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Shiggy · Mar 14, 2012

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is questioning the Liberal governments support for a St. Catharines video game development company that laid off 45 people last year.

But the government is saying little about the details of a multi-million dollar commitment to Silicon Knights.

Exactly how much money has Silicon Knights received to date and have further installments since been made? Horwath asked Premier Dalton McGuinty during Question Period in the Legislature on Tuesday.

According to Horwath, in February 2011 the government signed a $2.5-million contract with Silicon Knights, which said it would use the money to create 90 jobs and sustain another 100. Following news of the lay offs last November, the government told the Legislature one installment of provincial money had been paid out.

Horwath said the NDP requested further information on the governments dealings with Silicon Knights using freedom of information legislation, but the requested information was censored.

In fact, the copy of the Silicon Knights contract that we obtained contained one appendix, consisting of only 26 censored pages, said Horwath. Dont the people of Ontario have a right to know how their money is being spent and whether companies that are getting public money are meeting their job creation targets?

McGuinty did not answer Horwaths questions, but instead referred them to Brad Duguid, minister of economic development and innovation for a response.

As is becoming a pattern with NDP questions, they continue to ask questions about investments that have been made, expecting, Mr. Speaker, that perhaps we shouldnt be working with businesses across this province, we shouldnt be working to attract foreign direct investment, that we should be ignoring that responsibility to create jobs and promote economic growth, Duguid said in response.

Mr. Speaker, weve been working very closely with Silicon Knights. It actually is a very fascinating company, a company with great potential. Well continue to work very closely with them. Theyre in a field, Mr. Speaker, thats a challenging field, that does have ups and downs. Were willing to continue to work with them.

Horwaths questioning comes just a week after Welland NDP MPP Cindy Forster questioned a $900,000 economic development grant awarded to New Food Classics. The St. Catharines food processor has gone into receivership after running into financial troubles.

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/1314726--horwath-questions-support-for-silicon-knights

Silicon Knights had some troubled years. After MGS: Twin Snakes for GCN, they reached an agreement with their major shareholder Nintendo as their creative visions were completely different (casual games vs cinematic big budgets titles). SK began to work on Too Human for Microsoft and made a Silent Hill pitch (The Box), which was signed by Sega, then renamed to The Ritualist and later sold to THQ. As THQ was in financial difficulties back then already, the game got canned and the team at SK helped out on Darksiders.

Since then SK worked on various prototypes and pitches. One was signed by Activision (X-Men Destiny) and was met with poor receptions. Another one, Siren in the Maelstrom or just Siren, was financed by a Canadian fund (Telefilm Canada) but wasn't signed by a publisher.

After the poor reviews of X-Men Destiny one publisher backed off from their title, which led to layoffs late last year. Due to a pending trial with Epic, long delays, and mediocre games, SK only has a limited choice of publishers willing to fund their titles right now.

So what's going to happen? With both the Ontario government and Nintendo as strong partners, they are now preparing for the new generation of consoles. Wii U support of their tools and technology was added during mid to fall 2011 already.

Their new title is supposed to be revealed later this year. Don't attempt to leak it, the ninja will kill you.

OnPoint · Mar 14, 2012

Better step their game up or they might get their funding cut.

Eternal Darkness 2 plz. Wii U. Do it.

Shiggy · Mar 15, 2012

OnPoint said:
Better step their game up or they might get their funding cut.

Eternal Darkness 2 plz. Wii U. Do it.

Don't give up your hope.

When we questioned him specifically on whether "it's too much to ask" for a new Eternal Darkness, he responded, "I don't think it is too much to ask. Certainly we love Eternal Darkness. It's a project that's near and dear to our hearts."

When we pressed Dyack on whether a new Eternal Darkness could indeed be what the studio is developing for next-gen, he once again hinted that "anything's possible."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-03-07-silicon-knights-open-to-new-eternal-darkness

Tajin · Mar 15, 2012

Against.

Cosmonaut X · Mar 15, 2012

When did we get confirmation of Wii U tech support? And what are you basing the "Nintendo are strong partners" bit on?

Not doubting you, BTW - you've been spot-on too many times! - but I'm interested in what's going on here...

Kade · Mar 15, 2012

The Silicon Knights Cycle:

1. Promise jobs; Receive government funding
2. Hire people to work on projects they don't want to work on or will never be released
3. Layoff employees who worked on these projects
4. Repeat

I'm surprised they haven't been shut down yet.

Danielsan · Mar 15, 2012

Pull the plug and start funding talented development companies instead.

