It’s been a good couple of weeks for fans of epic lawsuits, and now we have word on the most epic of them all, the lawsuit between Too Human developer Silicon Knights and, who else, Epic Games. For those that don’t know the suit was filed way back in 2007 and was centered on the idea that Epic Games withheld specific details regarding Unreal Engine 3, parts that prevented Too Human from achieving its true potential.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of claims that Epic likes to keep key secrets involving Unreal Engine 3 to itself – to help improve the quality of their franchises like Gears of War – but this lawsuit was the biggest and boldest of the accusations. However, the suit has come to an end with Epic being awarded $4.45 Million as a result of their countersuit, which claimed that Silicon Knights breached the license agreement for Unreal Engine 3.
The news comes to us by way of Epic’s Mark Rein who tweeted definitively, “Case over. Jury finds for Epic on all counts.” An official press release from Epic revealed more details about the victory, and no member of Silicon Knights’ (personnel or other) has issued a statement.
Obviously, as gamers know, Epic Games has gone on to bigger and better things, while Silicon Knights has struggled since the release of Too Human. Originally planned as an epic trilogy (Advent Rising anyone?) based around Norse mythology, Too Human failed to strike a chord with gamers, despite Creative Director Denis Dyack’s lofty proclamations.
According to Dyack the incongruence between Epic’s Unreal Engine and Silicon’s licensed copy resulted in the developer being forced to develop their own engine, which hurt the project immensely. And the rest, as they say, is history.
More recently Silicon Knights put out X-Men: Destiny, an extremely unsuccessful superhero title published by Activision. Things really took a turn for the worse after Too Human, leading some to believe this lawsuit had some grounds, but apparently in the judge’s eye it did not.
How do you feel about Epic Games being in control of so many games’ success with their Unreal Engine? Would you still like to see Too Human finish it’s trilogy?
Source: Joystiq
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As strange as it sounds I felt like Too human’s villians felt to much like a rip off of Mass effect’s Geth.
I really liked Too Humans concept, too bad the final product sucked
same thing here, i thought the whole futuristic norse gods idea was really cool, and everything looked cool, but the game ended up sucking hard and it’s their own fault for not testing anything properly prior to release, the fact that you use the right analog stick for melee sums up how stupid the combat designers where (i only got like 30min into the game before i ejected it).
I enjoyed Too Human, it’s story was cool, concept was awesome, combat just needed to be improved/be less repetitive. I would love at least one sequel with improved combat mechanics to finish the story
I think Too Human was a semi-decent game that could be EPIC-ally be rebooted in a hollywood style sequel/reboot, especially if silicon knights is willing to pass the torch before they fall off the face of the earth.
Ah, somewhere deep down in my heart, I know Advent Rising is someday going to get the sequel it deserves. Or a badass reboot. Sure it had bugs and frustrating control schemes in addition to a botched marketing campaign and a questionable art direction. But the epic plot, characters, voice acting, environment, and the soundtrack more than made up for it in my mind.
As for Too Human… it’s beyond saving. The game was just too clunky controlwise and incoherent plotwise. I did adore its Deus Ex inspired theme of exploring the disassociating effects technology can have on mortal standards and expectations, and it was refreshing to see a new twist on Norse mythology, but it just wasn’t compelling enough for me. Only option is a reboot, if there’s an option at all. I don’t see one, personally. And while this game is technologically more solid than Advent Rising, at least with AR I had fun playing. Playing Too Human just felt like a chore.
Pity about Epic games. Makes sense though. Using a borrowed engine comes with risks. Legally, my opinion is firmly with the Gears creators. But I am disappointed they didn’t provide Silicon Knights full disclosure. Now I have to question the quality of games running an Unreal engine, because I wouldn’t know if Epic shortchanged the developer again.
Epic was paid to provide a service and they screwed SK over.
Too Human was a brilliant game concept that ended up with a bad rap due to Epic’s short-changing. The judge probably got paid off and telling SK to destroy their own IP was just wrong.
I hope for a reboot.
If we don’t get one, then Too Human is going to remain on my shelf as a reminder of what could’ve been an awesome game.