Silicon Knights Suffers Mass Desertion
See Full ImageYou never want to hear something like this. It's just plain depressing.
According to MCV (citing a currently crippled Kotaku), developer Silicon Knights might be down to less than five employees. Yeah. Five.
Why? Well, it's kind of an ugly story. Inside sources claim the team was "playing fast and loose with the funding of X-Men: Destiny coming from Activision," with the apparent goal of working on a secret Eternal Darkness 2 demo. Furthermore, one insider said that if you talked to current and former Silicon Knights employees, they'd say there's an "appalling antipathy from management towards the employees, publishers, and the quality of their games." A strong and sad statement.
Unfortunately, the report goes on to say some very unkind things about boss Denis Dyack, who is described as thinking artists are "a dime dozen" and is accused of running a "benevolent dictatorship." Further, it seems Dyack told his team to deliberately miss milestones so as to increase funding and extend deadlines. Activision then announced a release date and Silicon Knights was forced to play catch up, resulting in this:
"The entire company was refocused to work on X-Men. At this point, they also started instituting a mandatory six-day-a-week, 10-hour-a-day minimum crunch. That lasted, and got worse, until they shipped."
And they shipped this pile of junk. Yeah, I'll just leave it at that.
Thanks, BikerSaint!
Tags: silicon knights, xmen destiny, silicon knights developer, gaming industry
10/30/2012 9:34:28 PM John Shepard
Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Follow PSX Extreme on Twitter
Comments (14 posts)
Amnesiac
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 @ 11:46:37 PM
Reply
Silicon Knights is responsible for one of the best game sagas I've ever played: The Blood Omen series.
If you haven't played it, you should
I would stack that story line up with
Lord of the Rings anytime.
Eternal Darkness was great too.
I wish I could have more game experiences like that.
Last edited by Amnesiac on 10/30/2012 11:51:04 PM
0 up, 0 down
ethird1
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 5:16:27 AM
Reply
As in all businesses, you have to keep on schedule or you will end up losing your company by losing profits and gaming is no exception.
Im betting everyone of these whiners are slouchers who cant handle these words, "Hey, we need to speed up a bit we are on a time schedule here."
If you cant handle that kind of pressure you just need to quit.
1 up, 0 down
berserk
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 7:57:08 AM
"Further, it seems Dyack told his team to deliberately miss milestones so as to increase funding and extend deadlines. Activision then announced a release date and Silicon Knights was forced to play catch up, resulting in this " .
The faster you need to do stuff the easier it is to make mistake and if the time shedule is so tight ( he made them slow down at some point resulting in too much work for too little time ) that you don t even have time to fix those you get something like X-men destiny .
2 up, 0 down
Ludakriss
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 7:30:58 AM
Reply
I mean seeing this kind of sad non-co-operation is sick. Especially when it's inside the creative and artistic sphere.
I just hope the people who left got re-hired swiftly and with a normal, humane company.
1 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 11:40:30 AM
Reply
This is too bad too. I used to have respect for these guys. Eternal Darkness was a fantastic GC game. One I valued very high for that gen. MGS Twin Snakes was also a neat face lift to the crude display the PSX version appeared by that time.
1 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 12:08:11 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Zeronoz
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 12:26:31 PM
Reply
I was disappointed when it turns out you can only play as a preset character and in a confine space.
Still have the game though...A reminder of wasted potential.
0 up, 0 down
BikerSaint
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 1:59:41 PM
Reply
Everyone here who reads my post's knows how much I hate Boobie Kotex's Anti-vision with a passion, but after closely following this story on many sites over that last few days(and if all is true), I have to say I would have to stand on anti-vision's side on this one.
It seems that Dennis the Dyck is a 1-man tyrant who opposed anything that that went against this thoughts & wishes even though it was tearing down his workers & his company.
And if true, he baited & re-baited Anti-vision time & time again, every single time they asked his for an updated "X-Men: Destiny status" report, so he could use the time,funds, & resources, to split his team in 1/2 to do the game he "only" wanted to do, which was the "Eternal Darkness 2" sequel.
And elledgedly, that's why Anti-vision got tired of the song & dance they kept getting, and finally had the brass balls to call their bluff, be announcing a launch date, whether SK was ready or not(and at risking Anti-vision's own reputation even more once the game came out, I might add).
I just feel bad for the gamers & the SK canned employee's, because in the end, it seems that they were the ones who have been royally screwed the most in this whole fiasco.
After all's been said & done, I just hope all the canned SK workers have found new jobs quickly, & with a much better developer.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 10/31/2012 2:00:27 PM
1 up, 0 down
Ludakriss
Thursday, November 01, 2012 @ 7:06:35 AM
Peace & good gaming.
0 up, 0 down
BikerSaint
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 4:35:53 PM
Reply
Activision Publishing's Minneapolis office hit by layoffs
Activision Publishing has told Joystiq that 30 full-time employees have been laid off at its office in Minneapolis.
The cuts were made due to that Activision has fewer licensed games coming in 2013.
Full story here....
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-30-activision-publishings-minneapolis-office-hit-by-layoffs?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=us-daily
Last edited by BikerSaint on 10/31/2012 4:36:20 PM
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Reply
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 @ 10:49:44 PM