Was being the key word here.
First, though, let's back up a bit. Silicon Knights had a great track record on the GameCube, creating the much beloved Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. At the same time, they had been slaving away for years on a little title called "Too Human", a game surely destined to be their masterpiece.
Let's just say it didn't work out that way. Too Human was released to mediocre reviews and apathy from consumers. Their next project was X-Men Destiny, and the reception of that game was even worse. Now the company has five staff members to its name, including founder Denis Dyack.
According to a new report, though, it seems that Silicon Knights was trying to create a demo for Eternal Darkness 2 during development of X-Men Destiny.
Eurogamer
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
The report goes on to describe how the developer cared little for the X Men title, and repeatedly siphoned resources from the title for this demo. It even appears that Silicon Knights kept Activision, its publisher at the time, in the dark about all this.
Needless to say, X Men Destiny flopped hard, and Silicon Knights was hit with serious layoffs. They've gone from being a respected name in the industry to becoming a mockery of itself (Silly-con Knights, if you will).
As for the sequel to Sanity's Requiem, don't get your hopes up. It looks like the franchise may just be stuck in Eternal Darkness.
First, though, let's back up a bit. Silicon Knights had a great track record on the GameCube, creating the much beloved Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. At the same time, they had been slaving away for years on a little title called "Too Human", a game surely destined to be their masterpiece.
Let's just say it didn't work out that way. Too Human was released to mediocre reviews and apathy from consumers. Their next project was X-Men Destiny, and the reception of that game was even worse. Now the company has five staff members to its name, including founder Denis Dyack.
According to a new report, though, it seems that Silicon Knights was trying to create a demo for Eternal Darkness 2 during development of X-Men Destiny.
Up to 40 per cent of Silicon Knights staff worked on an Eternal Darkness 2 demo while under contract to develop the X-Men title for Activision, sources told Kotaku.
The demo was designed to attract publisher attention while the remainder of the studio plugged away at the superhero adventure, according to the report. It's unclear if Activision was aware of all this.
The report draws on comments from eight anonymous ex-Silicon Knights staff, all of whom painted a damning picture of conditions at the developer.
..."The farthest they got with it when I left SK was, literally, one two-level church interior," another former employee stated. "It was really bad, as I recall. It took the side team a long time to even get that far. Bad tech, combined with a team composed of people who had not shipped a title since Metal Gear [Twin Snakes], really hurt that demo."
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
The report goes on to describe how the developer cared little for the X Men title, and repeatedly siphoned resources from the title for this demo. It even appears that Silicon Knights kept Activision, its publisher at the time, in the dark about all this.
Needless to say, X Men Destiny flopped hard, and Silicon Knights was hit with serious layoffs. They've gone from being a respected name in the industry to becoming a mockery of itself (Silly-con Knights, if you will).
As for the sequel to Sanity's Requiem, don't get your hopes up. It looks like the franchise may just be stuck in Eternal Darkness.