In the wake of Epic Games' court case victory against Silicon Knights, the latter has now been instructed to recall and destroy unsold copies of its games, destroy existing code for in-development projects, and pay Epic a fine of over $9 million.
This legal dispute began in 2007 when the Canadian studio accused North Carolina-based Epic Games (Gears of War) of "sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games" with the company's Unreal Engine 3. Epic was awarded the victory in May of this year, and told it could receive $4.45 million in damages.
In new court documents [PDF], North Carolina District Judge James Dever has now stated that Silicon Knights "repeatedly and deliberately copied significant portions of Epic Games's code containing trade secrets... and used it to create a competing product, Silicon Knights's own game engine."
With this in mind, the judge has ordered Silicon Knights to remove all of Epic Games's technology from its own game engine, and destroy the code for all prior versions of the Silicon Knights's game engine in its possession.
The company must also allow Epic to "independently verify that Silicon Knights's game engine no longer contains and of Epic Games's Licenced Technology," handing over all computers, servers, databases and everything else for Epic to access and check for itself.
Alongside this order, the judge also stated that Silicon Knights must recall and destroy all unsold copies of its Too Human and X-Men: Destiny titles, and must destroy any code done on the unreleased (and until now, unannounced) titles The Box/Ritualyst, The Sandman, and Siren in the Maelstrom.
Production and distribution on all of these titles must also be halted. The judge also warned that any other product containing Epic Games's code must be brought to light, and the same consequences carried out in this case as well.
The developer -- which is rumored to employ five or fewer employees at present -- must also pay a total of $9.2 million to Epic: $4.5 million in damages, and Epic's $4.7 million legal costs.
Silicon Knights has until December 21, 2012 to comply with this order.
WHOA. This is like unraveling a legacy or something. What will happen to the value of copies of Too Human on the open market? Can they even be traded? Did they just reveal their secret games in production via court documents? Does the judge know they only have 5 employees. Does this mean Dyack can't go around to publishers saying 'look at these games we made - give me money' because it would actually be against a judge's ruling?
Well, they were 10 years ago, and then they weren't 5 years ago. It certainly reads like a legend from rock'n'roll.
Imagine this; the lost work of a band that didn't yet make their triumphant 3rd album - squandered potential of what coulda' been one of the greats, but died when they drunkedly crashed their plane during a fight over the second crap followup album they made when they were arrogant and high (led there inexorably from the heady successes of the first under a great producer they'd later shun). The notoriety of their deaths alone would make the second album sought after, enhanced by the poor original sales of a production run limited by a soured producer leading the distributor to bury unsold copies in the desert. One day Rolling Stone would track down the last surviving member (the mouthy litigious one - who got on his OWN plane) for an expose on the work for the third album, but he's turned into a reclusive crank, bumming for change from his old studio exec buddies, reminding them of his hits from the old glory days, and too proud to admit anything to the press or move on. Would make a great movie about the 70's
Too Human stinks, and there are tens or hundreds of thousands of used copies in the wild which don't have to be destroyed. I'm thinking this won't be a problem, though it might drive up the price of sealed copies, which are now, as we speak, being bought from Amazon and eBay.
@Christian: Too Human didn't stink. It's core gameplay was pretty solid for a third person action game. It had plenty of issues, but it certainly didn't stink.
Last I read, they were down to something like 3 or 4 employees and the company only really existed on paper. I would be surprised if the remnants of SK even had the resources left to comply with this order.
This is really kind of a travesty for the games industry overall. I'd like to see a company like Square Enix consider buying SK, or the SK ip and rehire some of the old company's staff. Obviously there was a lot of talent. They just needed the support to cultivate it.
@ChristianNutt - I think Dan was also criticizing the management at SK, and suggesting just the IP and ex-employees should be rescued.
+ Clearly you loathe Dyak (and since you're the features editor at Gamasutra, I'm assuming this isn't a knee-jerk reaction. You've probably actually met the guy, and or know people who worked for him?)
For the past 5 years, whenever people bring up SK I see hundreds of brief comments across various websites claiming dyak is bad because of TooHuman, or because of his PR gaffes.
But I really enjoyed TooHuman, and thought Dyak was (mostly) saying interesting things about video game culture - so I've always dismissed the Dyak hate as uninformed.
Can anyone point me to the mind changer here?
+ I read through Kotaku's anonymous "we hate our boss" expose, and it mostly sounded like small companies I've worked for (the boss takes jobs he doesn't want, but he tries to divide resources so the company can still push forward on things they want to make). The point of that expose seems to be that it's disgusting Dyak was struggling to make Eternal Darkness 2 with his Xmen money. but. everyone wants Eternal Darkness 2 right? That article doesn't convince me Dyak deserves the hate.
(anecdotes about dyak wanting the color changed on a background van, when the level doesn't work, sounds : taken out of context.)
basically I'm just surprised nobody gives him the benefit of the doubt. And if there is a definitive example of why he should be beaten to death, i'd like to see it. So i can stop defending somebody I don't even know.
That's a rather strange assumption -- that I loathe Denis Dyack? I didn't even name him. I certainly don't have any animosity towards him personally.
If this verdict is accurate, and the SK engine was built using Unreal technology, that was a severe and obvious error on the part of stakeholder(s). Building from that, if this is true and the company's management decided to sue Epic, knowing this, then that's just insane.