OnPoint · Mar 15, 2012

Shiggy said:
Don't give up your hope.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-03-07-silicon-knights-open-to-new-eternal-darkness

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Put them back under Nintendo's supervision and make another great game.

sixteen-bit · Mar 15, 2012

I guess he's "against"

Lime · Mar 15, 2012

He probably played one of their games.

Criminal Upper · Mar 15, 2012

Wow, his son must have shown him this:

EvilMario · Mar 15, 2012

Just don't let this grow into pulling support for game developers overall. Ontario is far enough behind other Provinces as it is in this regard.

Father_Brain · Mar 15, 2012

Eternal Darkness 3DS, maybe. But Wii U? Considering how the first one sold on GC, it'd make very little business sense. One can hope, though.

BrokenEchelon · Mar 15, 2012

They don't deserve funding. Dyack doesn't deserve a job in this industry.

Also, can you believe this fucking gall?

One PORT != Series. You'd think they might want to put Blood Omen or Eternal Darkness there instead of trying to leech off of the brand recognition of MGS/Kojima like a parasite.

1-D_FTW · Mar 15, 2012

Right now I'm picturing Dyack as a Scooby Doo villain and he's muttering, "I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids."

Hiltz · Mar 15, 2012

Denis Dyack has always been open to making another Eternal Darkness. I'm just not sure if ED 2 would be a good idea given the seemingly poor current state of Silicon Knights.

Bento · Mar 15, 2012

In fact, the copy of the Silicon Knights contract that we obtained contained one appendix, consisting of only 26 censored pages,” said Horwath. “Don’t the people of Ontario have a right to know how their money is being spent and whether companies that are getting public money are meeting their job creation targets?

Lol? Is this common or is SK simply being assholes here? Would seem like transparency would be pretty damn key, this is tax money we're talking about after all.

EvilMario said:
Just don't let this grow into pulling support for game developers overall. Ontario is far enough behind other Provinces as it is in this regard.

That should of course depend on the results of said support, supporting developers for no other reason than that other regions in Canada are doing it sounds like an open invitation for charlatans to take advantage of the situation.

Hero of Legend · Mar 15, 2012

BrokenEchelon said:
They don't deserve funding. Dyack doesn't deserve a job in this industry.

Also, can you believe this fucking gall?

One PORT != Series. You'd think they might want to put Blood Omen or Eternal Darkness there instead of trying to leech off of the brand recognition of MGS/Kojima like a parasite.

WTF?

BTW, does SK still have their key staff from the GC days? Dyack is all I ever really hear about the company.

GhostTrick · Mar 15, 2012

Nintendo's curse.
When they leave, they're screwed. Think about Rare, Factor 5, or those guys who makes HD collection ports now.

Raide · Mar 15, 2012

So, what are they working on currently?

As much as I want Too Human Too, I doubt they are working on it.

Neuromancer · Mar 15, 2012

BrokenEchelon said:
They don't deserve funding. Dyack doesn't deserve a job in this industry.

Also, can you believe this fucking gall?

One PORT != Series. You'd think they might want to put Blood Omen or Eternal Darkness there instead of trying to leech off of the brand recognition of MGS/Kojima like a parasite.

Haha wow

Shiggy · Mar 15, 2012

Cosmonaut X said:
When did we get confirmation of Wii U tech support? And what are you basing the "Nintendo are strong partners" bit on?

Not doubting you, BTW - you've been spot-on too many times! - but I'm interested in what's going on here...

The Wii U tech support was recently revealed by wsippel via someone's resume. For the Nintendo part you can actually take past Dyack comments as a reference, as well as Nintendo still backing them financially as a major investor.

With the help of the government they apparently also try to self-fund/self-publish titles.

Lol? Is this common or is SK simply being assholes here? Would seem like transparency would be pretty damn key, this is tax money we're talking about after all.

It includes confidential material, related to game projects and publishers. You should not make that public...

does SK still have their key staff from the GC days?

Yes, but quite many have left over the years as projects got canned, layoffs happened, and X-Men Destiny was done.

Factor 5

Factor 5 came back and still died.

Cosmonaut X · Mar 15, 2012

Shiggy said:
The Wii U tech support was recently revealed by wsippel via someone's resume. For the Nintendo part you can actually take past Dyack comments as a reference, as well as Nintendo still backing them financially as a major investor.

Cheers - I'd missed wsippel's find. How major a backer are Nintendo? I was aware they still had an interest in the company, but how significant is it?

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