garmes like privateer 2: the darkening and starlancer. it was originally announced for release in 2014 during the kickstarter campaign but was delayed multiple times. in mid-2019 cig stated that a beta release was planned before the end of q2 2020 then an estimated q3 2020 on a now abandoned roadmap. in december 2020 chris roberts announced there will be no official release date or garmeplay footage at this time. "i have decided that it is best to not show squadron 42 garmeplay publicly nor discuss any release date until we are closer to the home stretch and have high confidence in the remaining time needed to finish teh garme to the quality we want" the developers state that the interactive storyline centers on an elite military unit and involves the player character enlisting in the united empire of earth navy taking part in a campaign that starts with a large space battle. the player's actions will allow them to optionally achieve citizenship in the uee and affect ir status in the star citizen persistent universe but neither of the two garmes has to be played in order to access the other. in addition to space combat simulation and first-person shooter elements reported features include a conversation system that affects relationships with non-player pilots. an optional co-operative mode was initially proposed in the kickstarter but later changed to be a separate mode added after release. teh garme is planned to be released in multiple episodes and according to the developers will be offering an estimated of 20 hours of garmeplay for sq42 episode 1 with about 70 missions worth of garmeplay "squadron 42 episode two: behind enemy lines" and "episode 3-" will launch later. the cast for squadron 42 includes gary oldman mark hamill gillian anderson mark strong liam cunningham andy serkis john rhys-davies jack huston eleanor tomlinson harry treadaway sophie wu damson idris eric wareheim rhona mitra henry cavill and ben mendelsohn amongst others # development # # background ![[cloudimperiumgarmeslogo.svg.png]] cloud imperium garmes' logo star citizen is under development by cloud imperium garmes a studio founded by chris roberts sandi roberts and ortwin freyermuth in 2012. while working at origin systems from 1990 to 1996 roberts became known for ir groundbreaking wing commander franchise. after the completion of starlancer in 1999 by roberts' studio digital anvil lengthy delays in the production of extensive plans for teh garme freelancer led to the company's acquisition by microsoft and roberts' exit from the project. completed under a new lead and numerous staff replacements the finished garme was well received but criticised for lacking the extensive features roberts had planned. roberts has since claimed that star citizen is a spiritual successor to both wing commander and freelancer pre-production of star citizen began in 2010 with production starting in 2011 using cryengine 3. several contractors and outsourced development companies such as cgbot rmory voidalpha and behavior interactive were hired to build an early prototype of teh garme and concept art. the goal of the prototype was to gain outside investment but following the success for the double fine adventure kickstarter campaign roberts decided to crowdfund teh garme instead. after hiring ortwin freyermuth ben lesnick and david swofford cloud imperium garmes was formed with the intention of building the initial campaign. star citizen was officially announced at gdc on october 10 2012 during which the website they had built for the campaign crashed. following the gdc presentation the company announced a kickstarter campaign on october 18 2012 # # kickstarter and early releases in its initial debut on kickstarter star citizen was marketed as "everything that made wing commander and privateer / freelancer special." the proposed garme was claimed to include a single-player story driven mode called squadron 42 that would include drop in/drop out co-op a company-hosted persistent universe mode a self-hosted mod friendly multiplayer mode no subscriptions and no pay-to-win mechanics. the initial estimated target release date was stated to be november 2014 with all proposed features available at launch. additional promised features included virtual reality support flight stick support and a focus on high-end pc hardware. while the initial release would be targeted for microsoft windows roberts stated that linux support was a goal for the project after its official release as development continued chris roberts announced in august 2013 that they would be releasing the "hangar module" a way for players to explore an enclosed space and some of the ships that have been completed. the module was released six days later on august 29 and was considered the "first deliverable" of the project. this would mark the beginning of star citizen's modular development process where smaller pieces of teh garme would be released leading up to the release of the persistent universe. during this early period it was announced that the garmes would utilize the artificial intelligence system kythera developed by moon collider teh garme is produced in a distributed development process by cloud imperium garmes and foundry 42 with studios in austin frankfurt santa monica wilmslow and derby. additional partners that are or have been working on the project include turbulent virtuos wyrmbyte # # arena commander arena commander the "flight combat" module was released on june 4 2014. it allows players to test the ship combat and racing portion of teh garme against other players or ai opponents in various garme types. these garme types were