Author Topic: RE:Silicon Knights Breaks with Nintendo (Read 14525 times)

NewsBot · « **on:** April 13, 2004, 11:33:48 AM »

Critically acclaimed developer ends exclusivity agreement with Nintendo.

Reports broke today of Silicon Knights ending their second-party exclusive development deal with Nintendo. The story first ran on IGNcube, and PGC has confirmed the information with Denis Dyack, President of Silicon Knights.

Dyack confirmed that his company is no longer an exclusive developer for Nintendo, but he could not offer much further information.

"Our relationship with Nintendo is still strong, and it's possible that we may develop games for Nintendo in the future. This was a positive split, and we continue to have a great respect for Iwata-san (President of NCL) and the other people at Nintendo."

The real cause of the split is still shrouded in secrecy, however. Dyack could not comment on whether Silicon Knights is now an indepenent developer or if the company has aligned itself with one of Nintendo's competitors, or even if Nintendo currently maintains the investment stake it made in Silicon Knights back in 2000.

"Right now, because of the proprietary nature of game development, we can't say much."

Nintendo of America offered a similarly agreeable, vague description of today's events:

"Nintendo and Silicon Knights have reached an agreement allowing Silicon Knights to pursue its vision of videogame entertainment with other companies. Nintendo respects the creative work of Silicon Knights and the parties have left the door open to work on future projects that meet the creative vision of both companies."

Planet GameCube will be following this story closely, although official details of the developer's future are not expected for some time.

Ecrofirt · « **Reply #1 on:** April 13, 2004, 11:46:04 AM »

sad to see them go.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #2 on:** April 13, 2004, 11:46:31 AM »

Just a link to other related opinions on this news, elsewhere on the forum:
SK/Nintendo breakup thread

bubicus · « **Reply #3 on:** April 13, 2004, 11:57:29 AM »

Not a big deal to me, really. I've been playing Silicon Knights games since their old Amiga and PC games "Cyber Empire" and "Fantasy Empire" from the early '90s, so it's not like I ever expected them to stay with Nintendo forever.

Of course, reactionaries will have a field day with this one. "Ooooo, look, Nintendo's losing another developer! Oookiee oookie (jump around like monkeys, scratch armpits)."

The Omen · « **Reply #4 on:** April 13, 2004, 12:13:40 PM »

Well, it certainly is a big deal if SK has entered an agreement with Sony or, god forbid, MS. We won't know for awhile, probably because they'll finish the projects for the GC first. Then we'll hear the announcement. This sucks.

Olpus · « **Reply #5 on:** April 13, 2004, 12:37:13 PM »

Iwata must die.

nickmitch · « **Reply #6 on:** April 13, 2004, 12:40:55 PM »

I sure hope that MS won't buy SK. I don't think it's likely but hey, look at Rare.
This break up is tearing me apart inside.
Maybe they'll just be good 3rd party friends.

NotRimmer · « **Reply #7 on:** April 13, 2004, 12:42:56 PM »

Hilarious. Silicon Knights is the new Rare, only with slower development times and a relationship that went sour more quickly.

JB · « **Reply #8 on:** April 13, 2004, 12:46:23 PM »

This comes as quite a shock, seeing as that Denis recently said that he wanted to make a mature Zelda, but that he couldn't talk about it yet.

Now the next bit of my post is filled with baseless speculation.

Could it be that Konami paid Silicon Knights a large amount of money to (temporarily) lose their second party status with Nintendo? Think about it, Konami and Silicon Knights made The Twin Snakes together. If Konami wanted to port Twin Snakes to the PS2 or X-Box, they would have to get permission from Nintendo to do that, since part of the gamecode belongs to Silicon Knights. If Silicon Knights was no longer a second party, this would no longer be an issue and the game would get a PS2/X-Box release.

What's the bets that Konami are going to announce that at E3?

Ian Sane · « **Reply #9 on:** April 13, 2004, 12:55:10 PM »

"Could it be that Konami paid Silicon Knights a large amount of money to (temporarily) lose their second party status with Nintendo? Think about it, Konami and Silicon Knights made The Twin Snakes together. If Konami wanted to port Twin Snakes to the PS2 or X-Box, they would have to get permission from Nintendo to do that, since part of the gamecode belongs to Silicon Knights. If Silicon Knights was no longer a second party, this would no longer be an issue and the game would get a PS2/X-Box release."

That would be the ultimate "f*ck you" from Konami to Nintendo. Nintendo lends Konami their second party to make a game that gets released on the PS2 and Xbox? I think it's safe to say that that would completely kill Konami's relationship with Nintendo. It would be the ultimate example of stabbing someone in the back.

Not that I don't think that would happen though. In fact I would prefer if it happened because it's not nearly as bad as SK just plain leaving.

Berto2K · « **Reply #10 on:** April 13, 2004, 01:01:03 PM »

THE BIGGEST mistake this gen by far.

