There's no denying that
Silicon Knights' lawsuit against Epic has made some considerable waves, almost to the point of polarization in the games developer community. Some side with Epic, some with Silicon Knights. There are those who applaud the now-controversial Unreal Engine 3 and those with complaints. I am pleased to announce, however, that the argument can now be brought to a sweet finality, as KOEI (creator of the best videogames in the world) has stepped up to the plate and inadvertantly thrown some coal on the fire. I was leaning more toward Epic's side of the fence, but what can I do? Koei gives me
Dynasty Warriors. This means everything it says is purest gospel.
Jarik R. Sikat, KOEI's sales and marketing manager, has waded into the cesspool with his own opinion on the matter. "It may be worth pointing out that many other publishers are having problems with the UE3 engine on the PlayStation 3,” Sikat stated when talking about Koei's experience with the Unreal Engine.
For a response from Epic's Mark Rein, as well as my own thoughts on this situation, hit the jump.
[Update: I recently had some private words with KOEI regarding the general perception of what was said, most notably the context in which it was said. As you might be able to tell from the edits, general Internet perception of Sikat's words are somewhat skewed. For the record, Koei has a partnership with Epic Games, one it doesn't want to jeapordize by appearing to back Silicon Knights, a company with which it has no relationship at all as of yet.
Because I in no way, shape or form wish to cause any undue hassle for my favorite company, I have made the necessary clarifications and hope that this clears up the rife online confusion about Jarik's statement.]
[Via Deeko. Tip by Joe Burling]
Mark Rein's response:
“The bottom line is that making great games is hard work. There is no magic cure-all that completely hides the complexity of making world-class high-performance games on complex computing systems. We’re making huge strides toward making the engine fast on next-gen platforms and you can’t expect us to get that done overnight.”
“Our engine is not a launch-title technology. If you want to make launch titles you take your previous-gen engine and upgrade. If you want to make stunning true next-gen games like Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 (which people who license our engine generally often aspire to) you have to accept that it takes time to learn the intricacies of the systems.”
So, who exactly is right and who exactly is wrong in this whole muddy batch of shenanigans? It is of course impossible for we outsiders to truly have a firm opinion, but I have to say that not everything's black-and-white in life. I don't believe Epic is The Devil, deliberately screwing over its competition and ripping the last shreds of food from the mouths of starving African babies. That said, there have been a few complaints made against Epic's level of support for its product and I do feel that customer relations might be a problem for the company.
Rein is right to suggest that the Unreal Engine isn't a magic box of tricks that will make your game, provide a night of lustful congress and cook you breakfast in the morning, but at the same time, his statement almost gives credence to the idea that Epic just dumps the product on your doorstep and says "Here you go, now you figure it out."
This is naturally nought but wild conjecture from a man who is not a developer and I wouldn't present my thoughts on this subject as anything but. One thing I am sure of though, is that Too Human is thoroughly boned now, especially if Silicon Knights is going to spend its time in a courtroom instead of the development grindstone.
Contest:
3:40 PM on 07.25.2007
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Are they still making that game?!
That's what you get for trying to oversell a product, promising too much and under-delivering.
And fucking SK need to finish their game I WANTS IT
who knows if they did this intentianally or not but i think in the midst of developing their own games and over licencing their engine they might have bitten off more then they could chew. what happens when you can only help so little? well i guess you hafto choose who gets your help. So maybe they decided to help the other major developers instead. Still if they broke the contract then they made their own bed.
Too Human is going to rock and this fiasco could only generate more sales. unless you got the hard core epic fan boys who will change their minds because their favourite developer god sued.
If the deliverables were ambiguous enough that Epic has greyspace to maneuver around their promises... shame on the developers like Silicon Knights and KOEI for not demanding more detail.
Sadly, we may never know... unless it ends up in court and public record which I highly highly doubt.
wait, erh... UT3, forgot about that. midway will keep its mouth shut haha.
that KOEI babe makes me wanna go all Borat on her...
...Ok I kinda wanted that game.
One will stand and One will fall. And id-tech 5 will go: "tee hee"
In other news, I am fully prepared to blow a load or three inside that KOEI babe above.
I just made a blog rant (my first of many to come, I guess) about this, and I broke down why the Cell's architecture is causing so many problems like this lawsuit, but can also be the PWN360-Cell if used right.
http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/pics3/tgsbig/tokyogameshow46.JPG
I really doubt it has anything to do with the cell since too human is a 360 exclusive and they also mention bioshock and mass effect
my feeling? SK feels that Epic shouldn't have been working on their own games after just releasing a new engine - all Epic's time and energy should have went to further developing and supporting the engine and the licensees.
check your post, Its nice and all but I pointed out one minor factor why its not Sony's fault, you should read it >_>;
Poor technical support and customer service: possible. But if suing for poor customer service was a profitable venture, most of the world's companies would be bankrupt.
This court decision will be over as soon as a judge gets a look at the contracts and licensing agreements between the companies. Things aren't implied in contracts, they need to be specifically stated. My guess? SK didn't read the fine print, or perhaps is making up their own. If things were being withheld, the threat of a suit would have sufficed. And the fact that Epic doesn't appear to be trying to settle tells us that they feel pretty confident that they're in the right.
We all know Nintendo doesn't eat that stuff, the shoot up teh drugs.
-"“Many other games using the Unreal Engine 3 have been delayed including Stranglehold, BioShock, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Rainbow Six: Vegas for the Playstation 3, Turok, Frame City Killer, and Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway.” Videogames being delayed? Unheard of before now, right guys?""
...just he PS3 version of RB6:V.. but the Unreal engine worked fine for the 360 version? Also, what game this gen hasnt been delayed? (besides noted RB6:V for the 360).
Silly connection really. Now if ALL the developers had complaints.. that would be different.
Not to mention how they royally fucked up the controls for roadie running/chainsawing. They crippled "Legacy" sticks to help "default" users turn their character while roadie-running (Left stick+A). So instead of turning your character with the Left stick (+A) while RR'ing like Legacy users would normally do anyway I have to use the RIGHT stick+A to turn while running. Thanks Epic.
this one time CliffyB fucked up and sent me an inadvertant email with some spoilers about the Gears campaign and I blackmailed him into sending me an autographed Gears faceplate. True Story
I did get to monkey around with UE3 a little, and it's certainly a powerful engine. It's a natural extension of UE1 and UE2, and I give it pretty high marks for PC development, at least. My guess is that their console APIs are gimped, so it's hard to decide who's in the right here. If their customer support really is that lacking, I can see a lot of devs jumping ship and hitting up CryEngine2 , Project Offset, or even Fantasy Lab. In fact, this might be a positive thing for the industry. Competition is always good.
I'm glad you speak for the entire robot community, and approve of my blackmailing skills. I can rest easy now. Epic sux.
Midway didn't develop Hour of Victory, they published it. Nfusion was the developer.
Anyway, I think the problem is developers having difficulty adjusting to the demands of "next-gen" gaming. UE3 happens to be the most widely used engine and people are always looking for someone to blame.
STFUJDG
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develop! mudaf???er!!
I think SK should have gone with Crysis Engine2 instead of UE3.