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Silicon Knights sues Epic Games for ONE BILLION DOLLARS
The_Scarab
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=14759
Update:
''Epic simply refuses to acknowledge the inadequacies of the Unreal Engine 3 code it provides to its licensees," he said, "and refuses to accept the fact that its code has caused serious damage not only to Silicon Knights, but a number of other developers in the industry. We look forward to successful resolution of our claims in this court proceeding."
Seems the lawsuit is over Epic skimping on supporting devs who license their engine.
AKA : Our game is shit we need a scapegoat.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=14759
According to a statement from Epic's Mark Rein sent to leading news outlets including Gamasutra, the Unreal Engine 3 creator is the subject of a lawsuit from licensee Silicon Knights, presumably regarding UE3-utilizing Xbox 360 title Too Human.
Rein's statement, sent out to the media this afternoon, reads as follows: "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."
The Epic VP continues: "We'd love to tell you more about it but unfortunately our lawyers want us to save our comments for the courthouse so we're going to do our best to comply with their wishes."
He concludes: "In that vein we'd appreciate if our friends in the industry and media would refrain from asking us about the suit because we're only going to say "no comment". We just wanted to share the news directly before the rumor mill starts churning."
Representatives from Silicon Knights were not immediately available for comment, but Gamasutra will update this story when more information about the contents of the lawsuit are made available.
Update:
''Epic simply refuses to acknowledge the inadequacies of the Unreal Engine 3 code it provides to its licensees," he said, "and refuses to accept the fact that its code has caused serious damage not only to Silicon Knights, but a number of other developers in the industry. We look forward to successful resolution of our claims in this court proceeding."
Seems the lawsuit is over Epic skimping on supporting devs who license their engine.
AKA : Our game is shit we need a scapegoat.
The_Scarab on
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calling it the most "revolutionary game in the history of video games"
Except I can't make the engine work, but if this engine worked, dude, my game would be so awesome.
Wait... what? He didn't really say that did he? I mean... it's a Diablo clone with Norse mythology...
What could be so bad that their suing Epic over?
The UEngine seems to be fine, so what is it?
BOW DOWN
That said some devs have said the engine is woefully inadequate at working on the PS3. I think the Stranglehold devs and the Turok guys were like 'yeah we have problems'
If SK wanted to get Too Human on the PS3 and Epic were like 'hey fuck you, use what ya got' and the engine just doesnt work or something then I think he has a case.
A shit case but a case nontheless.
Gamasutra has now obtained a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed in North Carolina district court and demands a jury trial on the grounds of breach of contract regarding Unreal Engine 3 licensing.
The suit initially alleges that: "Rather than provide support to Silicon Knights and Epic’s other many licensees of the Engine, Epic intentionally and wrongfully has used the fees from those licenses to launch its own game to widespread commercial success while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games."
It goes on to detail a number of specific alleged breaches of contract, particularly related to the delivery of Xbox 360 versions of the Unreal Engine 3 code. Epic's licensing document stated that a functional version of the engine would be available within 6 months of development kits being available.
Silicon Knights claims: "The final development kit for the Xbox 360 was released in early September, 2005, such that Epic was obligated to release the functional Engine for that platform no later than March, 2006."
The suit continues: "However, that deadline came and went without Epic providing Silicon Knights with a functional version of the Engine. Indeed, it was not until much later (November, 2006, far too late for time and cost-sensitive projects like SK’s videogames) that Epic ever provided anything resembling working Xbox 360 code to its licensees. Even at that belated date, though, Epic did not provide any guidance to licensees in how to implement the code it finally released."
Another area of concentration is Epic's simultaneous development of its own titles alongside engine development. The lawsuit charges: "In particular, at the same time that Epic was supposed to be supporting its many licenses to the Engine (Silicon Knights’ among them) Epic was also racing to complete and market its own games: “Unreal Tournament 2007” and “Gears of War.""
