Silicon Knights Hit By Layoffs, Shifts Their Focus Elsewhere

Silicon Knights, the developers most recently known for the poorly received X-Men: Destiny, have been forced to lay off roughly half of its staff. A representative from the company told Kotaku that the layoffs came as the result of an unnamed publisher pulling out of one of SK’s current, unannounced projects.

While said project is still in the works, SK elaborated by saying, “Last week Silicon Knights experienced layoffs due to extended contract negotiations falling through with a potential partner. We are currently in discussions with other potential partners. The recent Ontario government funding is tied to future performance targets, spread out over the next 5 years, which we will meet.”

They layoffs have come in spite of the fact that Silicon Knights had received around 8 million dollars in government grants – money that was, ironically, being used primarily to build the team’s staff. With such a drastically reduced work force, the studio has decided to refocus its efforts, as it is “currently refocusing and returning to its roots, working on one of its most requested titles for the next generation.”

Though Silicon Knights’ Dennis Dyack had recently expressed the studio’s desire to return to Too Human, an IP originally intended as a trilogy, calling it one of SK’s most requested titles is probably a bit of a stretch given its decidedly mixed reception. Speculation suggests then that they are finally returning to the Eternal Darkness series, which has been missing in action since 2002. We can dream, right?

Best of luck to all those who lost their jobs.