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Silicon Knights Says Unreal Engine is Broken
Yesterday we discussed Too Human's absence from this year's E3 event, and briefly mentioned the just-announced lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic. Today there's a bit of a clarification. Silicon Knights is suing Epic because, according to Kotaku, Epic failed to 'provide a working game engine' to SK causing them to 'experience considerable losses.' Essentially Knights argues that the Gears of War version of the Unreal engine was withheld by Epic so that Epic products could show up competitors at trade events. For a deeper look at this, the blog runs down the allegations in detail, and concluded by noting that a slew of next-generation titles slated to use the Unreal Engine have been delayed several times. This includes Stranglehold, BioShock, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Turok, Frame City Killer, Fatal Inertia and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway ... a somewhat persuasive list, when it's all laid out in front of you.
Wow, that's an INCREDIBLY good idea! You know, they paid the $250,000+ to license the Unreal 3 engine probably 2 years ago, before Gears of War came out under the guise that the engine is incredibly solid, stable, and next-gen. Now they're finding out that the engine doesn't work! Sure, go ahead and tell the people who've ALREADY licensed the engine to, not license it. They'll just have to go back in time and tell their former selves what Epic will do to them AFTER receiving their money... Right. I did a good bit of mod work with the Unreal 2 engine, and I was quite impressed with the toolset. It's disheartening to see Epic mistreating Unreal 3. This is, if true, most definitely false advertising, maybe even to the point of being a bait-and-switch.