Silicon Knights Reportedly Lays Off Dozens of Employees

@DudeOlav:This is what bothers me the most. They were a game company that got government bailout money to make games and they still sunk their ship.

Fuck whoever was running finances at that company. They're scum.

@Binbay55 said:

@Vonocourt said:

@damnable_fiend said:

@Vonocourt said:

Bummer to hear any kind of mass layoffs. Though I wonder if this means the Canadian game industry is effectively dead now, since Dyack believed it hinged on Silicon Knights success.

what about ubisoft montreal and bioware? I mean granted neither of those studios are independent, but they still probably employ a fair amount of people.

edit: also I think rockstar and ubisoft have studios in Toronto, but i'm not sure how big they are.

Eh, I knew misremembering stories from three years ago would bite me on the ass one day.

So Ontario is fucked...maybe?!

Don't forget Relic!

Canada recently surpassed Japan in number of game development studios -- becoming second only to the US -- and, with all the tax breaks from the government, the industry is still booming. Canadian game development never hinged on Silicon Knights. But it does suck to see anyone lose their jobs. If this is true, just remember these are real people. Pour one for them.

That studio has just taken a nose dive in terms of quality.

Sad as much as too human wasnt the best game it was certainly a fun one at that. With some camera controls and additions it could have been much better hopefully those laid off can find work else where.

@MooseyMcMan said:

No! Now Two Human will never be made!

Nah it's cool, Gearbox will pick it up, finish it then release it in 2012!

This studio is still open? How is that possible? Many greater studios have fallen already.

Always sucks to hear about layoffs, but this one hits me especially hard. I've met Denis and he is such a nice guy and such an outspoken evangelist of games I know that he wouldn't have laid off anyone unless it was absolutely necessary.

It seems like Silicon Knights has been in a slump ever since Eternal Darkness/Twin Snakes and just can't catch a break.

Im trying to Intern at this place, maybe now isnt the best time to go...

Well terrible game after terrible game will do that to you...

Silicon Knights is still around?!

that really sucks my heart goes out to everyone who was laid off.

@qraham said:

Always sucks to hear about layoffs, but this one hits me especially hard. I've met Denis and he is such a nice guy and such an outspoken evangelist of games I know that he wouldn't have laid off anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. It seems like Silicon Knights has been in a slump ever since Eternal Darkness/Twin Snakes and just can't catch a break.

Dennis Dyack went to my university (Brock U in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) and was all up in the recent "Both sides of the brain" ads all over campus. I don't know how that's relevant, but I thought it was pretty cool.

I think it's much more likely those laid off were actually sacrificed to our savior the festering ancient Mantorok... All hail his many-mawed greatness!

You make shit products, this will happen

This can't be HAPPENING!

This what happens when the owner is more interested in making his shitty Norse Mythology game then making a game he should have been making.

Hopefully those employees find jobs at other, better studios. I respect Legacy of Kain (as well as Eternal Darkness for innovation's sake,) but I feel that studio has lost its way.

Wouldn't have happened if we had a one console future.

as much as this sucks...

I don't think anyone should be surprised considering the quality of the titles they have released in the past few years...

@AiurFlux:

Ontario is such a good environment for development. It's a shame after the money put behind them they couldn't find their footing. I hope talent lost from this goes on to found more successful ventures. I also hope the government goes on to encourage growth of other independent developers in Ontario.

The last few years have been pretty nice as a Canadian gamer. Two of the best series this generation come out of Bioware Edmonton or Ubisoft Montreal. I see Ontario having just as much potential, and maybe more potential for indies such as Capybara.

I really enjoyed Too Human. It was definitely flawed, but hopefully they will still be able to do a sequel.

Look, never want to make fun of people losing their jobs. I wish them the best. But let's not pretend that Silicon Knights was producing anything really worthwhile.

I remember them best for making Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes for the Gamecube. Its too bad that after that they seemed to go down the shitter.

That's a pity. Eternal Darkness and MGS: The Twin Snakes were fantastic games and it's sad and strange to see this fine company making mediocre-rated games soon after. 97 to 25 layoffs - that's a lot of employees! If this report is true, I wish the former Silicon Knights staff all the best and hope that the company will come back to its glorious self.

Too Human was garbage. Only thing Silicon Knights and Dennis Dyack had a hand in making that I loved was Legacy of Kain. Where the fuck has that series gone? I know Crystal Dynamics owns the rights to it but I would love a remake/sequel.

I mentioned this was going to happen on the Reply board of X-Men Destiny review. Money talks!

I remember hearing a while back that Silicon Knights was in stealth mode developing a PS3 exclusive project for Sega. Never heard a word about it beyond that and that was quite some time ago. I wonder if that got cancelled and between it and X-Men Destiny (which as bad as it was, was likely just as big a fault of Activision giving it no real budget or marketing help, it was literally made so they didn't lose their Marvel contract), they just had nothing for that many employees to do. It sucks cause St. Catharine's isn't exactly a hotbed right now and I don't believe there are any other game development shops there besides Silicon Knights. Despite Dyack's crazy statements in the gaming press, I always admired his passion and from what I read, he was apparently a very good guy to work for. I hope they can claw their way back to success because the amount of independent AAA studios left in the industry is getting scarily small.