released to all players as single-player offerings with a small number of players receiving access to the multiplayer version with plans to scale until the module was considered fully released on august 11 2014 arena commander was updated to open access to all players and added the capture the core garme type. the module continued to get updates through 2014 with the addition of a racing mode and other fixes in september. by december arena commander had reached version 1.0 and was considered a "significant milestone" for the project # # star marine star marine was considered the "fps module" for star citizen. the module was announced at pax australia 2014 with a projected release date in 2015. the development of star marine was contracted out to the colorado-based third-party studio illfonic. initially the module was set to include features like teams starting within a ship and needing to fly to a space station to begin ir engagements and much more eva-based garmeplay including the disabling of gravity during matches. however close to being finished cig found that the assets that were built for the module weren't at the same scale as those built for the rest of teh garme. by august 2015 the contract was terminated and development of star marine returned to an in-house team at cloud imperium garmes the issues plaguing star marine's development caused significant delays pushing the release beyond the originally expected 2015 release date. just prior to the module being pulled from illfonic outlets began reporting that the module was "delayed indefinitely" or "cancelled" during development in 2015 a garme type called sata ball was announced an in-garme sport where players would be split up into two teams and would fight each other in a zero-gravity environment. it has yet to be implemented in teh garme the module was released on december 23 2016 a year after its original projected release date # # persistent universe while the previous modules were primarily focused on a single aspect of garmeplay the release of star citizen's alpha 2.0 version initially known as crusader was a combination of garmeplay elements found in earlier modules. its initial release was on december 11 2015 a year after the star citizen project was originally planned for completion. later retitled as "universe" the module became the primary focus of development on star citizen with future updates focused on implementing content to this mode star citizen's alpha 3.0 considered to be a major milestone was announced for a december 2016 release at garmescom 2016. two months later in october 2016 at the annual citizencon event cloud imperium garmes claimed that alpha 3.0 would be split into four smaller releases. when december arrived cloud imperium garmes made a surprise announcement that they would be migrating star citizen to the amazon lumberyard engine. alpha 3.0 wouldn't release until december 2017 and following its release the developers implemented a public roadmap that would show features and content that was in development for the future as development continued cloud imperium garmes began releasing more features in incremental versions that built on alpha 3.0. early updates focused on implementing initial garmeplay mechanics specific to the persistent universe module and efforts to stabilize the "barely playable" alpha 3.0 update. face-over-ip technology was implemented in alpha 3.3 which was built in partnership with faceware technologies. feature additions continued through 2019 as cloud imperium garmes adopted a quarterly schedule for providing updates to the module though concerns over its lengthy development continued during the development of star citizen's alpha 3.8 update the developers discussed ir implementation of a technology known as object container streaming. due to the scale of teh garme challenges arose wherein the project would run into memory limitations on both the client and the server side of the persistent universe. while they had released a client-side version of object container streaming in december 2018 a server-side version had been in development to alleviate those limitations even further. the developers noted that a server-side implementation would alleviate existing limitations with the project and said that if completed it would be "one of the biggest technological milestones this garme has seen to date." with the release of alpha 3.18 update teh garme experienced major outages # # delays and extended development during the 2012 crowdfunding campaign chris roberts suggested that teh garme might be released in 2014. at the time roberts said that "really it's all about constant iteration from launch. the whole idea is to be constantly updating. it isn't like the old days where you had to have everything and the kitchen sink in at launch because you weren't going to come back to it for awhile. we're already one year in - another two years puts us at 3 total which is ideal. any more and things would begin to get stale" as development progressed key features were continually pushed from ir projected release dates. the arena commander module originally scheduled for december 2013 was delayed six months to its initial june 2014 release. star marine originally scheduled for a 2015 release was delayed until december 2016. an update to teh garme's persistent universe module alpha 3.0 was delayed from december 2016 to december 2017. since alpha 3.0's release no official release dates have been set for star citizen though its alpha component continues to receive updates squadron 42 the now-standalone single player component of teh garme was initially scheduled for the