http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6175386.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=la
Not sure just how new this is, but it seems more serious than it looks. From what I gather, Epic gave them a version of the Unreal Engine, but took a lot of time doing so, wouldn't update it like they were doing for gears in order to make themselves look better than any competition using the same engine.
Some interesting pieces of the article:
"As for Epic, the suit claims the company was perfectly able to make a workable version of Unreal Engine 3 for E3 2006 to show off its own Gears of War, but withheld the technology from its partners for its own advantage. When pressed for the updates and engine tweaks that allowed Gears of War to run well, Silicon Knights says it was told those updates were "game specific" enhancements not covered by the agreement, as opposed to an "engine level" update that would be covered."
"Silicon Knights claims those partners were stuck with an Xbox 360 engine that was unable to handle multicore processing, subject to long load times, inefficient memory usage, and crippling slowdown. The developer further claims that Epic would ignore its requests to correct those problems unless doing so would also benefit the development of Gears of War. It also said Epic consistently advised licensees to code things like particle effects in one manner, while at the same time using a completely contradictory method in Gears of War."
Also, it details somewhere that it cost the developers any potential profits, and a lot of budget improving on the unreal engine (which epic wont support), and plan to remove any code from it that epic made eventually. Another section states thatfees sent in by the developers to Epic so that they could fund improving the unreal engine were used to improve gears instead.
Most interesting one to me is:
"The suit accuses Epic of a number of misdeeds, including fraud, negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with contractual obligations, breach of warranty, and unjust enrichment. Silicon Knights is seeking to have the contract between itself and Epic Games declared null and void and be refunded all of the money it spent to license Unreal Engine 3. The developer also wants to be awarded punitive damages for the offenses it alleges Epic committed.
Finally, the studio is asking that Epic be forced to surrender all profits garnered by Gears of War as a result of misconduct"
I doubt they will get that but I do think Epic deserves it if any of this is true.
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