Epic takes win in Silicon Knights appeal

The United States Court of Appeals has ruled against Silicon Knights’ appeal of a lower court decision which awarded a total of $9.2 million in damages and legal fees to Epic Games.

The January 6 decision is almost certainly the final battle in the fight between the Unreal Engine maker and the studio behind Too Human, which began in 2007 when the developers sought $58 million in damages over allegations Epic had failed to provide adequate support.

The court eventually decided against Silicon Knights and ordered the studio to pay Epic $4.5 million in damages and $4.7 million in legal costs pertaining to a countersuit on the grounds the team had “repeatedly and deliberately” copied Epic’s code in the creation of their own game engine.

This wasn’t the end of the studio’s court-ordered woes, as Silicon Knights was forced to stop selling Unreal Engine-developed titles and recall and destroy all versions of Epic’s tech found in their products or code assets.

Silicon Knights reportedly cut its staff to just five members in 2013, and it’s not at all clear that there’s a corporate entity still around to pay the costs.

Studio founder Denis Dyack left to join the troubled Precursor Games, which has repeatedly failed to get the necessary funding for its first project.