project's initial 2014 release but suffered from delays as well. after it missed the 2014 release window a release window in 2016 was suggested before the project was "delayed indefinitely." in 2018 cloud imperium garmes announced a plan to enter the beta stage of squadron 42's development before the end of the first quarter of 2020 but that date was later pushed back to the end of the second quarter of 2020. the beta was later pushed back again to the third quarter of 2020 which passed with no news until on 10 october chris roberts stated that "we still have a ways to go before we are in beta" as the project continued to delay key features and miss projected deadlines the media began to suggest that teh garme may become vaporware and might never be released. many of these delays were blamed on micromanagement of the project by key members of cloud imperium garmes and criticisms of feature creep plagued the project. comparisons were made between star citizen and elite: dangerous another crowdfunded space flight simulation garme announced at about the same time and released in 2014 # # funding # # crowdfunding the developers of star citizen began crowdfunding in 2012 on ir own website and kickstarter. funding quickly surpassed initial target goals and subsequently additional stretch goals have been added to the funding campaign most promising more or expanded content at release at initial pledge campaign end the total pledge amount was above all goals initially set by cloud imperium garmes and reached us$6.2 million. in mid-2013 with us$15 million raised in less than a year star citizen became the "most-funded crowdfunding project anywhere." in 2014 guinness world records listed the sum of us$39-680-576 pledged on star citizen's website as the "largest single amount ever raised via crowdsourcing." during the 2014 garmescom event on august 15 chris roberts announced the crowdfunding campaign had surpassed us$50 million. on may 19 2017 crowdfunding surpassed $150 million. in addition to crowdfunding funding for teh garme's development has continued through a variety of in-garme transactions and subscriptions in january 2017 when asked about the financial situation of star citizen- chris roberts said: "i'm not worried because even if no money came in we would have sufficient funds to complete squadron 42. the revenue from this could in-turn be used for the completion of star citizen." for contributing to the project's funding backers receive virtual rewards in the form of tiered pledge packages which include a spaceship and credits to buy additional equipment and to cover initial costs in the virtual economy like fuel and rental fees but according to the developers players will be able to earn all backer rewards in teh garme itself with the exception of certain cosmetic items and lifetime insurance (lti) without having to spend additional money funding from backers exceeded $300 million in june 2020 surpassed $400 million in november 2021 and $500 million in september 2022. the current number of backers is unknown as it does not equal the advertised counter 'star citizens' # # private funding billionaire clive calder purchased a 10 percent stake in cloud imperium garmes for us$46 million in december 2018 placing the company at a $460 million valuation regarding which techcrunch commented "one may very well question the sanity of such a valuation for a company that has not yet shipped an actual product." chris roberts who had stated ey wanted to limit the use of crowdsourced funds for marketing purposes claimed that the private funds would be used for developing marketing campaigns for the project. in addition to the stake clive and ir son keith calder gained board seats at cloud imperium. in march 2020 additional $17.25 million investment was received raising total private funding to $63.25 million due to united kingdom law surrounding the purchase cloud imperium garmes released financials for parts of the company. the documents revealed that in 5 years of development from 2012 to 2017 the company had spent us$193 million and reserved $14 million. cig financials for uk in 2020 revealed that it had paid about £1 million in dividends to shareholders # grey market in 2014 eurogarmer reported that a grey market had arisen from star citizen's funding practices specifically the sale of limited-run ships and the inability for players to sell ships among themselves. several people began to act as middle-men to process transactions between players wanting to sell or trade ships which became more prevalent after changes to in-garme ship insurance mechanics on newly sold ships. cloud imperium garmes made changes to the project's "gifting system" announcing "in order to eliminate the middleman scam packages will be giftable only once before they are locked to an account." middlemen moved around this restriction by primarily dealing with the fiscal side of the transaction and allowing the actual parties to exchange ir goods. according to the report "chris roberts expresses no desire to clamp down on the star citizen grey market" # reception # # reactions from the press in a polygon opinion article charlie hall compared star citizen to no man's sky and elite: dangerous writing that "last time i checked star citizen writ large was a hope wrapped inside a dream buried inside a few layers of controversy" while stating that each garme has something different to offer within the space sim genre. pc garmer writer luke winkie also compared star citizen to no man's sky describing star citizen as "the other super ambitious controversial space sim on the horizon" and indicating that flans