Silicon Knights sues Epic over Unreal Engine 3 'inadequacies' [Joystiq]

[DP ServBot]

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

The information is still coming in, but what we do know is that Silicon Knights, creator of the infinitely delayed Too Human, is suing Epic Games, licensor of the Unreal Engine 3. Epic, who is best known for showing the power of the Unreal Engine 3 in their epic Gears of War, is being sued over "unspecified allegations." Mark Rein, VP of Epic says, "This morning we were served with a lawsuit by Silicon Knights. We believe the claims against us are unfounded and without merit and we intend to fully defend against them."

Currently the lawyers aren't letting anyone talk about what's going on and Rein says he'll have no choice but to give a "no comment" for a while. The outspoken Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights is also not returning emails for phone calls at the moment. This is going to get big and bad. Considering the only obvious connection between the two companies is the Unreal Engine, this may shake out some of the issues other developers say they've been having with the product. We'll update as we get details.

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[diskoboy]

Obviously, you haven't played Gears of War, yet, because that game's a beaut.

Boo-hoo Silicon Knights... Build you own game engine then.

[BHvrd]

Probably something over the ps3 exclusive usage or something I bet.

[roushimsx]

Boo-hoo Silicon Knights... Build you own game engine then.

No kidding. The whole point to licensing an engine is to save money and time in game development, but that obviously hasn't helped Silicon Knights out at all with regard to Too Human's development hell.

"It's a poor workman that blames his tools" yadda yadda yadda.

[ProgrammingAce]

I assume they're going to sue nintendo too since they couldn't get the game out when it was supposed to be... you know... back on the N64?

This is particularly awsome considering they "leaked" info that the engine sucked a year back, then denied the claim saying they were cool with the engine...

Have you noticed i don't have a whole lot of respect for Denis Dyack's whiny ass?

[ProgrammingAce]

If half of what is alleged in that lawsuit is true, i might owe Dyack a beer or something...

I just read through the legal breif, from what i've seen of the Unreal3 engine i can't say Silicon Knights is wrong; Although i haven't worked with the engine much myself.

There do seem to be a lot of nit picking complaints in there though...

[Push Upstairs]

They could always use the Quake Engine...


the original one.

[Ed Oscuro]

They could always use the Quake Engine...


the original one.

I only saw your second line when I went to reply...


but I knew what you meant anyway. Jesus, double-spacing is annoying.

Anyway, why don't they update to Quake II? They might get it out the door before QIII appears, if they hurry.

All that said, damn, that seems to be a compelling argument against Epic. Watching and waiting to see how this one turns out.

[chicnstu]

I hope this turns out well for Silicon Knights. It seems pretty cruel to do what Epic has done to their licensees. They did eventually give the rest free but I don't think that replaces the potential money Silicon Knights has lost.

To go off topic a little:

Obviously, you haven't played Gears of War, yet, because that game's a beaut.

Boo-hoo Silicon Knights... Build you own game engine then.

They are building their own engine.

Yeah, Gears of War looks nice. But the physics suck (besides the pre-animated stuff), and the AI sucks. Besides stuff that has to do with their engine; it seems like a company like Epic would have spent more time on the facial animations and the voice acting is mostly horrible (I know John Dimaggio is better than that). I'm not trying to cause an argument, just felt like posting my opinion on Gears of War. I like Epic (I like them even more since I'm in the same state) and GoW is a ton of fun but not perfect.

Back on topic...I wonder how this will affect the progress on Too Human. How many more years will we have to wait?

[roushimsx]

Back on topic...I wonder how this will affect the progress on Too Human. How many more years will we have to wait?

Are they still naively trying to make it an epic, multi-game saga or have they realized that there's no way in hell they'll ever be able to put together a sequel in a reasonable amount of time (assuming they can ever get someone to fund it)?

[chicnstu]

Are they still naively trying to make it an epic, multi-game saga or have they realized that there's no way in hell they'll ever be able to put together a sequel in a reasonable amount of time (assuming they can ever get someone to fund it)?

I've been thinking about that too. If it took them this long to make the first will we have to wait another 5+ years for the next?