Silicon Knights Must Destroy Its Works By December

[Antonio Torrente]

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectionables.

Yup, and so it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that a $100 Too Human copy is being sold on Ebay.

 

[Dreadman75]

...or at this point, the Board could just cut their losses, file for bankruptcy and walk away from the entire fiasco. Given the company's financial state and what it's going to cost to comply with the court order, that probably makes a lot more sense than keeping SK going until the bitter, inevitable end.

That's probably true but wouldn't it require some form of common sense on the board's part?

I think, after reading this and other supplemental info, SK has proven they have common sense in VERY short supply, if any at all.

 

[gigastar]

So this is the logical extreme of being unable to admit that you couldnt make a good game.

I suppose i should feel something for SK, but its hard to sympathise when theyve seemingly focused all thier efforts into getting vindication over thier accusation that Too Human was somehow Epic's fault.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I do feel kind of sorry for them, I'm pretty sure they don't have $4M lying around. Honestly I'm surprised they haven't completely disbanded yet.

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectibles.

I'm pretty sure I still have my copy of Too Human somewhere.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

and let it be known this is what happens when you let the so-called "artists" run rampant throw their egos around

 

[Vivi22]

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectionables.

Boost sales of what? They have to destroy any unsold copies and the source materials. They literally have nothing to sell even if a sales boost happened. Maybe, it'd boost sales in the second hand market, but given how reviled the titles are I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Just to be clear, this won't effect Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes copies, right? Because they don't use any Unreal stuff?

 

[Callate]

I'll grant that SK was being kind of a dick, but ouch, that's harsh. I can't rejoice to see the countersuit put into effect provisions which will undoubtedly be the end of the company. They did, at one time, make some pretty good games.

 

[esperandote]

This will boost sales for them and make remaining games collectionables.

Boost sales of what? They have to destroy any unsold copies and the source materials. They literally have nothing to sell even if a sales boost happened. Maybe, it'd boost sales in the second hand market, but given how reviled the titles are I wouldn't bet on it.

Of the mint games that remain in retail before december 10th.

 

[ratix2]

Just to be clear, this won't effect Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes copies, right? Because they don't use any Unreal stuff?

Yep, but I doubt there are any new copies of either of those floating around anywhere.

 

[Rad Party God]

So... no Eternal Darkness sequel then? [http://nooooooooooooooo.com/]

But I guess this had to be expected from a company as disorganized as this.
I'm just sad this affected any chance of seeing another game similar to Eternal Darkness.

 

[Rad Party God]

Welp, looks like the resale price for Eternal Darkness copies, GameCube controllers and memory packs is going to soar...

Someone really needs to pick up the Lovecraft fad. The last Call of Chtulhu PC game was serviceable at best, and ED was my first and best shot at metaphysical horror outside of the written word. I'd kill for something out of Lovecraft or Howard's trippier works that would make the transition to the small screen and controller in a successful fashion.

Not a console game, but The Secret World does take many inspirations from Lovecraft's work, I'm a huge fan of Eternal Darkness and I was glad to see a game that reminded me so much of Eternal Darkness in a good way.

 

[major_chaos]

Welp, looks like the resale price for Eternal Darkness copies, GameCube controllers and memory packs is going to soar...

Actually I don't think so. If I'm reading correctly this only applies to new unsold (is in, never opened) copies of games, and at that only ones that use UE3. Most people are going to be buying ED used at this point and I don't think it uses UE3 so this really shouldn't reduce avalability.

OT: dick move by Epic in response to a dick move by silicon knights. considering I hate both of them already, at this point I couldn't care less.

 

[Starke]

Specifically, it worries me with regards to Steam: If any of these games had been on Steam (Were they? I don't know, they're not titles I'm familiar with and they don't seem to be there now) would Valve have been forced to delete titles from owner's libraries?

Yes and no. This ruling wouldn't have that effect. It's only interested in unsold copies. But, if you had a hypothetical case in the future where, say, Title X defamed a company, and the judge ordered "all copies of the game to be destroyed", it's entirely possible Steam would in fact have to delete purchased copies from account holders.

And, depending on how the order was written, it's entirely possible this would occur without Steam or the game's developer or publisher having to compensate anyone.

Edit: Also i'd suspect (if i know the odd Dev here and there) someone will attempt to back up and smuggle offsite soon as, perhaps leak it if necessary on a 'External breach due to shifting of equipment' Because honestly, most of those guys would love to piss off epic right now.

It's always possible, but I doubt it. Doing so could be considered failure to comply with the order, which in turn could lead to even nastier sanctions.

 

[SouthpawFencer]

Maybe Silicon Knights can recoup some of their losses by allowing members of the to, for a fee, destroy some of the physical games that are still in storage.

I'm betting that there'd be no shortage of customers willing to pay for an opportunity to take a highly destructive tool to a Too Human or X-Men: Destiny box. Heck, that might be their most profitable game-related move in the past few years.

Bonus points if they offer up a mock-Lancer rifle with a working chainsaw bayonet for the job.

 

[gigastar]

Maybe Silicon Knights can recoup some of their losses by allowing members of the to, for a fee, destroy some of the physical games that are still in storage.

I'm betting that there'd be no shortage of customers willing to pay for an opportunity to take a highly destructive tool to a Too Human or X-Men: Destiny box. Heck, that might be their most profitable game-related move in the past few years.

Court order specifies at SK's expense, if they found out such a thing happened then theyll get hit with worse for violating court orders, which will include bigger fines and possibly worse.

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well I'm not entirely sure how much weight to give this. I haven't been following this case, but how many times has it been appealed? I'd imagine Silicon Knights is going to file an appeal and that battle is going to go on.

That said the propeties of SK that were mentioned were hardly successful and are probably taking up storage space, destroying them at this point is probably going to be no big deal. "X-men Destiny" being the only property that I see as having any intrisctic value due to the Marvel liscence. Good game or not, I can see that game actually increasing in value over time just for that reason, though that remains to be seen. The less copies of something out there the more valuable it becomes.

 

[MrBrightside919]

As sad as it is to hear this happening, I don't think anyone is going to miss Too Human...

 

[Epilepsy]

Looks like the mayan prophecy was right about something, this will sure feel like the end of the world to Silicon Knights.