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Silicon Knights Gets Its Day In Court With Epic Games
A federal court has agreed to move forward with a case that that accuses Epic Games of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair competition.
Kotaku recently dug up some documents that shed light on the litigation that has finally been cleared to move forward after four years of delays.
Here's a quick recap of what's happened thus far: Silicon Knights, like many developers in the gaming industry, licensed Unreal Engine 3 to develop its first next-gen title, Too Human. Apparently that didn't work out so well for them. In 2007, things got ugly when the company alleged that Epic Games stunted the development its project by failing to provide “a working game engine.” This in turn caused the developer best known for Eternal Darkness and Legacy of Kain to “experience considerable losses.”
After dismissing some of the more wild allegations made in the lawsuit, a federal judge has agreed to hear the case in front of a jury.
"When Epic first went public about our case to the press, they said that our claims were without merit," Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack told Kotaku. "Two separate federal court judges have now disagreed with Epic, and have ruled that the case does have merit."
"Silicon Knights has always wanted to have our focus be on making great games, not litigation. This ruling will allow us to have our day in court, before a jury, and to shine the light publicly on Epic's conduct. We are very confident the jury will see the truth behind Epic's actions.”
The strangest angle in this case is that Silicon Knights is the sole plaintiff. If its allegations are true that Epic was "sabotaging" the companies who licensed its engine, it stands to reason that more companies would have grievances and this would transform into a class action lawsuit. The Silicon Knights argument claims that Disney had “almost identical claims” against Epic in 2006, but the company has yet to join the litigation. We're anxious to see how it all plays out in court.
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