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Epic 'Defrauded' Developers with Unreal Engine, Says Silicon Knights
by Aaron Linde, Aug 18, 2008 3:50pm PDTSilicon Knights president and founder Denis Dyack commented on the legal struggle between the Too Human (360) and Unreal Engine purveyors Epic Games, expressing optimism that "justice will be done" in the ongoing court battle.
"The trial is proceeding," Dyack told Develop. "We feel really good about our claims, and we're hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry."
The dispute centers around Silicon Knights' claim that Epic held off on delivering promised features in its Unreal Engine 3 middleware in order to focus on its own UE3-powered effort, Gears of War (PC, 360).
The case went to trial following the denial of Epic's filing to dismiss the suit, and multiple licensees of the software have since been served with subpoenas in an effort to obtain evidence for the court battle.
"The Too Human you see today only really started development when [Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GCN)] was completed," Dyack explained. "So it's been a four-year development cycle and it would have been out even quicker, but we had to re-write the engine because of all the Epic stuff."
The first of a planned trilogy, the oft-delayed Too Human will finally reach retailers this coming Wednesday.
Comments
Frankly, Silicon Knights isn't much of a player in the game industry. Their best games only (probably) have had modest sales, they lost their only "good" IP (Blood Omen, though I think Crystal Dynamics did Soul Reaver better than Blood Omen), and what else? They whine? That's not much to add to your resume.
I think 3D Realms has put out more games than SK in the past decade :p
Also, I'd like to know why Silicon Knights is expanding the number of employees at their office. A small team of 5-8 people can pull off an awesome UE3 game (or several), but 150 people at Silicon Knights can't even get one out the door? I think there are some serious problems there.
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SK could learn from their own game, a hero knows when to look in the mirror and place blame where it belongs.
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