gaggle64 Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Right, so apparently Too Human and Darkness developer Silicon Knights have filed a law suit against Epic Games, developer of Gears of War and the Unreal 3 engine, over claims that Epic made fraudulent assertions about the Unreal engine and failed to offer proper support for it. Here is the full overview from Kotaku. Silicon Knights was kind enough to send along both their formal press release concerning their suit against Epic and the actual suit itself. According to the suit, which seems more than $75,000, Epic Games misrepresented the abilities of their Unreal Engine 3 when selling the license agreement to Silicon Knights. The suit says that Epic failed to "provide a working game engine" to Silicon causing them to "experience considerable losses." The developer was rumored to be experiencing problems with the Unreal Engine platform last summer, but later denied speculation it was dropping the platform and commented that the game was still "progressing very well." Silicon Knights eventually decided to drop the Unreal engine and instead build their own, according to the suit. Silicon also claims that Epic has been "sabotaging" Silicon Knights efforts to make a game by using the money earned from their licensing deals to make their own games rather than to provide support for their engine to Silicon and other licensees. Update: In a nutshell, SK claims that Epic used a slicker version of their Unreal Engine for Gears of War and released a hamstringed version to SK and others, in order to show them up at E3. They also failed to release the Gears version until much more recently, SK claims. They also claim that Epic made several very specific statements about what the engine could do, but which it was never able to deliver on including the number of on-screen characters and lighting effects. The suit is based on a dozen causes of action including fraud, negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of warranty and a violation of North Carolina's unfair and deceptive trade practices act. The suit also says that Epic missed the deadlines for providing both the 360 and PS3 engines. Finally, the suit alleges, the SK gave up on the engine and built their own, which is what Too Human use. Hit the jump for the press release or the link to download a copy of the suit. SILICON KNIGHTS SUES EPIC OVER UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE OF UNREAL ENGINE 3 ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA, July 19th, 2007 - Video game developer Silicon Knights, Inc. has filed suit against Epic Games, Inc. for breach of contract, fraud, and several other tort claims in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina. In the lawsuit, Silicon Knights alleges that it has lost revenue as a result of the considerable delay in developing its video game for the Xbox 360, Too Human, because Unreal Engine 3, a game engine licensed from Epic, did not work as Epic represented it would and, moreover, Epic has been unable or unwilling to fix it. As Denis Dyack, President and Founder of Silicon Knights, explained, "Our strong preference is to focus on making games, not be in court. Unfortunately though, as explained in our lawsuit, we have had extensive problems with the Unreal Engine 3 that Epic has been unwilling or unable to rectify. For more than a year, we have been trying to reach an agreement with Epic to resolve these issues without resorting to litigation, but were unable to come to reasonable terms with Epic. Regrettably, we are now forced to go to court in order to achieve satisfaction. We remain hopeful, however, that we can reach a reasonable business resolution with Epic at some point." The lawsuit further alleges that Epic in fact never intended to deliver Unreal Engine 3 as a fully functional game engine as promised. Instead, Epic collected licensing fees from Silicon Knights and others in order to fund the development of its own video game, Gears of War. "No doubt Gears is a fun and phenomenally successful game, but as we alleged in our complaint against them, we strongly believe that from the perspective of someone waiting for a game engine that Epic promised it would deliver almost two years ago, it seems pretty clear that Gears was built on the backs of the Unreal Engine licensees. We certainly stand by our allegations in the lawsuit that instead of using our licensing fees to develop and support the Unreal Engine 3, Epic used that money to build Gears," said Mr. Dyack. http://kotaku.com/gaming/breaking/silicon-knights-epic-sabotaged-us-280491.php You can download a copy of the suit from the original page as well.
KKOB Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 I find it funny. Silicon Knights seem to be blaming everyone but themselves for the Too Human E3 demo of last year. So laughable.
Mr.X Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Maybe SK don't know how to use U3 engine properly. I would of thought a nice phonecall to Epic would suffice.
rokhed00 Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Dyack needs to grow up and take responsibility for his own failings.
Choze Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Maybe SK don't know how to use U3 engine properly. I would of thought a nice phonecall to Epic would suffice. ahem maybe Epic didnt have good enough support? Unreal Engines arent exactly famous for being great for other developers games.
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