Ontario-based developer Silicon Knights was ordered to destroy all games developed using the Unreal Engine after losing its legal battle against Epic Games, according to court documents.
The developer has until Dec. 10 of this year to destroy titles built with Unreal Engine 3. This includes code for Too Human, The Sandman, X-Men: Destiny, Siren in the Maelstrom and The Box/Ritualist. Silicon Knights is also required to recall and destroy all unsold copies of these games.
Earlier in May, Silicon Knights lost its nearly half-decade civil suit filed against publisher Epic Games. The suit, filed in 2007, claimed Epic used funds from licensing costs of the Unreal Engine 3 to fund the development of Gears of War instead of paying for improvements on the engine. Epic Games' counterclaim stated Silicon Knights breached its license agreement, infringed on the publisher's copyrights in the engine's code and misappropriated Epic's trade secrets.
Epic Games was awards $4.45 million in damages after a jury rejected claims made by Silicon Knights. The developer was ordered to pay $2.65 million of this for breach of its license agreement with Epic, and the remaining $1.8 million for infringement of copyrights and misappropriation of trade secrets.