Silicon Knights ordered to recall and destroy Unreal Engine games

[Guild McCommunist]

If you've read the news in the past couple of years, you've probably seen that Silicon Knights is simply not crusading. The developer has been at the butt end of many an issue, including mediocre reviews for their last two games, Too Human and X-Men Destiny, and facing massive layoffs. Today, however, it seems like Silicon Knights will be receiving a fatal blow.

After a long lawsuit against Epic Games over the Unreal Engine, the courts ruled in favor of Epic, forcing Silicon Knights to, at their own expense, recall and destroy all unsold copies of games using the Unreal Engine. This includes their last two major releases, Too Human and X-Men Destiny, as well as The Box/Ritualyst, The Sandman, and Siren in the Maelstrom. Silicon Knights was also ordered to pay $4.45 million in damages to Epic Games.

Silicon Knights is best known for making Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the Gamecube and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain for the original Playstation and PC. They also made the Metal Gear Solid remake, Twin Snakes, for the Gamecube.

Silicon Knights was slated to make an Eternal Darkness sequel for Nintendo's upcoming Wii U system, but with such a harsh blow, it's quite possible this project will be left in the dark.

Source

 

[Hadrian]

This company is worthless. They had the opportunity to make a good game with a well known X-Men license that could have helped them get put back on the map but instead put it on the back burner to work on a Eternal Darkness sequel that Nintendo never asked for (and SK couldn't release without Nintendo's say so) and they would never finish and to be honest would not have been a big success anyway.

Not only that they also started three other titles at the same time as X-Men & ED2 (none of which had publishers), which now can never be released because of this, wasting resources & millions in money (which was given to them from the Canadian government) that could have been put into making a good X-Men game (that actually HAD a publisher).

The problem with this company is solely Denis Dyack who can't manage for shit and seems to be more interested in insulting everyone in the gaming world. Since Blood Omen & Eternal Darkness got good reviews, he seemed to have this stance that his company was amazing and any publisher should be lucky to put out their games. Fact is, they had one hit with Blood Omen, a critical hit with Eternal Darkness that sold "ok" and that is it.

I hope it's staff can move onto developers who know how to manage their work and Dyack is never heard of again.

 

[Gahars]

I commend this ruling. The world is much better off without Too Human and X-Men Destiny.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I commend this ruling. The world is much better off without Too Human and X-Men Destiny.

Much like Too Human, I feel like they'll have a long and painful death scene though.

 

[Gahars]

Much like Too Human, I feel like they'll have a long and painful death scene though.

I'd say the last few years have been one protracted death scene for the company.

 

[Fear Zoa]

That sucks, now i'll never see a sequel to too human. Am I really the only person who liked that game? It had its flaws sure (That ungodly long death sequence for one) but I still thought it was a good game nonetheless.

 

[ferofax]

The bad thing they did here is that they siphoned off of paid projects to feed a secret bastard child, the Eternal Darkness sequel they were brewing. That's bad business, downright dirty even, and it's now biting them back. If they paid better attention to the jobs that paid them, they could have stayed in the market longer and could have seen better reputation, which in turn helps in getting more projects that paid until they can properly fund whatever projects they wanted to do.

And now they're being told to tie up all loose ends, including their own necks in the noose.

 

[Clarky]

and nothing of great value was lost

 

[Issac]

I am one of those poor bastards who will always wait for a sequel to eternal darkness
However, i don't give a damn about any of their other releases

 

[Annieone23]

I believe SK cannot function without some sort of authority breathing down their back, something Dennis apparently resents. ED :SR, their best game imo, and Too Human, a mediocre but playable game, were both made with Nintendo and Microsoft, respectively, checking in. Once they went freelance, so to speak, everything went to pot because Dennis seems to be a regular nut.

As much as my body wants a sequel to ED, the one SK was working on, right before all this forced them to can it, would probably have sucked ass. My wishes for a sequel are probably better left as wishes than instead turning into the big disappointment I can only imagine they were cooking up. If Nintendo has the rights they should give it to Retro, that team seems perfect for such a project imho. Retro though probably has enough on their plate atm though.

 

[Foxi4]

Wow. That's a huge blow...

I'm a big Silicon Knights fan - Legacy of Kain is one of my favourite franchises and I have to say, I'm pretty saddened by this turn of events. I'm not familiar with the case, if they "deserved" that kind of a verdict then hey! Triumph of Justice, but it still saddens me just because I like the company.

 

[Midna]

Eternal Darkness was never slated for Wii U. Dyack went mad with power and tried to find another publisher to get it on non-Nintendo systems.

 

[pwsincd]

Didnt they have permisions to dev using the unreal engine ?

 

[Annieone23]

Eternal Darkness was never slated for Wii U. Dyack went mad with power and tried to find another publisher to get it on non-Nintendo systems.

Could they even do that though? IIRC ED is a Nintendo property, not a SK property. Even if they found another copasetic publisher, could they really have expected said publisher to spend so much money to buy the rights as well as fund the game? Especially considering their recent track record. I think its more likely SK was developing the game/tech demos to show Nintendo and hope they bought into a sequel.

I just googled it real quick and the first few results are people claiming that not only does Nintendo own the rights to ED but they also own the patents on the sanity meter effects. IDK for 100% fact if that is true or not, but its what everybody on the internet is claiming.

 

[Zero]

Eternal Darkness did have a sequel n development, and Dyack never tried to get it on other systems. It was suppose to be for Wii U. I think if Silicon Knights didn't be so dumb with using the Unreal Engine, they might still be able to finish the game.

 

[Foxi4]

Don't you think that the ruling is quite Unreal though? ()

I mean, recalling all games using the engine? Really? In 20 years time, they'll be collector's items just due to their (sudden) rarity.

 

[Disorarara]

Exactly what did they do wrong in legal terms with the engine? It seems like everyone's using it these days.

 

[Zero]

There was a licensing issue with Epic Games that caused a lot of problems with the development of Too Human and consequently got SK sent to court. They lost, and pretty much this is product of the situation.

 

[DSGamer64]

Maybe Nintendo will buy the company when it's value is at it's lowest point, then they can make Eternal Darkness 2

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Maybe Nintendo will buy the company when it's value is at it's lowest point, then they can make Eternal Darkness 2

I really doubt it. The IP isn't worth enough money to buy the company and the talent there is incredibly lacking. I mean they made two games that can be considered "good" and everything else has been from average to awful.

Nintendo usually isn't in the business of buying bad devs either.