Almost forgot about these guys. What the hell have they done since "Too Human". Wasn't that franchise supposed to be a "planned trilogy"?

But their releases were so timely and never delayed!

That's a real bummer for a lot of people just before the holidays. That said, it wasn't completely coming out of nowhere since their last few titles didn't exactly set the world on fire, critically or financially. I hope all those that lost their job can land on their feet quickly.

Eternal Darkness was cool, and MGS Twin Snakes is fantastic (so obviously, people ignore it). But Silicon Knight slipped like a mothereffer after Nintendo dropped 'em. Part of, what I like to call, "The Microsoft Curse". Studios that worked for Microsoft either go out of business (Ensemble, FASA, Realtime Worlds, Bizarre Creations, BigPark, Digital Anvil, Studio Gigante, Just Add Monsters...there's a WHOLE bunch from the Xbox1 days) or have their output changed significantly, both in terms of quality and the types of projects they actually do (Rare, Silicon Knights, and I bet it'll happen to Twisted Pixel soon enough...).

It seems like something that should be avoidable with some competent management and leadership, to be honest. Makes me think that Nintendo really whupped these guys' asses into shape when they were Nintendo second parties. In fact, I remember Retro Studios talking about working with Nintendo of Japan on Metroid Prime, before they were a proven entity. They said that Miyamoto and Yamauchi (who, I'm assuming, just teleconferenced) visiting were like Darth Vader and the Emperor visiting the Death Star:)

My point is, people have been questioning Dyack's leadership for awhile now. Perhaps it'd be better if this were true? And all the guys let go from Silicon Knights formed a new studio - one that, hopefully, works a lot better than SK currently does?

It sucks when game developers lose their jobs. But, more often than not, talent will always rise to the top; they'll build new studios. So let's hope these dudes get back on their feet real quick, and announce some iOS/XBLA/PSN/Steam games to start making money and growing into a real awesome studio real soon.

I hope there is enough of them left to do a HD port of Eternal Darkness, or at least help out with the Dolphin version, that's about all I want out of Silicon Knights now, thanks

@Sagalla said:

I hope there is enough of them left to do a HD port of Eternal Darkness, or at least help out with the Dolphin version, that's about all I want out of Silicon Knights now, thanks

Dolphin version?

It's a shame what's happened. I really enjoyed Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes; the developer was at their best when they had Nintendo and Konami holding their hand. But when left to their own devices, it became apparent that they need that sort of guidance.

After reading the title I let out a long "grooaaannn". It always sucks to see things like this happen to a studio. This might be a little bit OT, but as far as I under stand it, its not the programmers\artists\etc fault that a game suck. Surely this falls upon the head of the project leader to make sure the project he\she is in charge of, is up to modern day standard.

"This texture looks bad, fix it" or "this part does not play fun at all, lets brainstorm and rework it" etc.

Anybody have any insight on this process work? I'm purely speculating here and would love to get a "behind the scenes" look on how to process is done.

God damn it you can't disband Silicon Knights until they make the next two Eternal Darkness games!

You can't!

As someone with 150 hours put into a single Too Human character (yeah), this makes me kind of sad

Sincerely hope all these folks land on their feet somewhere. If any former knights are reading this, don't break bad, guys. :P

@Shadow: You are not the only one :)

The game was not perfect, but I really enjoyed it. I kinda felt that everybody jumped on the "Hate Too Human" bandwagon.

I bet they are screaming "This isn't really happening!" like the characters in Eternal Darkness when they suffered a sanity effect.

It was such an awesome game. After a while I started playing with my sanity meter low just so I could experience all the cool stuff. The fake "Your gamecube disc is broken" was a good one, but the most scary one was the fake deletion of the save file when you tried to save.

When you play fast and loose with who you hire, who you sign with and what you make, this kind of stuff happens.

While I feel bad for the people with legitimate talent who just lost their job, I'm sure more than a few of the displaced ex-employees didn't really pull their weight anyway. Granted, all the trouble they've been through could be less about lazy workers and more about bad management, but I digress. Someone wasn't doing their job very well, and that's why that X-Men game exists.

I liked Eternal Darkness, and it sucks to hear people lose their job, but after X-Men: Destiny? I wonder if this can be spun around to another anti-Bobby Kotick thing.

It was bound to happen folks.

Never nice to hear of people losing their jobs :( Best wishes for swift re-employment to all those effected!

A shame for the employees, that said you make one to many bad games and your asking for cut backs.

I honestly forgot Silicon Knights was still around. It's unfortunate that their recent development record does them such a disservice, but at the end of the day they are in control of the quality of their games. Survival of the fittest seems to be taking effect.

@Tru3_Blu3 said:

@Rabbykayn said:

@Tru3_Blu3: Come on now.. you can't run a business if it's losing money.

Fuck business.

I'm not getting into this discussion about the evils of big business..but this is an extremely stupid statement. Fuck business? without business we have no video games moron.

It doesn't augur well for them if Dyack's keeping mum.

WAAA LAYOFFS WAAA! Can't keep everyone on the payroll if you're hemorrhaging money. Business 101

It always sucks to hear about someone getting laid-off, but I would bet most of those people will find work sooner than later.