The Hair-Pulling Continues
The legal scrap between Epic and Silicone Knights continues, with Epic counter-suing the developers of Too Human on numerous charges including, rather seriously, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. But which of them is in the right?
If Silicone Knight’s claims prove to be true, then they really have had suffered some pretty serious harm at Epic’s hands. That is to say, if Epic supplied a faulty engine, late, and sold it on the basis of false information, which they then deliberately hamstrung in order to make Gears of War look good in comparison, then they are guilty of the worst kind of corporate malpractice, and deserve to be punished accordingly.
On the other hand, is it just me that feels that if Epic really had done all that, then there would be far more people than just Silicone Knights kicking up a fuss by now? Instead, we have a solid chunk of our next generation titles being powered by Unreal 3: Bioshock, Mass Effect and Stranglehold to name but a few, and all of their developers, as far as we know, entirely satisfied with the licence.
Perhaps Silicone Knights simply choose the wrong engine for Too Human, or maybe they felt the need to try and explain away last years poor reception at E3. Perhaps they do have a genuine grievance. At the end of the day, though, this lawsuit seems likely to hurt them far more than it will hurt Epic, even should they be successful. They have more than likely cut themselves off from ever again using an engine that has consistently been at the cutting edge of gaming technology, whilst Epic are unlikely to see any shortage of customers beating a path to their beautifully rendered door.
And if they lose, and are successfully counter-sued, then we may well see the premature closure of a creative and talented, if somewhat under appreciated, development house.
Gaming Wisdom of the Crafty Banana 
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