Silicon Knights Confirms Layoffs, Denies Eternal Darkness Cancelation Rumor

Denis Dyack consulting with human resources.

Yesterday we posted a story on how Silicon Knights’ lawsuit loss to Epic Games has really done grievous financial damage to the studio. The fallout’s been so bad, said a post on NeoGAF, that the studio laid off employees for the second time in about half a year, and that Nintendo pulled support of a rumored sequel to Eternal Darkness.

But according to Silicon Knights’ Denis Dyack, that isn’t the case. “As to the rumor about Nintendo, it is not true and has no basis in fact,” he told GamesIndustry late yesterday. As to what aspect of the rumor “has no basis in fact” isn’t quite clear, especially since the game that was allegedly canceled hasn’t ever been announced in the first place. So was there no game to cancel? Or is the game moving ahead regardless of support from Nintendo?

As to the other aspect of yesterday’s story, Dyack confirmed that more staff members have, indeed, been let go:

“Silicon Knights has unfortunately had to lay off a small number of people,” Dyack is quoted as saying. “We are scaling back to a core group and focusing all our efforts on future opportunities.” No word on how many people have lost their jobs, or what opportunities the studio will be pursuing. The company is also planning on appealing the courtroom decision that ordered them to pay Epic Games $4.5 million.

Via GamesIndustry