Silicon Knights and Nintendo Part Ways

[YoshiM]

As told here.

No real reason was given, but IGN speculates that SK has been "a very content-driven studio with strong beliefs in the elements of game creation including story, artistry, sound, and technology." (quoted from IGN) while " Nintendo has recently downplayed the role of technology in game creation and has been known to de-emphasize story, graphics and sound in favor of classic play mechanics."

So this means SK is free to work on any platform (and is capable, according to the article). I can imagine the possibilities :ats his Xbox::

[Richter]

O.o

and what's to become of their "been in development whenever it feels like it" Too Human title?

just gimme a new Eternal Darkness

[Ed Oscuro]

Anybody have an idea how long Eternal Darkness was in development?

In any case, hey, they're not Retro Studios so I feel it COULD be worse. In any case is this really such bad news? They can work on the other systems now, yay for all you sellout PS2 owners perhaps ;P

[lendelin]

Interesting news!

Multiple platform owners can be happy, for GC-only-owners it's not a good day.

Interesting are the speculations by IGN. I don't know to what extent the speculative explanations for the separation are substantiated, but if part of the separation Nintendo/Silicon Knights are new licensing policies (or more broader: gameplay which N is willing to support) then these news might be an indicator of a clash between two trends; on the one hand appealing and successful new-technology driven games, on the other hand the emphasis of "classic game mechanics" which is a niche market.

So far I thought about Ns criticism of the technology emphasized games in the last year as mere PR strategies against the dominant PS2 because Metal gear Solid: TTS and the Resident Evil series aren't certainly games which de-emphasize new technology. However, if the departure of SK is a reaction to Ns policies, it might be that N has given up to compete with Sony for this generation of consoles.

Games are heading in a new direction. They become more and more (slowly and gradually) products which emcompass stories, visuals, movie elements, elements of literature, and artistic graphics which have to come together in gameplay. The Super Monkey Balls are fun, but certainly not the future of games. Let's hope N doesn't become a niche company, because a niche company in this industry might be soon a not-to be-company.

[Drexel923]

Its a shame another good developer has left Nintendo, but it looks as if it was a clean break. I wouldn't be surprised to see SK games still on Nintendo consoles so I guess its not all bad. Hopefully we at least get ED2. I have an interesting theory regarding the breakup though. You know how Nintendo has been farming out franchises to second/third parties. And at the same time Denis Dyack said something about "wanting" to do a new Zelda. Well maybe Nintendo only wanted them remake an old franchise, and couple that with Nintendo basically using them to get a MGS game on the cube. Maybe SK had enough and said if we can't make our original stuff then we want out. Of course like I said before, I don't think it will really effect the situation that much...hell maybe well see more games coming out of this.

[badinsults]

Other than Too Human, what other games were Silicon Knights working on? Quite frankly, I don't see a piece of vaporware being a huge loss (even though I have been anticipating its release since 1999). I don't see SK abandoning the Gamecube, and this move is likely just to raise the profile of SK by releasing some multiplatform games. Nintendo still owns a chunck of SK and in the future Nintendo could potentially buy more into them.

[Ed Oscuro]

Its a shame another good developer has left Nintendo

I don't recall any outstanding or even good developers leaving Nintendo.

I do recall a mediocre developer getting the "door hit arse" treatment a while back, though. It was uncharacteristically harsh of Nintendo, but perhaps warranted.

[Zubiac666]

what do u want?
do keep them as a 2nd party= costs lots of cash
Sk just don't brought any cash to ninty
Eternal Darkness(although it's the best horror-game for me) sold like shit and MGSTT sales are "just" ok,,,
I would give up 2nd party status as well if I was Nintendo.

I'm just really shocked what's going on in other forums.......good god!
In Nintendo forums:
"Why Nintendo?WHY? that's it! I'm going to buy a PS2 or X-box now!"
In rival-consoles forums:
"Another proof that Nintendo is DEAD"
x_x

Ehh....sorry....hello
it's not like Nintendo are suddenly vanished or Shigeru Miyamoto died
they just dropped 2nd party status with a developer team

not to forget that they still have one of the best (and a profitable) developer team: Retro studios which is owned 100% by nintendo
*dreaming of Metroid Prime 2*

[§ Gideon §]

I heard it here, first.

I'll be frank: It's somewhat surprising that Silicon Knights stayed a 2nd party for so long; their game style didn't seem to mesh, and--whether by fault of Silicon Knights or Nintendo--they didn't sell, either. Though, it is disappointing to see them "leave". Silicon Knights was part of the balance.

[YoshiM]

I'm just really shocked what's going on in other forums.......good god!
In Nintendo forums:
"Why Nintendo?WHY? that's it! I'm going to buy a PS2 or X-box now!"
In rival-consoles forums:
"Another proof that Nintendo is DEAD"
x_x

Heh, if anyone has Insider at IGN, ya gotta check out the Gamecube boards for a laugh. Rampant fanboyism to the ex-treme! After I read about SK I jumped onto the GC boards and on the FIRST page alone about 80% of the posts were SK related and most of those on that same page were locked. People seem to think SK and Nintendo were married SK was commiting adultery on the side.

My 2 zenny: I thought along the same lines as Gideon about SK and Nintendo. Maybe it's a perception that's really hard to shed but seeing Eternal Darkness on the Cube just didn't seem, well, right. It's a good game, don't get me wrong but something like that probably would have sold by the truckload on the PS2. When I think modern Nintendo I think Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Waverace and F-Zero. I have to be reminded that Resident Evil is an exclusive on that platform.

SK being multiplatform is nothing BUT good. They have talented teams and (unlike the thoughts of people on other boards) don't think they would drop the ball porting to the Cube in the future. However on the negative side it DOES make another black mark against developing for the Cube. If a SECOND PARTY company decided to part ways, is it profitable to make exclusive games for the console? That's probably what's going through the minds of publishers at the moment.

[badinsults]

I just heard an interesting rumor that this might be a ploy for the promotion of ED2... note how Silicon Knight's official website has not mentioned any news of this? Neither has Nintendo's website. And note how there isn't any official confirmation of this at all?