Author: by Staff

In response to reader demand, Gamasutra is posting the full .PDFs of Unreal Engine 3 creator Epic's recently filed countersuit against licensee and Too Human developer Silicon Knights, including plenty of unrevealed technical specifics. The .PDF of the original Silicon Knights claim against Epic, which alleged: "Epic intentionally and wrongfully has used the fees from [Unreal Engine 3 licensees] to launch its own game to widespread commercial success while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games", is available online, having been posted by game weblog Kotaku, among other outlets. However, Epic's multi-document countersuit has not been available to the public other than in summarized form, so Gamasutra is posting the .PDF documents supplied by Epic's Mark Rein on behalf of the firm's lawyers, so that all interested readers might examine them in detail. Specifically, the documents consist of the following: Epic's counterclaim [PDF] - the full 17 page response to Silicon Knights' initial suit, including background information and point by point rebuttal of the first set of allegations. Epic's 'motion to dismiss' [PDF] - a short 5 page document which explains the precise reasons why Silicon Knights' allegations cannot be substantiated or acted on. Epic's memo of law in support of its motion to dismiss [PDF] - this dense 23 page legal document is largely an arguing, relating to other cases, of why Silicon Knights' claims are not legitimate, citing cases such as 'Terry's Floor Fashions' along the way, but includes the biting rhetoric cited by Gamasutra: "SK's lawsuit is a pretense. SK does not have any valid claims against Epic. SK filed suit in a bid to renegotiate the License Agreement, in the hope that Epic will prefer that to the burden of responding to discovery and associated adverse publicity." Epic's Exhibit A to counterclaim [PDF] - unfortunately, Epic has sealed the majority of the information on its Unreal Engine 3 licensing document, meaning details such as the amount of money Silicon Knights paid for it has not been revealed. Nonetheless, these 5 pages are extracts from the UE3 license document. Epic's Exhibit A-D in support of motion to dismiss [PDF] - this large 52 page document includes references to some sealed exhibits sadly not available to the public, such as the license agreement, but also does include intriguing technical emails between Epic support and Silicon Knights employees in the first few pages of the document.