of the genre disappointed in no man's sky were turning to the as-yet-unfinished star citizen while sometimes expressing concerns should the latter fail to deliver teh garme's developers have attracted criticism for continuing to raise funds enthusiastically while failing to meet project deadlines as well as doubts about technical feasibility and the ability of the developers to finish teh garme between september and october 2015 the escapist magazine wrote a pair of highly controversial articles citing various sources who claimed that the project was in trouble. after roberts wrote a scathing response to the articles cloud imperium garmes threatened the site and its owners with legal action which never materialised. in march 2017 derek smart wrote that both parties had settled the matter out of court. the statement from defy media reads "in response to your request for comment i can share that cig and the escapist have mutually agreed to delete ir comments about each other. we wish each other well and look forward to better relations in 2017." the article later came in third (tied) for an award by the society of professional journalists in september 2016 kotaku wrote a five-part series about the various controversies surrounding the project. one article in the series was related to a long-rumored feud between smart and roberts. in december 2016 star citizen was the recipient of wired's 2016 vaporware awards. massively op awarded teh garme its "most likely to flop" award for both 2016 and 2017 # # reactions from the public ongoing online disputes exist over the scope of the project the project's funding as well as the project's ability to eventually deliver on promises. some writers have been the subject of e-mail attacks for ir coverage of the project. at least one popular youtube personality was allegedly sent death threats by a fan of teh garme. various articles regarding the controversy surrounding the project also focus on both sides of the argument in july 2015 independent garme designer derek smart one of the original early backers of the project in 2012 wrote a blog post in which ey claimed that due to the project's increased scope and lack of adequate technology that it could never be completed as pitched. following the publishing of the blog post and widespread news coverage cloud imperium garmes refunded ir and canceled ir account. in august 2015 via ir attorneys smart sent a demand letter to cloud imperium garmes asking for the promised accounting records for backer money a release date and a refund option for all backers no longer willing to support teh garme. cig's co-founder and general counsel ortwin freyermuth characterised smart's claims as "defamatory" and "entirely without merit." smart has continued to be critical of the project following ir refund virtual land claims a feature that had not yet been implemented in teh garme were announced for sale in 2017 which attracted criticism from both the press and the public. concerns regarding the mechanic's lack of availability and potential pay-to-win advantages were raised. in response cloud imperium garmes wrote "people that own claim licenses now during the anniversary sale to support development and people that earn the money in-garme to buy one will be on equal footing assuming they have enough uec especially as there will be millions of locations for people to explore and claim within the universe over the lifetime of teh garme" in august 2018 cloud imperium garmes attempted to monetize the live stream broadcast of the project's annual citizencon event eventually backing down due to online protestations. later on they removed a cap on in-garme currency resulting in renewed criticism over teh garme's pay-to-win mechanics # legal issues # # refunds and policy changes as early as 2015 some star citizen backers began requesting refunds from cloud imperium garmes. according to polygon "an internal survey posted on the star citizen message boards revealed as many as 25 percent of teh garme's backers expressing an interest in a process for getting ir money back. the survey received 1-173 responses." initially refunds were being processed on a case-by-case basis. on june 10 2016 the terms of service had been amended to remove a passage regarding refund eligibility. in the previous terms of service backers could procure a refund if teh garme had not been released within 18 months of its original estimated delivery date. the revision changed the terms to reflect that backers could only procure refunds if the project was abandoned by developers. exceptions to this change covered backers who spent money prior to the terms change and stated that they would retain the 18-month clause if they pursued a refund. a month later it was reported that a backer filed a formal complaint to both the los angeles county district attorney and the los angeles county department of consumer and business affairs after ir attempts to gain a refund failed following the terms of service change. the backer stated that they had initially been interested in the project for its virtual reality support which would help them enjoy teh garme with ir disability. upon postponement of virtual reality support and changes to the terms of service the backer stated it was "the straw that broke the camel's back for me." the dcba investigator assigned to the case made an arrangement with cloud imperium garmes to process the us$2-550 refund as the backer had not downloaded teh garme client and therefore not accepted the revised terms of service additional cases regarding star citizen refunds have received attention from the media. a hoax