Epic Games and Silicon Knights are set to go to court in a long-running legal battle over Unreal Engine 3 licensing that has been in waiting since 2007. The Too Human developer claimed that Epic caused damage to its long-gestating project by failing to “provide a working game engine”, suing the Unreal Engine creator in 2007, but now documents obtained by Kotaku show that the legal spat may be heading into the court room, as the suit goes before a jury.

Silicon Knights alleges that Epic's “sabotaging” of Unreal Engine 3 licenses and the withholding of an improved version of the engine, as well as using license fees to help fund development on Gears of War led the Ontario-based developer to “experience considerable losses”. As a result Silicon Knights is demanding a cut of Gears of War's profits as compensation.

A federal court has agreed to let Silicon Knights put forward its allegations of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, unfair competition, breach of contract and breach of warranty in front of a jury, which the Too Human dev calls a “victory in their litigation against Epic.” What's more, the dev may have an ally in Disney, which also had similar claims against Epic in 2006.

Epic Games has yet to respond on the matter, but Silicon Knights offered the following statement:

“When Epic first went public about our case to the press, they said that our claims were without merit,” said Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack. “Two separate federal court judges have now disagreed with Epic, and have ruled that the case does have merit.

“Silicon Knights has always wanted to have our focus be on making great games, not litigation. This ruling will allow us to have our day in court, before a jury, and to shine the light publicly on Epic’s conduct. We are very confident the jury will see the truth behind Epic’s actions.”