Sony, unlike Silicon Knights, is pledging their support to Epic. Speaking with Game Informer, Sony’s Head of Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, said that, “If we’re honest, we didn’t do enough of a good job supporting them and getting them the tools and technology early enough.” Harrison goes on to detail how Sony has given them assistance in the form of a crack squad of engineers who will help the optimization of UE3 for the PS3’s cell technology.

Sony’s support comes with great timing, following the lawsuit filed by UE3 licensee, Silicon Knights (SK). SK has filed the suit with Epic over the alleged breach of contract concerning the production of a useful UE3 engine. See our previous post to learn more.

It is not that surprising that Sony comes to the aid of Epic. Afterall, at the E3 2007 Sony Conference Epic announced that Unreal Tournament 3 would be a timed exclusive for the PS3. If there is one thing that Sony needs it is exclusives. Well, that and a real fucking price drop.

Chufmoney

Epic released a press statement today to several larger news outlets, including Gamasutra, stating that Too Human developer Silicon Knights has filed a suit against Epic. The lawsuit stems from alleged abuses by Epic concerning the licensed Unreal Engine 3. According to Silicon Knights’ lawsuit, Epic, “Rather than provide support to Silicon Knights and [their] other many licensees of the Engine…intentionally and wrongfully has used the fees from those licenses to launch its own game to widespread commercial success while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games.”

The basis for this claim centers on Silicon Knights’ accusation that Epic failed to provide a functional iteration of Unreal Engine 3 to Silicon Knights within six months of the release of final Xbox 360 development kits, as stipulated in their contract with Epic. Silicon Knights claim that Epic failed to do this with both the 360 and the PS3.

Silicon Knights’ claims that they are not the only one that has been affected by this and that there are several other companies that have been mistreated as such by Epic. The suit alleges that these companies were affected as such in order to make Epic’s game look better than the other companies who were licensing their engine. Silicon Knights has claimed that this is the reason that they had such an infamously poor showing of Too Human at E3 2006.
Epic’s Vice President, Mark Rein, has stated that the claims in the suit are, “unfounded and without merit and we intend to fully defend against them.”

As indicated in the lawsuit, Silicon Knights have continued work on the project with their own engine since May of 2006, removing and replacing elements of UE3.

We’ll keep you updated as more news is made available.

Chufmoney

The Gears of War maps we’ve been hearing about for months are up for a surprise release this week, and the news on price is what’s been hinted at for a while now: immediately upon release, the Hidden Fronts map pack will release for 800 points, which is 10 dollars in non-MS money (and which works out to about 2.50 a map), and 5 months later, in September, the maps will be made free. I will probably buy these; I don’t think 10 bucks for half an expansion pack is unreasonable, and while yes, I understand that Epic “wanted them to be free”, Microsoft published the game and funneled an enormous amount of money into the project. Combined with their role as publisher, and as platform holder, and as retailer for the content essentially, their desire to sell the content is just as valid as Epic’s desire to give it away free, even if you wish Epic had won out. What’s more, Microsoft has committed to the content releasing for free in the Fall.

And yet, the bitching has already started. There continues to be a sense of entitlement amongst certain areas of the internet that claim everything should be free, although I never heard any complaints that fLow, a title which existed as a flash game for free, cost money. I can understand that mentality, but in this case I don’t agree with it. Not only in this case can you apply the “don’t like it, don’t buy it mentality” here, you can later apply the “don’t want to pay, so get it free in a few months” mentality. So why are people upset? I want opinions, people.

-Aegies