Silicon Knights Must Destroy Its Works By December

[SouthpawFencer]

Court order specifies at SK's expense, if they found out such a thing happened then theyll get hit with worse for violating court orders, which will include bigger fines and possibly worse.

I believe "at their own expense" means that they can't try to stick any retailers, or Epic, with the expenses associated with recalling and destroying the material mentioned in the judgement. If random gamers offer to toss copies of Too Human into a threshing machine for free, just for the joy of doing so, then I can't see how Silicon Knights would be called out by the court for agreeing to it.

If SK refuses to pay the shipping costs of the retailers who are complying with the recall, OTOH, the court would step in, because that would mean that a third party is unfairly (unwillingly) being impoverished because of Silicon Knight's wrongdoing against Epic.

That's what I BELIEVE to be the case, that is (I'm not an attorney).

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Once again I am at a loss as to how, in any world that makes any sense at all, is SK allowed to still exist?

I mean what will it take for it to just finally die? What little I know about their current situation is that they are largely funded by the Canadian government, so its like 38 Studios modeled their practices on them. Only Denis Dyack gets to keep all his shit while Kurt Shilling has to lose all his stuff.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the same court ruled that SK had to brand themselves with a great big F across their forehead for fail at this point. At their expense of course.

Seriously this is like the 12th news story like this about SK in as many years. Their "misfortunes" are certainly more entertaining than any of their products. Since all the shit they have incurred has been squarely done to themselves I DO feel a little pity for them, but not as much as I feel bewildered indignation at their continued existence.

 

[Gather]

They must destroy the video games instead of "stop making more"; Why do I have this strange feeling that a book burning is going to take place?

 

[lacktheknack]

I saw this thread and did a triple take.

This is NOT something you see every day.

I think this really is the end of Silicon Knights.

 

[UberNoodle]

I understand Epic had the right and used it justly to counter sue, but at the same time, this who fiasco will likely destroy Silicon Knights and they will end up being just a label owned by a big publisher to slap on things made by people who have nothing to do with SK today or the past. It will be a shame to see SK go in such a stupid way. Too Human wasn't a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but I did enjoy my time with it. There was something missing in the SK dynamic since Eternal Darkness. Perhaps that game was their one great fluke. I had hoped for them to reach that height again, but I fear that now, they're gone.

 

[Chubbs99]

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectionables.

Yup, and so it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that a $100 Too Human copy is being sold on Ebay.

Really $100 you say... I think I may have to go find my copy of Too Human now...

OT though... SK brought this on themselves. I'm a little against the idea of a creative work being destroyed completely. Something about it just feels so wrong.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

So I guess a sequel to Too Human that actually has good gameplay is too much to hope for now?

Why would you want a sequel to a bad game? Surely just "a good game" with no ties to the bad one would be better?

This is a little scary but didn't this similar thing happen with Apple/Samsung tablets recently? And Motorola/Microsoft [http://uk.kotaku.com/5907054/german-court-orders-microsoft-to-stop-selling-xbox-360s] in Germany? These things happen. In fairness, on the basis that the court was right and SK did in fact sell a game based on a game engine they didn't license, what they're doing is illegal.

Really the solution would be to settle with Epic out of court and seek permission retroactively to use the UE3, but they put paid to that with their original court case, when they were in the wrong. Sad as it is, they dug their own grave; and really, would the loss of SK make much difference to gaming? Much as I hate to say it, not really.

This ruling wouldn't have that effect. It's only interested in unsold copies. But, if you had a hypothetical case in the future where, say, Title X defamed a company, and the judge ordered "all copies of the game to be destroyed", it's entirely possible Steam would in fact have to delete purchased copies from account holders.

You said yourself "unsold copies". It would never affect copies already sold legally.

 

[Tahaneira]

So I guess a sequel to Too Human that actually has good gameplay is too much to hope for now?

Why would you want a sequel to a bad game? Surely just "a good game" with no ties to the bad one would be better?

I said 'good gameplay.' There already was a good game in Too Human, which is what made it far more frustrating when the horrible design made it unplayable. Great story concept, character design, even some of the gameplay mechanics were interesting. Only someone fell asleep at the programming wheel.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

So does this mean that games like Too Human and X-Men: Destiny are gonna become extremely rare if they're hellbent on destroying every single copy?

