Earlier this week, CCP Games CEO Hilmar announced an NIP with Cloud Imperium Games, the development studio of Star Citizen. During the announcement, Hilmar was certain that the two games and their respective developers would coexist in harmony, evenly sharing customers and their space bucks.
However, this humble offer was very quickly shot down by Cloud Imperium Games, as just a few short hours later they announced a new feature to be added to their game, one that may sound quite familiar. “We are pleased to announce a new feature coming to Star Citizen,” begins a tweet from one of the developers. “When you pre-order the Deluxe Collector’s Edition of Star Citizen, you will be given an Enigma Code™. It will be redeemable intermittently in the future for various rewards, including cosmetic clothing and paint jobs for your ships. We would also like to announce our new Star Pass …”
While details are still sketchy about the now ongoing conflict between CCP and CIG, I will do my best to report on what is known so far. CGI struck hard and fast by selling the now-infamous Vulture, a design very similar to the EVE Online Venture. Not only was the designed heavily inspired, but the price tag was ridiculous, and fans of Star Citizen were quick to defend the design of the ship. CCP fired back with their Venture Capitalist bundle, taunting the fact that you could be subscribed to EVE Online for 6 months for the cost of one ship in Star Citizen. Inside sources say CCP is upset that they can’t get away with charging $140 for one ship.
CCP then began the talks of a possible lawsuit, claiming the Imperium existed in EVE long before Cloud Imperium Games existed, and that CIG is very similar to SIG, which the Imperium is well known for. Dozens of potential lawsuits and counter suits have been theorycrafted, simulated, and put on the table, but none so far have gone through; CCP claiming that due to their HQ being in Iceland, they can’t get the formidable swing power of Texas law on their side.
One aspect of this war that neither side saw coming was the Reddit front. Hundreds and thousands of space-faring folk from across multiple galaxies, and possibly even realities, have converged to troll and farm salt in amounts not seen in ages. Both the Star Citizen and EVE subreddits have been placed under martial law. The EVE subreddit trying to figure out if Star Citizen will ever be released, while the Star Citizen subreddit is trying to figure out what Stain is, and why it needs a Lowsec gate.
