The rumors are no longer rumors, according to a report by the Financial Post. Silicon Knights has laid off a sizable chunk of its staff, the result of a sudden project cancellation by an unnamed publisher.
“We had another project lined up that had been in the works for months, which had been green-lit and at the final second, at the high corporate level, the project got canceled,” said studio CEO Mike Mays in a statement. “We don’t know why. Probably something to do with the publisher on their side, but that resulted in us having too many people so we had to do a layoff.”
It’s unclear what project was given the axe, but rumors about a sequel to Eternal Darkness, either officially or spiritually, have swirled for years.
Employee resumes, including one filed on Linkedin right now, reaffirm Silicon Knights was working on something called The Box. It’s unclear whether that’s still true.
Sega announced a development partnership with the Canadian developer back in 2005, but we’ve yet to see anything come from it--if the project still exists.
If Silicon Knights is able to sign another project quickly, Mays said it hopes to hire back the employees that were just told to clean up their desks.