... We should go buy some.

 

[Starke]

This ruling wouldn't have that effect. It's only interested in unsold copies. But, if you had a hypothetical case in the future where, say, Title X defamed a company, and the judge ordered "all copies of the game to be destroyed", it's entirely possible Steam would in fact have to delete purchased copies from account holders.

You said yourself "unsold copies". It would never affect copies already sold legally.

I also said "this ruling", then I said "a hypothetical case in the future" could affect sold copies of a game. Again, not this case, this one is only interested in unsold stock. A sloppier judge could cause much bigger headaches in the future, though.

 

[DataSnake]

My guess? The judge played Too Human and decided it was a crime against humanity. Nuking the company's entire catalogue was just "the only way to be sure".

 

[Krantos]

All this because you somehow couldn't make a game about Norse Gods fun to play >(

That's the hilarious part of it. They sued Epic claiming they were responsible for how poor Too Human was. They lost and Epic counter-sued, resulting in this ruling.

That's what you get for trying to pass the buck.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

So I guess a sequel to Too Human that actually has good gameplay is too much to hope for now?

Because hoping for it before was totally worthwhile.

I'm with you on this. I played the game, and STILL dont get all the hatred it recieved. I STILL want the next game. Sure, it wasnt flawless, but the only time I truly got angry with the game was when I started trying to get my epic armor.

 

[Antonio Torrente]

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectionables.

Yup, and so it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that a $100 Too Human copy is being sold on Ebay.

Really $100 you say... I think I may have to go find my copy of Too Human now...

OT though... SK brought this on themselves. I'm a little against the idea of a creative work being destroyed completely. Something about it just feels so wrong.

Wait at least say 3-5 years, maybe your TH copy will be worth $300.

I agree with you, destroying something that a group of people put blood, sweat and tears is just awful and just plain wrong. It's also sad that SK will go down in a very undignified and humiliating way.
But karma's a ***** and they brought this to themselves.

 

[Starke]

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectionables.

Yup, and so it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that a $100 Too Human copy is being sold on Ebay.

Really $100 you say... I think I may have to go find my copy of Too Human now...

OT though... SK brought this on themselves. I'm a little against the idea of a creative work being destroyed completely. Something about it just feels so wrong.

Wait at least say 3-5 years, maybe your TH copy will be worth $300.

I agree with you, destroying something that a group of people put blood, sweat and tears is just awful and just plain wrong. It's also sad that SK will go down in a very undignified and humiliating way.
But karma's a ***** and they brought this to themselves.

The ruling came about because SK claimed they weren't using Unreal in later projects, only it turned out those projects were using the Unreal engine with some additional code tacked on without licensing it. That may also have been the case with Too Human, (claiming it was their own engine because Unreal wasn't up to snuff, when it is in fact running on Unreal Tech 3.)

Additionally, they have to basically pack up and ship all their stuff off to Epic for their three previously unannounced titles (including all their systems, and the source code), so Epic can personally verify that they aren't using any unauthorized code in them.

 

[Hatchet90]

Am I the only one who feels that this is a gaming equivalent to a book burning? Simply tragic.

 

[frizzlebyte]

As sad as it is to hear this happening, I don't think anyone is going to miss Too Human...

I won't, 'cause I got my copy right here. Only played it one time through, mind you, but still, it's here if ever there's a run on copies of Too Human on Ebay. *j/k*

I still can't believe how disappointing Too Human was. I was really excited for it, too.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Am I the only one who feels that this is a gaming equivalent to a book burning? Simply tragic.

...

No?

No, I don't. Not in the least. I mean, it sucks that a once-promising company has gone to shit, but... eh.

 

[Starke]

Am I the only one who feels that this is a gaming equivalent to a book burning? Simply tragic.

...

No?

No, I don't. Not in the least. I mean, it sucks that a once-promising company has gone to shit, but... eh.

I think they meant the destruction of unsold copies, and no, not really.

Book burning is usually because someone finds the content objectionable, this doesn't. This is more akin to a publisher pulping copies of a book because of legal issues, which also happens, from time to time.