Epic Games wins 'on all counts' in Silicon Knights lawsuit
The years-long lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic Games has come to an end, with the jury ruling in favor of Epic "on all counts."
Update: Additional commentary from Epic Games and new details on damages.
The years-long lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic Games has come to an end. The Canadian developer of Too Human served Epic in 2007 for "technical problems" it encountered using Epic's multiplatform engine. The suit was originally seeking $58 million in damages, with Silicon Knights claiming it had to rework Unreal into the "Silicon Knights Engine."
Today, a judge has ruled in favor for Epic Games.
"Case over. Jury finds for Epic on all counts," Epic VP Mark Rein told followers on Twitter. This is after the judge threw out an "expert" Silicon Knights had presented, and eventually issued $1 of potential damages for the suit.
While Epic Games is currently working on Unreal Engine 4, the fate of Silicon Knights has been much more somber. After releasing the critically-bashed X-Men Destiny, the company faced severe layoffs.
In addition, the jury found that Silicon Knights "breached" Unreal's license agreement. As such, the jury awarded Epic Games damages of $4.45 million. "We are delighted with the jury's verdict and all of the hard work done by the Hunton & Williams legal team," said Jay Andrews, Epic's General Counsel.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Epic Games wins 'on all counts' in Silicon Knights lawsuit.
The years-long lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic Games has come to an end, with the jury ruling in favor of Epic "on all counts."-
lol I wonder how much money Silicon Knights spent on this lawsuit over the past couple of years. What a blackeye.
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5 year long lawsuit. I forgot that they were suing them for lost profits on games they haven't made yet.
"Lost profits from sequels ($16+ mil for Too Human II, $14+ mil for Too Human III) and another Sega title, The Ritualyst ($8+ mil)"
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So long Silicon Knights.
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So much for Too Human 2. :(
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I doubt it. It's not a strong IP.
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That just means someone can get it for cheap.
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Once again, it's not that strong so I doubt anyone would buy just that IP even it was "cheap".
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i think most people would rather have an Eternal Darkness sequel at this point instead of a too human.
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or xbla port of the original
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Fuck Too Human. I want Eternal Darkness 2.
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Gut response! TH is fine and all, but man, Eternal Darkness also deserves a sequel!
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No I don't think he'll be to talkative.
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What was the dispute over?
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Abortion.
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You could click the link and find out.
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Pfft, my finger is all clicked out from Diablo 3
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I wonder if Silicon Knights would have had more success had they not wildly over shot on the damages side of things.
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Yeah, this really was Dennis Dyack's slightly pointless crusade; if he hadn't been so greedy, maybe this would've been quietly settled in 2007.
I never saw the E3 2006 demo, but I do remember hearing about how janky and problematic the first Unreal Engine 3 games were in 2007, as well as everyone's troubles getting anything running well on the PS3. Unreal Engine 3 still has problems with texture streaming tuning and FSAA, but Epic's support has improved substantially from the days of "Gears comes first!" (actual quote from an email sent by Dan Vogel at Epic, revealed in the discovery phase of the Silicon Knights vs. Epic trial).
Epic learned their lesson on providing better engine support, and this lawsuit didn't really push things along, as much as criticism from their licensees did. IIRC, Epic implicitly admitted that they were focusing a bit too much on Gears 1 when it was being developed, though not enough to implicate themselves in this suit to the point of a preponderance of evidence. -
they lost me when they wanted out of paying to use the Unreal Engine, while at the same time being able to license their "Silicon Knights Engine" (ie Epic's code, that they didn't want to pay for)
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Yeah, that shit was crazy.
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SK is an overrated and flawed developer. All of their games are excellent ideas executed horribly.
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