Hope someone somewhere will eventually explain how exactly the penalty doubled (and explore the zany ups and downs of the whole trial). Hope this isn't just swept under the rug as "some confusing legal stuff. whatevs."
-First reaction is: it sounds like Epic wanted to make an example of SK, so no other licensee would try something like this. But I have no context for understanding whether this extra smackdown is standard procedure in cases like this, or particularly vicious. (anyone?)
- Reading through the filing just reveals a lot of motions have been filed back and forth during July and August (and the court is granting and denying all of them? in parts? wee! max confusion!)
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/north-carolina/ncedce/5:200 7cv00275/89570/862/
+ Looks like SK filed for a stay of execution, and the court replied by saying the deadline for post-trial motions had passed. (is this a sign SK's lawyers just don't know how to do their job? again?).
+ Looks they granted Epic's motion to seal its response to SK's motion for "judgement as a matter of law" (and 2 exhibits attached to that response). That means SK tried to say there was insufficient evidence for something, and Epic's response won't be released (but it worked, and included 2 exhibits).
I'm dying to understand whether SK is getting severely crushed by Goliath, or whether snarky commenters are right in spewing their bile on SK (Dyak having a big ego, or your personal opinions on the quality of Too Human, seem irrelevant to me).
A 500,000$ provincial (or "state" for you yankees) grant and a 4M loan from the federal. Can't get outtraged over this, given that they've been in business for 20 years.
Imagine this; the lost work of a band that didn't yet make their triumphant 3rd album - squandered potential of what coulda' been one of the greats, but died when they drunkedly crashed their plane during a fight over the second crap followup album they made when they were arrogant and high (led there inexorably from the heady successes of the first under a great producer they'd later shun). The notoriety of their deaths alone would make the second album sought after, enhanced by the poor original sales of a production run limited by a soured producer leading the distributor to bury unsold copies in the desert. One day Rolling Stone would track down the last surviving member (the mouthy litigious one - who got on his OWN plane) for an expose on the work for the third album, but he's turned into a reclusive crank, bumming for change from his old studio exec buddies, reminding them of his hits from the old glory days, and too proud to admit anything to the press or move on. Would make a great movie about the 70's
Too Human stinks, and there are tens or hundreds of thousands of used copies in the wild which don't have to be destroyed. I'm thinking this won't be a problem, though it might drive up the price of sealed copies, which are now, as we speak, being bought from Amazon and eBay.
edit: Hmh. Now the number is clearly in the first paragraph. Don't comment when too tired.
+ Clearly you loathe Dyak (and since you're the features editor at Gamasutra, I'm assuming this isn't a knee-jerk reaction. You've probably actually met the guy, and or know people who worked for him?)
For the past 5 years, whenever people bring up SK I see hundreds of brief comments across various websites claiming dyak is bad because of TooHuman, or because of his PR gaffes.
But I really enjoyed TooHuman, and thought Dyak was (mostly) saying interesting things about video game culture - so I've always dismissed the Dyak hate as uninformed.
Can anyone point me to the mind changer here?
+ I read through Kotaku's anonymous "we hate our boss" expose, and it mostly sounded like small companies I've worked for (the boss takes jobs he doesn't want, but he tries to divide resources so the company can still push forward on things they want to make). The point of that expose seems to be that it's disgusting Dyak was struggling to make Eternal Darkness 2 with his Xmen money. but. everyone wants Eternal Darkness 2 right? That article doesn't convince me Dyak deserves the hate.
(anecdotes about dyak wanting the color changed on a background van, when the level doesn't work, sounds : taken out of context.)
basically I'm just surprised nobody gives him the benefit of the doubt. And if there is a definitive example of why he should be beaten to death, i'd like to see it. So i can stop defending somebody I don't even know.
If this verdict is accurate, and the SK engine was built using Unreal technology, that was a severe and obvious error on the part of stakeholder(s). Building from that, if this is true and the company's management decided to sue Epic, knowing this, then that's just insane.
-First reaction is: it sounds like Epic wanted to make an example of SK, so no other licensee would try something like this. But I have no context for understanding whether this extra smackdown is standard procedure in cases like this, or particularly vicious. (anyone?)
- Reading through the filing just reveals a lot of motions have been filed back and forth during July and August (and the court is granting and denying all of them? in parts? wee! max confusion!)
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/north-carolina/ncedce/5:200
7cv00275/89570/862/
+ Looks like SK filed for a stay of execution, and the court replied by saying the deadline for post-trial motions had passed. (is this a sign SK's lawyers just don't know how to do their job? again?).
+ Looks they granted Epic's motion to seal its response to SK's motion for "judgement as a matter of law" (and 2 exhibits attached to that response). That means SK tried to say there was insufficient evidence for something, and Epic's response won't be released (but it worked, and included 2 exhibits).
I'm dying to understand whether SK is getting severely crushed by Goliath, or whether snarky commenters are right in spewing their bile on SK (Dyak having a big ego, or your personal opinions on the quality of Too Human, seem irrelevant to me).
Although, there were conditions for SK so I am not sure they received money from the government http://goo.gl/1yVnH
But don't make of SK a rule, not every studio the canadian government has invested/promised investment in went so kuku-banana