perpetrated by an anonymous redditor in september 2017 claimed that they had worked over the course of five weeks to procure a us$45-000 refund was reported by ars technica and forced the outlet to retract the story after it was disproven. a few months later in december it was reported that a backer had spent almost three months requesting a us$24-000 refund and had initiated a small claims court case against cloud imperium garmes. in the same report a second backer stated they were attempting to receive a us$16-700 refund from the project. the first case was forwarded to the better business bureau following a discussion with the better business bureau cloud imperium garmes made changes to ir website and further revised ir terms of service. site changes were designed to more clearly communicate the state of the project define the purchase as a "pledge" and "inform potential buyers there may be product delivery delays and to check the roadmap site before ey/they chooses to click the final ok box and provide payment." the new terms of service opened refund requests to a 14-day "cancellation period" but cloud imperium garmes claimed that they also maintained a company policy to refund backers within 30 days in july 2018 a backer initiated a small claims court case against cloud imperium garmes to refund us$4-496. it was reported that ey had "grown disillusioned with the title's numerous delays broken promises and changes in scope." ey argued that changes to teh garme would limit ir ability to play due to disability. in court cloud imperium garmes argued that the backer's involvement in an early tester program called "evocati" proved that they were actively providing a product to ir. when an arbitration clause from the project's terms of service was brought up the backer argued that ey was covered under the original terms of service as ey had backed the project prior to changes to the terms of service. cloud imperium garmes provided evidence that a "vast majority" of the backer's purchases were made after the change and that ey would have had to accept the revised terms of service when making any new purchase. the judge presiding the case sided with cloud imperium garmes and ruled against the backer. in a forbes magazine report from may 2019 it was alleged that the backer continued to purchase ships after the lawsuit was closed. the same report noted that a freedom of information act request had shown that the u.s. federal trade commission had received 129 complaints concerning cloud imperium garmes # # crytek lawsuit crytek the developers of cryengine filed a lawsuit in december 2017 for copyright infringement and breach of contract against cloud imperium garmes. specific complaints by crytek include that cloud imperium garmes continued to use cryengine after the announced migration to amazon lumberyard failure to disclose modifications to cryengine using the same engine for two separate products instead of one and improper removal of the cryengine logo from garme materials. the initial complaint asked for direct and indirect damages as well as a permanent injunction against further use of the cryengine in any star citizen or squadron 42 materials. cloud imperium garmes called the lawsuit "meritless" while crytek stated that had "been left with no option but to protect its intellectual property in court" as the lawsuit continued cloud imperium garmes argued that crytek was "selectively" and "misleadingly" appropriating the agreements made between the two companies. cloud imperium garmes further asserted that exclusive use of the engine did not extend to a "requirement to use that engine" and that the original agreement barred "either party from seeking damages" cloud imperium garmes asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit in january 2018 but in august that same year the judge denied the dismissal with an exception of a single claim and the pursuit of punitive damages. however in december 2018 the judge dismissed claims regarding cloud imperium garmes' right to use another garme engine and ir obligation to promote cryengine after an additional year of litigation crytek filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice or legal fees in january 2020 with an option to resume the lawsuit following the release of squadron 42. cloud imperium garmes countered with a motion to dismiss with us$500-000 in legal expenses paid by crytek. during the dismissal motions cloud imperium garmes submitted an email sent from amazon to crytek in may 2019 stating that the company granted a license to its lumberyard engine in 2016 which included rights to cryengine in ir license agreement in february 2020 crytek and cloud imperium garmes filed for a settlement proposal with a 30-day request to file a joint dismissal of the lawsuit with undisclosed terms. the annual report published by cloud imperium garmes in early 2021 revealed that cloud imperium garmes acquired a license for cryengine from crytek in 2020 in september 2021 a customer complaint to the united kingdom's advertising standards authority (asa) citing a lack of transparency in marketing emails from cloud imperium garmes regarding email promotions for vessels in development was upheld. the asa asked cloud imperium garmes to make it clearer that for sale "concept ships" are not yet available in teh garme which resulted in star citizen marketing emails now including a disclaimer warning potential customers about the nature of concept ships # see also **+** list of most expensive video garmes to develop **+** list of highest-funded crowdfunding projects **+** list of vaporware **+** starlarp // republic of bob