An Epic Win In The Silicon Knights/"Too Human" Suit

Silicon Knights ordered to pay damages to Epic Games after suing the Unreal Engine developers for the failure of Too Human.

With a tweet from Epic’s Mark Rein, it looks like the drama between the two companies has come to an end in a decisive victory for the North Carolina studio behind Gears of War: “Case over. Jury finds for Epic on all counts,” Rein Tweeted this morning, seeming to put an end to a particularly acrimonious case.

The legal saga has been ongoing since 2007, when Silicon Knights, then some years into development of their hack-n-slash sci-fi Norse-themed RPG, sued Epic, whose Unreal Engine was being used in the development of Too Human. It was Silicon Knight’s contention then that Epic was not providing enough support to their engine, thereby hampering the development of Too Human, and forcing them to start from scratch with their own engine.

The case has been churning along for a while now, but back in December when North Carolina’s Chief District Judge James Dever III threw out testimony from a CPA presenting evidence for Silicon Knights alleged to detail the financial damages suffered by the Canadian developer in the wake of Too Human‘s critical and financial failure.

However, instead of receiving damages, Silicon will have to pay them to Epic to the tune of $4.5 million for breaching the Unreal license agreement, revealing Epic’s trade secrets, and infringing on Epic’s copyrights. Epic still has the next 30 days to request reimbursement of attorney’s fees.

Although honestly, I feel like the big losers in this case is you, our dear readers for having to put up with that title.

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Article source: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2012/05/31/an-epic-win-in-the-silicon-knightstoo-human-suit/