Epic Games had been looking to get Silicon Knights" lawsuit completely thrown out, but the court has decided to deny the request and the litigation will continue. GameDaily BIZ today received an update on the lawsuit between Epic Games and Silicon Knights (SK). Back in August, SK, developer of the upcoming Too Human trilogy for Xbox 360 sued Epic Games, alleging that Epic kept a usable version of the Unreal Engine to itself for Gears of War development and provided SK with the kit far too late. SK believes that Epic harmed development of Too Human, as well as other Epic licensees.
Following the filing of the suit, Epic filed a counterclaim and a motion to dismiss SK"s suit altogether. The counterclaim said that SK "decided to misappropriate Epic"s licensed technology" and that their lawsuit "lacks factual or legal merit." Today both SK and Epic Games confirmed to us that Epic"s motion to dismiss the suit has been denied. "[The Judge] put the discovery process in motion, which will allow the lawsuits to move forward. Epic had asked for the entire case to be dismissed. Judge Dever denied this request, which is not unusual," Epic VP Mark Rein said. "Often these requests are denied. It is important to note that this was not a decision on the merits of Silicon Knights" claims. We are confident that the evidence will show Silicon Knights breached its license with Epic Games and violated our copyrights and trade secrets."