Breaking: Silicon Knights Files Lawsuit Against Epic

Breaking: Silicon Knights Files Lawsuit Against Epic 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: 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."