Epic Responds to Silicon Knights’ Claims

Last week, we told you about Too Human developer, Silicon Knights’ tizzy over their issues with the Unreal Engine and their claims that they were shafted by Unreal developer, Epic Games. Started in 2007, the case has just now been granted a federal jury, prompting Epic to release an official statement:

The court entered judgment in favor of Epic on several claims, rejecting Silicon Knights’ claims that it could cancel its license agreement, that Epic interfered with its contractual relationships with publishers, and that Epic has acted unjustly under the license.

The court did not rule on the merits of Silicon Knights’ remaining claims. The court was not permitted to judge the credibility of witnesses or evidence, or otherwise take into account Epic’s opposing evidence, and therefore merely acknowledged that, under the rules of civil procedure, it had to allow a jury to consider both sides’ evidence on the remaining claims.

Allowing those claims to move forward to a jury is not a ruling on their merits. The court simply concluded that the disputed evidence should be heard and resolved by the jury.

Furthermore, an Epic representative said Epic “remains confident that it will be fully vindicated at trial.” There are a ton of development houses that use the Unreal Engine, and most of them seem to be pretty happy. A few games you may have heard of that use the Unreal Engine include the Gears of War series, the Mass Effect series, the Bioshock series, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, and many more. That’s not to say Silicon Knights’ claims are untrue, but that one would expect far more claims of this nature considering the number of games that use Epic’s engine. Now that they’re taking this before a jury, they must have one hell of a case — or think they do.

[via ShackNews]