Silicon Knights Must Destroy Its Works By December

Any unsold product Silicon Knights built using Unreal Engine 3 must be recalled and destroyed by December 10th.

The end times have come for Too Human, X-Men: Destiny and a host of other Silicon Knights properties, all built using Unreal Engine 3. A judge’s November ruling, as part of the resolution to Epic Games’ countersuit which Silicon Knights spectacularly lost in May, states that unsold copies of the games must be recalled and destroyed by December 10th, 2012.

“Overwhelming evidence establishes and supports Epic Games’ copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation counterclaims,” the judgement’s conclusion says. “Silicon Knights’ arguments to the contrary are baseless.”

The full text of the ruling can be found here but the bits worth looking at are on pages 40 and 41. The scourges include:

3. After Silicon Knights has removed all of Epic Games’ Licensed Technology from Silicon Knights’ game engine, and after Epic Games has, at Silicon Knights’ expense, independently verified that Silicon Knights’ game engine no longer contains any of Epic Games’ Licensed Technology, Silicon Knights shall destroy the code for all prior versions of Silicon Knights’ game engine in its possession.

5. Not later than December 10th, 2012, Silicon Knights shall destroy all versions of the Licensed Technology in its possession, including (but not limited to) the video game code and game engine for Too Human, The Box/Ritualyst, The Sandman, X-Men: Destiny and Siren in the Maelstrom …

6. Silicon Knights shall cease producing or distributing … and shall recall and destroy (at Silicon Knights’ expense) all unsold copies …

Silicon Knights has until December 21st to let the court and Epic know how it’s getting on with the recall and destruction of its product line.

Silicon Knights is looking at a grim future. Leaving aside the $4.45 million in damages Silicon has to pay to Epic, recalling and destroying unsold product at its own expense, as well as trashing any part of its code Epic’s technology ever touched, is going to be a nightmare.

Plus Epic gets to independently verify the destruction. No doubt Epic will enjoy itself, in a grim satisfaction sort of way, but it has to be galling for Silicon to have the company it was trying to sue for $54 million on-site, either in the virtual or the real world sense, sniffing around for dirt and sticking Silicon with the tab.

Source: Eurogamer