May Retro never go third party (A tale of Silicon Knights)

[A Black Falcon]

If inXile had done in the past decade what Silicon Knights did, I wouldn't have given then a bit of my money either. They were a small company that did contract work and mobile games to get by on because big publishers weren't interested in the kinds of games they wanted to make. And none of their games are terrible, just not great.

Sounds a lot like what Dyack was doing with X-Men Destiny, just on a smaller scale. Choplifter HD's kind of fun (I do have it, since the original is a good game), but it got poor reviews, if you check...

The interview that came out SEVEN months later, in the middle of a crowdsourcing campaign that's ground to a halt far from its goal. The video was also way overlong and said nothing that should lead anybody to believe that Dyack is just a poor put upon soul that nasty anonymous sources are trying to tear down.

I mean, are you honestly believing Dyack over multiple SK employees, meticulously interviewed and cross-referenced over the course of months? You're believing the guy with his hand out, begging for your money, saying "Come on, ABF, trust me! Everything's going to go right this time!" Geez, man, I know you want Eternal Darkness 2 really bad, but use a little bit of common sense here.

Multiple employees who refused to give their names, in an article by an author who had it turned down by several sites before it was published, and which reads like a hit piece? Come on. Why would you believe everything in it? There's absolutely no reason to!

Dyack said that he hadn't initially responded because he didn't thinkg people wouild believe unsourced, unproven allegations like that, but after the campaign got off to such a bad start, he realized that they had. I don't know if that is true or not, because lots of people online were saying that they believed it, but given that they didn't address the issues beforehand gives his statement credence, I think... if they'd known how strong the reaction would be, would they have launched the campaign without addressing the critiques all, just on the hope that some "silent majority" or something were going to back the game? Questionable case there.

Like how originally they said that the money you gave them was a donation and they were under no obligation at all to give you anything in return? Or how they really, totally need $1.5 million, but they'll take whatever you give them and make something with it anyway? Or how they get your money instantly and get to keep it even if the goal isn't reached? Yes, they changed the wording, AFTER people pointed out how bad it all looked [and AFTER their campaign flopped right out the gate].

They said from the beginning that if the campaign failed, they would refund the money. They were quite clear on that point. Now, lots of conspiracy theorists who want to despise Dyack said that they were lying, but they were quite clear on that point: if they didn't get enough money to make the game, they'd return it all. They clarified that as soon as someone asked, which was day one. And the "we take the money now" system is, as they said, similar to how it worked for other non-Kickstarter crowdfunded games like Star Citizen.

And for that X-Men game. And for running Silicon Knights right into the ground.

But hey, if you wanna hand over your hard-earned money to Dennis Dyack and his buddies in the hopes that maybe you'll eventually get an Eternal Darkness sequels that's as good as you remember the original being, then you just go right ahead. I'm highly skeptical of the entire affair, however, and won't give them any of mine.

I hope they manage to find financing from somewhere, but it's looking bad. That's really sad, because yeah, ED's one of my favorite console games ever...