Silicon Knights vs. Epic Games: implications for the industry

The implications of the lawsuit filed by Silicon Knights against Epic Games may be more than either  – or anyone – bargained for. It could affect parties in the gaming industry who aren’t even involved in the lawsuit. According to a lawyer who has expertise in the gaming industry, middleware providers as a whole may suffer depending on who wins the case.

 

The lawsuit filed by Silicon Knights involves the Unreal Engine 3 for its game, Too Human. It claims that the version of the product provided by Epic Games wasn’t as good as the one Epic kept for itself. SK further claims that this is an effort to sabotage its video games, while games from Epic will benefit from a properly working version of the engine.

The counter-suit filed by Epic claims that its warranty does not involve “the operation of the Unreal Engine Â… will be bug free or error free in all circumstances, nor that any defects of the Unreal Engine Â… can or will be corrected.” Should SK win the lawsuit, the lawyer (who wishes to remain anonymous) believes that all disclaimers like this will lose credibility in court, and middleware providers will lose their exclusions for liability. The lawyer states:

If the licensee got as far as trial, that party has then overcome what the licensors have always thought as their line of defense in those exclusions from liability, including the exclusion of the scope of how much the damage can be.

Furthermore, if Silicon Knights does win the case and receive more money than it paid for the Unreal Engine, middleware providers everywhere will have a reason to be worried. SK winning would mean that if a game bombs, developers could take legal action and dump the failure on middleware providers. The lawyer adds:

Say I’ve licensed this [engine] to all the big developers that have multi-million dollar projects going, and if their projects go south and they’re all able to blame me for it, then I could lose my company. […] I think the impact, if the licensee were to win, would be phenomenal–a real shakeup, a major breakthrough. If, on the other hand, the licensor were to win–Epic or whoever–it would sort of be business as usual.

However, if Silicon Knights wins the case through legitimate evidence of its claims, then developers would gain their own line of defense against middleware providers who didn’t live up to their contracts.

The implications of the lawsuit filed by Silicon Knights against Epic Games may be more than either  – or anyone – bargained for. It could affect parties in the gaming industry who aren’t even involved in the lawsuit. According to a lawyer who has expertise in the gaming industry, middleware providers as a whole may suffer depending on who wins the case.

 

The lawsuit filed by Silicon Knights involves the Unreal Engine 3 for its game, Too Human. It claims that the version of the product provided by Epic Games wasn’t as good as the one Epic kept for itself. SK further claims that this is an effort to sabotage its video games, while games from Epic will benefit from a properly working version of the engine.

The counter-suit filed by Epic claims that its warranty does not involve “the operation of the Unreal Engine Â… will be bug free or error free in all circumstances, nor that any defects of the Unreal Engine Â… can or will be corrected.” Should SK win the lawsuit, the lawyer (who wishes to remain anonymous) believes that all disclaimers like this will lose credibility in court, and middleware providers will lose their exclusions for liability. The lawyer states:

If the licensee got as far as trial, that party has then overcome what the licensors have always thought as their line of defense in those exclusions from liability, including the exclusion of the scope of how much the damage can be.

Furthermore, if Silicon Knights does win the case and receive more money than it paid for the Unreal Engine, middleware providers everywhere will have a reason to be worried. SK winning would mean that if a game bombs, developers could take legal action and dump the failure on middleware providers. The lawyer adds:

Say I’ve licensed this [engine] to all the big developers that have multi-million dollar projects going, and if their projects go south and they’re all able to blame me for it, then I could lose my company. […] I think the impact, if the licensee were to win, would be phenomenal–a real shakeup, a major breakthrough. If, on the other hand, the licensor were to win–Epic or whoever–it would sort of be business as usual.

However, if Silicon Knights wins the case through legitimate evidence of its claims, then developers would gain their own line of defense against middleware providers who didn’t live up to their contracts.