14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Epic Games has managed to win a court case that pitted it against Silicon Knights over the Unreal Engine 3 technology and the fate of the Too Human video game, which was launched on the Xbox 360 during 2008.
Mark Rein, who is a vice president at Epic Games, said via Twitter message that, “Case over. Jury finds for Epic on all counts.”
Jay Andrews, the general council working for the company, added, “We are delighted with the jury's verdict and all of the hard work done by the Hunton & Williams legal team.”
The charges that Silicon Knights brought against Epic Games include: fraud, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with contractual relations and much more.
The developer also sought to argue that problems with Unreal Engine 3 resulted in a two-year delay for Too Human and in low sales for the title, which generated a loss of 58 million dollars (46.8 million Euro).
The North Carolina judge James Denver III would not allow Silicon Knights to seek those kind of damages and finally found that all the counterclaims from Epic Games were true.
This means that Silicon Knights breached the licensing agreement for the Unreal Engine, stole trade secrets and infringed upon copyright.
Epic Games is set to receive damages worth 4.45 million dollars (3.59 million Euro) and can also ask the court to get its legal fees reimbursed by Silicon Knights.
At the moment Epic Games is working on the fourth edition of the Unreal Engine, which will probably be offered to those companies who plan to create video games for the upcoming generation of home consoles.
At the moment Silicon Knights is planning to create a next-generation game of its own, although it has not announced a name or a genre.