Epic fails to dismiss Silicon Knights case
Rein and Sweeney hit back
Epic Games' motion to dismiss the case put forward by developer Silicon Knights (in relation to alleged deficiencies with their Unreal Engine 3 tech) has been denied, Next-Gen are today reporting.
The website have been relaying official court papers, which apparently show that on October 29th Epic attempted to have the case dismissed. Silicon Knights raised their legal dispute with Epic alleging that the firm delivered a broken product to them in the form of the Unreal Engine 3, which the developer believe hindered progress on their Too Human release.
Epic VP Mark Rein and CEO Tim Sweeney both offered declarations in defense of their technology, pointing out the awards the technology has won, and the previous games launched using it. Epic's counter-claim accuses Silicon Knights of using but not paying for their technology, and of misappropriating trade secrets.
"I understand that Silicon Knights has admitted to using part or all of Unreal Engine 3 to create the Silicon Knights Engine from which it is creating its 'second game,'" Sweeney offered. "I also understand that Silicon Knights, through the declaration of Denis Dyack, has admitted providing Unreal Engine 3 to unauthorized third parties.
"As a result of Silicon Knights' continued misappropriation of Epic's trade secrets and its infringement of Epic's copyrighted code, Epic has been and will continue to be damaged and irreparably harmed. The disclosure of trade secrets and copyrighted materials by Silicon Knights to unauthorized users would allow other parties to understand and utilize the systems and data structures associated with Unreal Engine 3 in order to reproduce, copy and ultimately compete with Epic in the competitive marketplace of game and engine development."
Rein adds that Silicon Knights' moves could damage Epic's business - both in terms of engine licensing and games development - while he accuses Silicon Knights of not paying a license fee despite using elements of the Unreal Engine 3 in their 'second game', being created for Sega.
The plot, it seems, thickens. More on this soon.
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