Too Human

Silicon Knights have filed suit against Epic Games, in a dispute over the licensing of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 for use in their upcoming Xbox 360 title, Too Human. The suit reads,

Rather than provide support to Silicon Knights and Epic’s other many licensees of the Engine, Epic intentionally and wrongfully has used the fees from those licenses to launch its own game to widespread commercial success while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games.

Turns out Epic promised licensees a functional engine six months after the Xbox 360 dev kits were released, giving them until March 2006 to deliver. It was November by the time Silicon Knights saw anything resembling a functional game engine, causing extensive delays in the development of Too Human. During the same period, Epic managed to complete their own Gears of War, and take “Best Game in Show” with their impressive demo at E3 in May 2006 - using the very same engine they failed to deliver to Silicon Knights.

Read the full, juicy story at Gamasutra.