ThePerm · « **Reply #11 on:** April 13, 2004, 01:06:52 PM »

man....i just beat Metal Gear:TTS yesterday...i read the news and i almost had a heart attack...i almost got hit by a truck today and my hearth hadn't jumped quite so far up my throught.....

i don't know about this...i really love my SK/Nintendo tag team. It was really sad to see Rare go, but at the same time Rare's quality of games was going down. On the other hand Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear TTS are on my favorite games lists of all time. I only see Silicon Knight's games getting better. Hearing such news really wrenches my heart. I don't need another "fuck you!" like i got from Sega and Rare. Im hoping if anything its not going to have a negative effect on SK and Nintendo fans.

BigJim · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2004, 01:14:53 PM »

Best of luck to Denis and the SK gang. This is sad news for Nintendo fans, but it may be better for gamers as a whole.

Perhaps the types of games SK wants to make are simply not best suited for GameCube. As a fan of SK as well, I want them to be successful. A game like ED or a concept like Too Human would probably do really well on PS2 or Xbox.

They can still make GCN games. This isn't Rare over again, unless someone in Redmond scoops them up in the next 24 hours with a piece of their $52 billion in corporate cash.

Sorry for the double-posting. Don't kill me.

mjbd · « **Reply #13 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:02:01 PM »

Its a shame. I really liked both Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Sloid T.S. I honestly think it had alot to do with sales though. SK spent alot of time on ED, and it didnt sell a million copies. Same will probably hold true with Metal Gear T.S. I blame marketing for that, I have yet to see one T.S. commercial, and I cant remember seeing any for ED. Hopefully we still see games from them once in a while,

NotRimmer · « **Reply #14 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:04:57 PM »

Didn't Eternal Darkness commercials air during damn near every commercial break during the World Cup? That doesn't sound like no advertising to me

GaimeGuy · « **Reply #15 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:08:07 PM »

I assume that this is probably because of the lack of advertisement funding from Nintendo towards Silicon Knights. SK makes ED and MGS:TTS in collaberation with Nintendo and Konami, and yet they receive practically no advertisement funding from Nintendo. SK probably broke off to be able to get some better funding.

Either way, best of luck to Silicon Knights. Frankly, there's nothing to be upset about: The same thing happened with Square Enix, and you don't see them supporting anything but the Ps2, still. It's not like SK is leaving Nintendo (I doubt they ever will, especially with the way they get along). They just want to expand, as is natural in the business world. It also doesn't mean that SK will develop for other platforms: They just broke off the 2nd party deal, which means that the publishing deal having Nintendo publish SK's games is now over. Actually, I think it already was over: MGS:TTS is published by Konami, not Nintendo, so there really isn't much to be concerned about.

GaimeGuy · « **Reply #16 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:10:15 PM »

and Rimmer, I believe there were ads at the world cup, not during the commercials. Even so, how much attention does North America give towards soccer? Not much, so those ads, which aired right around ED's NA release, didn't reach many households. I saw a couple of ED ads, but they were few and far between.

CaseyRyback · « **Reply #17 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:29:55 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: NotRimmer
Didn't Eternal Darkness commercials air during damn near every commercial break during the World Cup? That doesn't sound like no advertising to me

I never saw more than 5 commercial for the game. Never even saw one for TTS.

Nintendo has lost me. I do not understand why they let these NA development teams when they fill such a void. Someone needs to clean house at NOA and start at the top (perrin I am looking at you and all the other brass)

nolimit19 · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:35:00 PM »

this is getting rediculous.

Evan_G · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:37:43 PM »

The fact that there is only game that really has been spoken about that is in development should make this news somewhat unsurprising. For M rated games, Nintendo has the upcoming Geist and Capcom's thrillers to make up for any voids. I tend to doubt that Silicon Knights will completely abandon Nintendo, but likely go multiplatform.

nolimit19 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 13, 2004, 02:46:25 PM »

i think the problem with this is that nintendo just lost an exclusive Mature developer. one that really seemed to buy their philosophy. even though they werent pumping out many games, they were still doing something. nintendos motto has been quality over quanity for as long as i remember. i think they may want to reevaluate that stance, because i dont think it serves them well. i say just throw as much as you can at the wall and see what sticks.....and they just lost more exclusive Mature content that can be throw at the wall.

savanna03 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 13, 2004, 03:05:26 PM »

huh??? arggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! SILICON KNIGHT!!!

kennyb27 · « **Reply #22 on:** April 13, 2004, 03:11:33 PM »

I can't believe this. I really hope this wasn't Nintendo pushing for this.

Eternal Darkness was one of my favorite games of this generation and even of all time. And I don't know if anyone has mentioned what may be the worst part about this: Too Human.

davidlow122 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 13, 2004, 03:19:32 PM »

How about we all sign a Knights/Nintendo fan petition and send it to Dyack? Instead of writing comments here we could be writing comments in a petition? I'll get Cube europe in on it too... I'll be back!

Rob91883 · « **Reply #24 on:** April 13, 2004, 03:22:40 PM »

I'm sad to See Silicon Knights not be an exclusive developer anymore because they are very commited, and talented artist. I was hoping for Too Human since the first time I heard of them being a 2nd party developer, I hope it still comes out on a Nintendo console in the future. Now that they are going, I think it would have been best if they would have come out with Too Human instead of The Metal Gear Solid remake.

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Author Topic: RE:Silicon Knights Breaks with Nintendo (Read 14525 times)