Silicon Knights getting Epic

This may be one of the most misleading titles I've ever given a post. No, it definitely is. Silicon Knights has filed a lawsuit against Epic games based on the fact that they were sold on an engine that just doesn't deliver. They believe that Epic withheld newer versions of software they bought in order to keep a leg up on their competition, not to professional if you ask me. The house that Dyack built goes on to accuse Epic of sabotaging the development of Too Human and has stated that it was so bad that they had to actually build their own engine. Too Human will no longer be using the Unreal 3 engine- thats progress if you ask me: I hate all this engine licensing, its like saying you've renovated your house when all you did was give it a fresh coat of paint. Developers should just build their own engines, why depends on Epic to tap the potential of these new consoles? Clearly they aren't doing a very good job at it. One company with all the power? dangerous...

Hit the jump for the Press release
via Kotaku

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.