Silicon Knights loses suit against Epic; must pay $4.5m

Maybe someone will now buy the rights to Too Human and finally make the other parts of that trilogy...

Wow, so basically every bluster that's come out of Dyack's mouth for years has been pretty much proven false.

Hopefully this was the final roadblock against more Legacy of Kain games, too.

Hasn't Crystal Dynamics has owned the series since after the first game?

Also, hopefully a new Eternal Darkness game.

Can you elaborate on that? I've seen a lot of info on this as I was once part of a SK fan community (I liked Too Human, for awhile) but I haven't heard anything about that aspect to this situation.

SK was already screwed even if they'd won, given that the judge in this disqualified their expert witness and had issued an order that SK would be awarded a settlement of only $1 per claim even if they did win, because SK never supplied the judge with details about the damages sought.

I think Nintendo still owns the rights to that IP.

I remember that someone owned the Blood Omen name, and someone owned the Legacy of Kain name, and there was all sorts of legal fighting over it. Hard to believe that SK was embroiled in legal battles, right?

Interesting, thanks for the info.

And nothing of value was lost.

Canadian and Ontario tax payers might disagree.

If there's anything we've learned this year it's that government funded game development is a risky proposition at best.

Between this and the RI / 38 Studios debacle I wonder how long it'll be before governments are all excited about subsidizing game dev again.

That's unfortunate. SK could really have used that dollar.

Per claim, man! If they'd won, Denis could have bought himself a coffee at Timmy's!

Silicon Knights staff now less than five including Denis Dyack.

Original (fairly long) story on Kotaku.

Oh, the Kotaku article goes on to expand on Dyack's relationship with publishers...

Man, that Kotaku article is getting more awesome by the paragraph.

It's too bad they couldn't get such a lengthy expose on a company we care about and a game that someone expected to be good.

Everyone knows it's supposed to be your wife's sister.

The worst thing about that article is discovering that Silicon Knights, and not Nintendo, own the IP to Eternal Darkness.

I'm hoping SK kicks the bucket soon and has to sell off the rights, Interplay style. Maybe Frictional Games could pick up ED and make a good sequel.

I don't know about anything else, but Nintendo definitely owns the name "Eternal Darkness". And the copyright for Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

I'd call this SK being SK, most likely. I can completely see Dyack pouring money into developing a sequel to a game he doesn't actually own.

Note to self: Don't ever sue Epic.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=499120

Will any of those titles be mourned though?

Of course not.

My sealed box copy of Too Human just got more valuable.

Maybe someday it'll be worth $60 again.

I wonder if they'll bury them out in the desert alongside all the unsold E.T. cartridges.

Was it really ever worth $60 to begin with?

Too Human had its problems - like many games, including Ubi's latest - but it had some cool ideas and a lot of potential. Unfortunately it was way too short, too disjointed, and the story was muddled. Despite the flaws, I still enjoyed playing it (in co-op especially) and I think it provided a different take on hack & slash (or shoot & loot, depending on your class) RPG-lite gameplay with a distinct art style.

But yeah, nothing was surviving Dyack's leadership. What is it with megalomanical CEOs suing people in an effort to blame someone else for the failure of their games? (OMG what if Epic Games has the Elemental Materials?!? DUN DUN DUNNN)

I remember kind of liking the Too Human demo, but I never did get around to checking out the full game, and then the negative reviews probably put me off it in the back of my mind. I'd be tempted to borrow a friend's copy to take a proper look, if I didn't have a zillion other better games to get to first...

I could've seen myself playing it, I have a buddy who is big into diablo-likes, so if he was a console guy and had picked it up, it probably would've served us decently.

If antiques road show, pawn stars, and american pickers has taught me anything, it takes more than just a rare status to be valuable. There needs to be demand as well. Too Human is going to probably take so long to be valuable, your children will sell it after you pass away for a meager 200-300 bucks, and they will just waste it on an expensive night out.

Now, a sealed box copy of the first Blood Omen game? Might be worth a little more. To me, anyway.

Dude... you bought Too Human for $60.

You can trade it in on Amazon for 70 cents. I'd say that's a good deal, you should jump on it.

Nah, I think I paid $10 for it. But it once sold for $60.

No, you have to consider inflation. Maybe a cheap night out.

Wages have actually stagnated for the past 40 years, and they'll probably continue to stagnate, so yes $300 will be an expensive night out for anyone not the 1%.

I have to admit it...

I loved Too Human. I played it to death, and even while grinding gear I enjoyed each moment. I actually do hope someone is able to continue the trilogy.

Note that Silicon Knights deleting all the licensed Epic code shouldn't have been very hard, given that when they brought the suit in 2007, they said

Of course this is a funky definition of "abandon / create" because it's clear from the language that it involved elements of the Unreal Engine, but that they would be deleting the Unreal code anyway:

But they also sought legal judgement that they didn't have to delete it, even though they were deleting it anyway:

In other words, Dyack totally made this bed.