Developers talk about Unreal Engine 3 lawsuit

12 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Jul 23rd 2007 8:38PM
Filed under: Culture, Business

Following the news of Silicon Knights suing Epic games for "inadequacies" with the Unreal Engine 3, ShackNews went ahead and talked to some developers about the issue. Of course, most of the people who spoke against the engine and its licensor Epic (Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3) did it anonymously -- except for the Postal developers, 'cause they just treat the world with one giant middle finger up in the air, although they did it so softly here with a simple: "It just wasn't the best relationship for us [with Epic]."

The statements pretty much cover the spread from good to bad. The most interesting anonymous source talks about several studios who had various levels of experience with the UE3. The key thing is that the source doesn't believe the problems were "intentionally malicious," but a product of Epic being stretched thin because of their own product development. Interestingly, this is given even more credence by Sony swooping in and lending support to Epic in getting the UE3 working properly with PS3. The question is slowly turning into what did Epic deliver to these developers through their license? How much extra work did these developers have to put into the engine to get it functional? Obviously, Sony felt the need to help out. The Unreal Engine 3 tree is going to continue shaking and we're sure to see more stories fall out very soon. Hopefully, with developers who know what they're talking about and are willing to go on the record.

Tags: dyack, epic, lawsuit, rein, siliconknights, TooHuman, UE3, unreal engine 3, UnrealEngine3

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

whosmav: Jul 23rd 2007; 8:58PM

And now it seems graphics don't matter so much. Hmm.

hvnlysoldr: Jul 23rd 2007; 9:00PM

Dead men tell no tales. It'll be up to the courts, and if there are other suits, to decide. It sounds like Epic promised the moon with UE3 but couldn't work and support them properly except on their own games.

Striderhayasa: Jul 23rd 2007; 9:38PM

you know the funniest thing about this is, Free Radical Design (haze) and Insomniac (resistance:FoM) both went on record and said they were using their own 3D engines for their games. I didn't understand why at the time when UE3 was looking to be the new darling of the industry. Now I see. Did Free Radical and Insomniac know UE3 was a proxy mine waiting to be triggered?

Now Sony is stepping in to help get the engine running properly on PS3? hmmmm, the plot thickens...this is gonna be fun.

nick: Jul 23rd 2007; 10:57PM

It sounds like UE3 for the PS3 is in worse shape then we were originally lead to believe a year ago, when it was proudly shown off during a dynamic techical demo.

cc123: Jul 23rd 2007; 11:45PM

It's not just PS3 though, the problems seem to run deeper than that.

Several X360 exclusive games have reported problems and/or been delayed due to UE3.

Steve: Jul 23rd 2007; 11:00PM

I does seem likely that there was nothing malicious about Epic's poor support for their licensees - but unfortunately that doesn't excuse them from the fact that they provided crap support for their engine.

When you have people buying your product for a couple hundred thousands dollars you better damn well make sure it works and you support your customers.

BananaBoat: Jul 24th 2007; 12:50AM

It's the first mass market, multi-thread happy engine out there, ofcourse it's going to take a little getting used to. I don't think Epic breached any of it's agreements, so I think the lawsuit is pretty unfounded. And "Anonymous" sources anywhere but the most trustworthy of reporting sites, are useless. I trust their sources as legitimate about as much as I trust Sony executives.

Marty: Jul 24th 2007; 12:56AM

"Furthermore, the developer lent support to Silicon Knights' allegations that the PlayStation 3 version of UE3 has under-delivered in terms of Epic's original claims, with the significant divergence between Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware contributing to the issue."

Sounds like the lack / different structure of RAM in the PS3 caused a few limitations of the UE3 engine to become more apparent, and instead of bitching at Sony for lack of vision, they bitched at Epic instead.

The whole thing sounds like a load of BS to me.

cc123: Jul 24th 2007; 2:19AM

"Sounds like the lack / different structure of RAM in the PS3 caused a few limitations of the UE3 engine to become more apparent, and instead of bitching at Sony for lack of vision, they bitched at Epic instead."

Did you have to use lube to pull that entire comment out of your ass?

You do realize SK is a Microsoft second party that was making the X360 exclusive game Too Human which is the centerpiece of this lawsuit, right?

DC: Jul 24th 2007; 8:50AM

"I didn't understand why at the time when UE3 was looking to be the new darling of the industry."

If you've seen the Unreal Technology website, seen demos of the tools (this book also covers them: http://www.amazon.com/Engine-Toolset-Development-Graham-Wihlidal/dp/1592009638), and done work with the editor that comes with UT2003/4, you'd know this:

The tools are GODLIKE in terms of their power and flexibility, and are probably unmatched by a large portion of the industry.

Yes, you can make your own engine, and make it run faster and look better (see: idTech stuff) but chances are you wouldn't have a map editor anywhere NEAR as good as UnrealEd, or something like the Kismet scripting system, the shader design system, the particle design system, or unrealscript.

Dud: Jul 24th 2007; 3:26PM

"You do realize SK is a Microsoft second party that was making the X360 exclusive game Too Human which is the centerpiece of this lawsuit, right?"

Actually, the reason it was launched was because Epic missed their PS3 engine release and this was the straw that broke the camels back. SK was also working on an unannounced PS3 as well, and when they found out the same thing was happening again on the PS3, they filed the suit.

All you have to do is read the article. How you got modded up is laughable.

cc123: Jul 24th 2007; 4:19PM

What's laughable is how jackasses read about this lawsuit where Sony and the PS3 are merely a bullet point in a much larger set of allegations and conclude that it's the PS3's problem.

Here is an explaination of the entire thing since you like reading:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14759

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