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Development historyToo Human was originally in development for the PlayStation as a 5-disc action-adventure game. It was shown at E3 1999,[1] but shortly before its completion Nintendo announced an exclusive partnership with Silicon Knights, and the game was moved to the Nintendo GameCube in 2000. A teaser trailer was shown at SpaceWorld 2000 showing what appeared to be a re-building of the PlayStation game. The game never surfaced though, and the partnership between the two companies was ended. After this, the title was still thought to be in development for the GameCube, but those plans have since been canceled.In the May 2005 issue of EGM, Silicon Knights announced a partnership with publisher Microsoft to develop a trilogy revolving around the Too Human universe exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is being developed using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. On the 19th July 2007 it was announced that Silicon Knights were suing Epic Games due to "inadequacies" of Unreal Engine 3 .
How odd.The part I found funny was SK blaming Epic for the current delay of Too Human, and now they have to build their own engine, etc. That game was in development for the Playstation 1, I think you should be used to delays by now, no?
E3 2006 Issues DocumentedA key point of contention is the E3 demo of Too Human, which was not well received - the suit alleges: "The final development kit for the Xbox 360 was released by Microsoft in early September, 2005, meaning that Epic was obligated to deliver a fully operable version of the Engine to Silicon Knights by no later than March, 2006.""That delivery date is significant, since compliance by Epic would have given Silicon Knights time to prepare an appropriate demonstration version of its Microsoft Xbox 360 game, Too Human, for the very important industry trade show, E3, two months later in May, 2006."It continues: "Epic apparently was able to achieve a very useable version of the Engine for the Xbox 360 – the version that it kept to itself, for use only on its Gears of War game (as discussed below), to the detriment of Silicon Knights and Epic’s other licensees, as set forth in more detail below. Epic’s plan to avoid its obligations and hoard all of the necessary functionalities not only harmed Silicon Knights and all of Epic’s other licensees in the industry, but also gave Epic a clearly unfair advantage in the industry."How so? "That advantage was nowhere more evident than at E3 2006, where Gears of War was awarded “Best Game in Show” and garnered nothing but laudatory press. By contrast, Silicon Knights – one of the only other [Unreal Engine 3] developers to publicly display a playable demonstration of its game – saw Too Human roundly criticized in the videogame press for its technical problems and generally unpolished appearance. The damage to Silicon Knights caused by Epic’s misconduct was manifest, because E3 attendees were able to compare Too Human with another game running ostensibly the same game engine, Gears of War, with vastly superior results."...PS3 Engine Also Involved?Separately to the high-profile Too Human, which is Xbox 360 exclusive, Silicon Knights had licensed the engine for the PlayStation 3 and PC as well.Though other games are not prominently mentioned in the suit, so it's unclear which game this is referring to, Sega signed a deal with Silicon Knights in 2005 for an unspecified next-generation title, and it's noted in the charges:"More recently, Epic has breached its Agreement with Silicon Knights yet again by missing the six-month deadline for release of an Engine that works on the Playstation 3. Final development kits for that console were released in and around mid-August, 2006, making the functional Engine due to Silicon Knights in February, 2007. Silicon Knights has received no such Engine from Epic."
M. The Court issue the following judicial declarations: (1) the Agreement between Epic and Silicon Knights for a license to the Engine is null and void; (2) Silicon Knights owes no obligations to Epic under any purported agreement by Silicon Knights to license the Engine; (3) Silicon Knights is not required to use the Engine in developing any current or future games; (4) Silicon Knights may alter the Engine without restriction; (5) Silicon Knights is under no obligation to disclose or share any alterations Silicon Knights makes or causes to be made to the Engine with anyone, including Epic; (6) Silicon Knights owes no monetary or other obligations to Epic and/or any of its business partners associated with the agreement to license the Engine; (7) the game engine developed by Silicon Knights is totally independent of the Unreal Engine 3 and therefore is the sole property of Silicon Knights, or, alternatively, the game engine developed by Silicon Knights constitutes an “Enhancement” under the terms of the Agreement, and therefore is the sole property of Silicon Knights under the terms of that Agreement; and ( Silicon Knights owes no obligations, financial or otherwise, to Epic in connection with and/or related to the Silicon Knights Engine.
Another part of the agreement is they want out of their contract with Epic, but want to keep using the engine as a framework to build their own...
...and claim by the time Too Human ships all Epic code would be removed.
Unless Epic was severely negligent in their responsibility, I don't see how Silicon Knights has a chance in hell of winning this suit.
Maybe Too Human isn't a real game at all. It could be something that Silicon Knights made up a long time ago to use in order to stay known every now and again and now it's being used as a way to sue Epic.
This may bode well for id software, oddly enough. At E3 they showed id Tech 5 running on PC, Mac, 360, and PS3 all at speed, all using the same assets. In fact the artists that made the assets had no idea they were going to be used on the PS3. Looks to be a multi-platform dream engine.So if this case goes south for Epic and devs get fed up with the engine, id will be there to show off their stuff.
I still don't get the id tech 5 thing. It looks like slightly better Doom III to me. The artists seem really excited about it, but I just don't get it at all.