It goes on to explain: "The support Epic had misrepresented it would provide Silicon Knights... became increasingly inconsistent as both Silicon Knights and Epic progressed toward the target launch date for their respective games. Epic has attempted to avoid its obligations under the Agreement by representing to Silicon Knights that the support,
modifications, or enhancements to the Engine – all of which are essential to the Engine’s proper function – were “game specific” and not “engine level” adaptations, and that Epic therefore need not provide them to any of its licensees, including Silicon Knights."
It's claimed: "That representation is false, as evidenced in part by the fact that Epic later provided nearly all the Gears of War code to all of its licensees, at no extra charge, in a belated effort at damage control."
Further on in the document, it's revealed that Silicon Knights is no longer using Unreal Engine 3, despite showing multiple versions of the game using the engine. It's explained: "Epic’s actions and the consequent increasing delay and cost of development of Silicon Knights’ own game caused by the unworkable Engine forced Silicon Knights in May of 2006 to embark on the time and resource intensive task of writing its own game engine, the very task it had hoped to avoid be entering the Agreement with Epic."
This is absolute lunacy.
So, Silicon Knights basically made a 'Well, our game would be better if you know what didn't suck so bad!' claim? And somehow wants money?
:shock:
That is a real reason.
Even if it sucks ass that it's happening, I can see why they're suing...
If it's true.
We have been waiting since the PS.
Can't they just use another engine?
They said they were making their own. I suppose they could though, but man, Im going to have to side with Epic on this one. If other developers can pull shit like Mass Effect and Bioshock, then SK have no fucking excuse on this one. None at all. Stop looking for an excuse why your game sucks and man up.
Dyack's still a dink, but it sounds like he might be right about the lack of support. Is that worth a lawsuit? Buggered if I know.
Yeah, I think this is partly an insurance thing for them, where if the game is recieved poorly they can dump it on Epic.
Dennis Dyack
Dennis Dyack
Dennis Dyack
Now about the topic, at first I expected this to be some bullshit lawsuit to cover up some problems with the game's development, but even if that is the case, it can be possible that the lawsuit is valid. It is conceivable that Epic skimped on their contractual obligations in order to get Gears of War and UT2007, but than again I do not know all the facts.
afaik Turok has been using UE3 for a while though dont quote me on that. Some of the guys there said that there are problems using the engine but you know, if it is lack of support from Epic and if in their contracts they are supposed to provide support, then it still comes off as a little whiny even if they have a case cause other devs are pulling game of the year candidates out of the bag with the same engine and supposedly the same support.
D'oh! You quoted me before I could delete that post. Looks to actually be a real issue.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Do they really have to start over?
That sounds about right. If this is all true, then Epic really screwed up this time.
While I hate Dyack now, I think this lawsuit is legit.
Well, making a new engine is hardly "starting over"; I mean they probably don't have to redo graphical assets. It is a time-consuming pain in the ass, and if Epic's customer support is this bad then I don't see UE3 doing as well as its predecessors.
I'm surprised because I remember reading that the support was one of the reasons people chose the Unreal engine over Renderware or id's.
So I find it unlikely that epic is "Out to sabotage" SK the way the lawsuit claims.
But again, the fact that other companies are creating nice-looking games with UE3 throws some doubt on that.
There's a bit of a disconnect here, and I'd be interested to know how other companies, both western (Bioware, Midway, Irrational) and eastern (Mistwalker, Square) are getting along with UE3 in regards to support.
It could also be that those other devs have more resources/a larger team to work around UE3's problems than SK does.
It's the same problem I'm seeing with UE3 and from what I've heard about UE3. Since all their licensees are also competitors, they're basically trying to provide the bare minimum.
This is why developers preferred Renderware before the buyout, as since they were owned by Canon (as in the camera) Criterion was basically neutral.
Also, these other developers "doing just fine" ARE MASSIVE FUCKING DEVELOPMENT HOUSES. SK is a small company. The other companies can endlessly throw money at the problem, SK can't.
But if you have a contract with several different companies to provide support, then fuck you and put your own projects on the back burner, man. That's what it comes down to. You promise support, and need to decide between following through on your contractual obligations or working on your own projects, well, you have to pick the first one or else you'll get sued.