Laws of Play

Epic countersues Silicon Knights, SK fears “Cole Train” involvement

We previously reported Silicon Knight’s lawsuit against Epic which basically alleged that Epic was committing industry sabotage. Well, Epic recently responded to Silicon Knight’s complaint with a big, fat motion to dismiss and a bigger, fatter countersuit alleging that SK infringed its copyrights and breached its contract with Epic. The countersuit claims that Silicon Knights created a new Too Human engine based on the Unreal Engine 3, thereby producing an unlawful, derivative work, and that SK also breached its contract agreement by using this new engine in both Too Human and an upcoming game co-developed with Sega.

Epic is requesting actual damages in excess of $650,000, unspecified punitive damages, attorney fees, injunctive relief, and an order to destroy all code or games that infringe Epic’s copyrights.

If the injunctive relief is granted, SK’s ill-fated Too Human could be postponed for years while litigation continues. Hope nobody was planning on getting their hands on Too Human anytime in the near future… or ever, if Epic gets their way.

[UPDATE] GameDaily received a press release from Epic and is currently combing through the lengthy legal documents.  It looks like Epic is making far more claims that initially reported by Gamespot.  Keep an eye out on both GameDaily and Laws of Play as the case develops.

For more info, see: ugh, Gamespot