It has not been a good 12-months for Silicon Knights, not by a long shot. The Canada-based studio late last year had to lay off over half its staff, and earlier this year, the courts sided with Epic Games over the two companies' dispute regarding Epic's Unreal Engine.
Now, it seems things have taken another twist for the worse. According to a newly-unearthed court document by NeoGAF, it states that Silicon Knights must recall and destroy every unsold copy of their games that was built on the Unreal Engine…and what's more, it has to come out of Silicon Knights' own pocket.
Here's part of the document.
To read the entire 41-page ruling, click here.
The ruling states that Silicon Knights should "cease producing, distributing and destroy" the games mentioned below.
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Too Human
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X-Men: Destiny
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The Sandman
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The Box/Ritualyst
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Siren in the Maelstrom
The courts has also specified that Silicon Knights should notify them and Epic Games no later than December 21, 2012 and again on February 21, 2013 concerning its compliance with the injunction.
Is this the deathblow for Silicon Knights? It's been reported before that the studio behind Too Human owed Epic Games $4.45 million in damages. Add that to the studio's last game, X-Men: Destiny, which bombed hard both critically and commercially, it's hard not to think that the studio might cease to exist after this.
Do you think Denis Dyack and Silicon Knights are getting their just desserts or is Epic pushing this a tad too much?