Epic Games Sucker Punches Silicon Knights in Unreal Legal Battle

Epic Games has won its legal battle against Too Human developer Silicon Knights, which accused the Gears of War studio for "failing to provide a working game engine" in Unreal Engine 3.

After a five-year court struggle, a North Carolina judge ruled in favour of Epic's defence - and in a double-whammy, also upheld the studio's counterclaims against Silicon Knights, alleging a breach of Unreal Engine's licence agreement, copyright infringement and a misappropriation of trade secrets.

Epic VP Mark Rein was seemingly so excited about the verdict, that he rushed to Twitter to announce the result well ahead of any press preparation from the courts. "Case over. Jury finds for Epic on all counts," he tweeted.

The whole thing kicked off back in July 2007 when Silicon Knights - also behind Gamecube survival horror Eternal Darkness - filed suit with a complaint that claimed, "Epic never intended to deliver Unreal Engine 3 as a fully functional game engine as promised" and that this has "caused Silicon Knights to experience considerable losses and ultimately has forced Silicon Knights to spend its limited time and resources on building its own game engine rather than in developing its video game."

K.O. for Epic Games there, then. The company's general counsel, Jay Andrews, said, "We are delighted with the jury's verdict and all of the hard work done by the Hunton & Williams legal team."

Via Gamasutra