An interesting twist struck the legal battle between Silicon Knights and Epic Games today when I judge in the case got fed up waiting for Silicon Knights to present their damages.
As you may recall, Silicon Knights is suing Epic Games for, among other things, breach of contract, fraud, and claim that Epic's Unreal Engine 3 was broken thus leading to poor sales and development costs for Too Human. Silicon Knights claims that Epic used funds from their license of Unreal Engine 3 to create Gears of War instead of improving upon the engine for other developers.
Silicon Knights also claims that they had to make substantial changes to Unreal Engine 3 due to how broken it was and forced the company to essentially create their own engine for Too Human. The problem is, Silicon Knights continued to delay presenting a breakdown of the damages to the court. The judge, fed up with the constant delays, assigned a value of just $1 (USD) per claim.
Thus, even if Silicon Knights wins this legal battle, all they may end up with is enough pocket change to buy a Pepsi from the local convenience store. It should be noted, that for having such a "broken" engine with Unreal Engine 3, it's managed to do quite well for itself.
(via)
As you may recall, Silicon Knights is suing Epic Games for, among other things, breach of contract, fraud, and claim that Epic's Unreal Engine 3 was broken thus leading to poor sales and development costs for Too Human. Silicon Knights claims that Epic used funds from their license of Unreal Engine 3 to create Gears of War instead of improving upon the engine for other developers.
Silicon Knights also claims that they had to make substantial changes to Unreal Engine 3 due to how broken it was and forced the company to essentially create their own engine for Too Human. The problem is, Silicon Knights continued to delay presenting a breakdown of the damages to the court. The judge, fed up with the constant delays, assigned a value of just $1 (USD) per claim.
But the May 7 ruling by Judge James Dever III notes that Silicon Knights never supplied a breakdown of the damages they were seeking. The judge, it appears, got tired of waiting and assigned his own amount: $1 per a claim.
The order, while perhaps a dampener for the Silicon Knights legal team, doesn't really impact the determination of guilt. The case is still expected to take another week and will include testimony from an impressive list of game developers including president of Epic Games Mike Capps, president of Silicon Knights Denis Dyack, Epic VP Mark Rein and famed Epic game developer Tim Sweeney.
The order, while perhaps a dampener for the Silicon Knights legal team, doesn't really impact the determination of guilt. The case is still expected to take another week and will include testimony from an impressive list of game developers including president of Epic Games Mike Capps, president of Silicon Knights Denis Dyack, Epic VP Mark Rein and famed Epic game developer Tim Sweeney.
Thus, even if Silicon Knights wins this legal battle, all they may end up with is enough pocket change to buy a Pepsi from the local convenience store. It should be noted, that for having such a "broken" engine with Unreal Engine 3, it's managed to do quite well for itself.
(via)