Eternal Darkness 2 Demo May Have Scuttled X-Men: Destiny

The Wooster

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Jul 15, 2008
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Eternal Darkness 2 Demo May Have Scuttled X-Men: Destiny


Former Silicon Knights staff suggest the studio didn't take the development of X-Men: Destiny seriously.

X-Men: Destiny was a lousy game, even by the relatively low standards used to judge licensed money-spinners. Our own Susan Arendt called it "repetitive, ugly, stupid and boring," [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9156-X-Men-Destiny-Review] before bashing it on the head with a miserable one-and-a-half out of five. Recent statements from eight anonymous ex-Silicon Knights staff suggest that despite the fact Destiny was the company's last shot at life following the disastrous release of decade-long money-sink, Too Human, the studio considered it little more than a side project. Instead, up to 40 percent of the studio's staff were tasked with creating a pitch demo for a sequel to horror classic, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

"Silicon Knights didn't take the development of XMD seriously the entire time I was there," reads a statement from one of the developers. "While I was there, they were even siphoning off staff from my [X-Men] team to work on it."

"I was always complaining to the producers about this, as the numbers never worked out. Denis [Dyack, studio boss] is not an X-Men fan either, so he didn't care much for the license. To him, it seemed more like a job to get us by, until ED2 could be developed and sold to a publisher, which never happened."

"Some of the individuals on the [Eternal Darkness 2] project were major contributors," a second source added. "At the time, they suggested the developers should be brought onto X-Men Destiny to shore up the team and help them get back on track."

While the words "Eternal Darkness" and "sequel" in the same sentence no-doubt invokes a kind of Pavlovian drool response in savvy gamers, Silicon Knights' decision to focus on a pitch rather than its active project may have doomed the game to development limbo. The poor performance of X-Men: Destiny, combined with the costs of a drawn-out lawsuit with Epic Games, forced the developer to shed most of its staff. Last we heard, Silicon Knights is now composed of five people, including founder and boss, Denis Dyack. What's worse, according to the developers the demo wasn't even good.

"The farthest they got with it when I left SK was, literally, one two-level church interior," claimed another former employee. "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.

"Other than that, I can't explain why things went so poorly for them [except that] a lot of key people responsible for the original Eternal Darkness are long gone."

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x+men-destiny]

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Anti-American Eagle

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I keep throwing oney at them but they never listen to me...
Just make an HD remake of the Sanity's requiem and release it on as many things as possible.
Code:
[b]LISTEN NOW, you will make money.[/b]
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Silicon Knights?

I thought Activision garotted them when thier lawsuits against Epic was thrown out and XMD became a monumental flop...

I guess theres still time for it to happen.
 

therandombear

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Ryans Solution said:
I keep throwing oney at them but they never listen to me...
Just make an HD remake of the Sanity's requiem and release it on as many things as possible.
Code:
[b]LISTEN NOW, you will make money.[/b]
This, HD remake for 360, PS3, Wii/WiiU and PC, even a Vita if you feel like it. That will bring in money for the sequal I so much want, and if that's not enough...kickstarter it, still powers there.
 

LazyAza

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Wow they make 3d Realms seem well managed and focused. Talk about running your studio in to the ground, feel sorry for all the genuinely hard working folks who were with the company.
 

The_Darkness

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DAMMIT SILICON KNIGHTS!!!

Okay, look. If there's a Developer and/or Publisher out there that's listening: buy the IP for Eternal Darkness. Recruit the original team that Silicon Knights has now, apparently, fired. Then make Eternal Darkness 2 properly. Please.
 

Rad Party God

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I squee'd like a school girl when I saw "Eternal Darkness 2" and "demo" in the same sentence, heck, I think my hart skipped a beat, but after reading this... I am dissapointed that Silicon Knights have fallen even lower than Rare, if that's even possible.

And I'm even sadder with the thought of an unlikely HD release of Eternal Darkness as Nintendo owns most of the game.
 

SonicWaffle

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Grey Carter said:
X-Men: Destiny was a lousy game, even by the relatively low standards used to judge licensed money-spinners. Our own Susan Arendt called it "repetitive, ugly, stupid and boring," [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9156-X-Men-Destiny-Review] before bashing it on the head with a miserable one-and-a-half out of five.
I only just got around to playing this game last week, and you know what?

It was alright.

I'd heard it was unpopular, certainly, and was in fact pleasantly surprised to find it only mediocre. The boss fights were a right pain in the arse, what with having to restart at the first stage of a three-tier fight whenever you died, but it was an easy hurdle to overcome. I had been expecting a Conan-level shitfest, but Destiny was simply OK. Mechanics did the job, graphics were average, the powers system was interesting...why all the hate? I'm quite a fan of X-Men as a franchise and if a fanboy can't work up a decent reason to get angry then by God, the world has turned upside down.
 

Johnson McGee

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Don't worry everyone, SK is just trying to erode our sanity meters before releasing Eternal Darkness 2.
 

maconlon439

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Uh guys, about you guys requesting an HD remake, I'm fairly certain when Silicon Knights made ED when Nintendo published it their arrangement included Nintendo owning the copyright to it. I'm fairly certain I remember during the ED credits, seeing the phrase "This title is copyright Nintendo" or something like that.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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and this is why Dyack should have been sacked a long time ago. I can't call it surprising though as SK was always a mediocre developer who got lucky with one title YEARS ago and has been coasting off unearned laurels ever since.
 

Baresark

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That is why there is no place for them in this industry. They were among the stupidest development houses around. They had done a few things right, then they fell into the sunk cost fallacy with Too Human, then they made a game that was terrible. The concept of the XMen game was awesome, but the execution was abominable.
 

DrunkOnEstus

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May 11, 2012
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Please, don't start any future headline with "Eternal Darkness 2 Demo". My hopes were raised to the clouds and dashed to the ground in a 2 minute span. It's exhausting.
 

Anti-American Eagle

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Johnson McGee said:
Don't worry everyone, SK is just trying to erode our sanity meters before releasing Eternal Darkness 2.
Well played sir, well played...
 

BreakfastMan

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Jul 22, 2010
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DVS BSTrD said:
It's almost heartwarming to have a company like Silicon Knights in the video game industry.
Where most developers are just in it to make money, Silicon Knights isn't in it to make ANYTHING!
You know, if most devs where in it to just make money, theu wouldn't be game devs at all. The salaries are freaking terrible compared to most all other areas of software developement. :p

OT: Ah well, Silicon Knights was always a bit crap anyway. IMO, they just kind of got lucky there for a while, and with Too Human, their real colors showed, for once. Actually kind of glad this went under, since I would rather have no sequel at all than a crap one. :p