Canadian video game developer Silicon Knights was ordered to recall and destroy all of its games containing North Carolina-based Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 game engine. The video game news website Gamasutra reported on November 9, 2012, that North Carolina District Judge James Dever stated that Silicon Knights “repeatedly and deliberately copied significant portions of Epic Games’ code containing trade secrets… and used it to create a competing product, Silicon Knights’s own game engine.” The Canadian developer was also ordered to destroy existing code for in-development projects.
According to Gamasutra, Silicon Knights accused Epic Games in 2007 of “sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games” with the Unreal Engine 3. However, Epic won the case this past May and received $4.45 million in damages. In addition to those damages, Gamasutra reported that the Canadian developer has also been ordered to pay Epic’s $4.7 million legal costs.
Silicon Knights must also allow Epic to “independently verify that Silicon Knights’s game engine no longer contains and of Epic Games’ Licensed Technology,” according to Gamasutra. This will involve handing over all computers, servers, databases and everything else for the North Carolina company to access and check for itself. Silicon Knights titles that must be recalled and destroyed include all unsold copies of Too Human and X-Men: Destiny, and any code done on the unreleased titles The Box/Ritualyst, The Sandman and Siren in the Maelstrom also needs to be destroyed.
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