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[CaviarMeths]

It's almost impossible to actually like or feel endeared towards Dyack, but for what it's worth, I actually liked X-Men Destiny. It was short and didn't have much in the way of replayability, but it just felt really good to play and it was a cool idea. The game isn't as good as X-Men Legends 2 of course, but it's easily one of the better games based on the license. Would have loved to see that game realize its initial scope.

 

[daegan]

Okay Kotaku found 8 of them who were willing to anonymously attest to a lot of allegations about their ex-boss, and then slink away.

Dyack had 8 of them who were willing to stand with him in a new company and work with him again directing them creatively to make a new game.

The problem with technological representations of human opinions is the method of aggregation is all wrong. Like the Nielsen ratings, your evaluation of the testament of those 8 people gains more weight, total voice in fact, for everyone who worked there. Even the ones who claimed on video that the things said were not true.

Many favor only certain opinion aggregates when it comes to this man: Averages of Maximums (in Blame), is my closest estimation.

The only person claiming any of this is untrue is Denis himself, whose previous project also spiraled over budget and out of control many, many times; who tried to bring a lawsuit against Epic, destroying what was left of his company in the process by stealing Epic's property and lying about it; had a very public egotistical breakdown on this very site...even Blood Omen had its share of controversy behind it. The man has no track record, no credibility, and that is his own fault.
I'm sure he had friends in SK; but again, why has literally nobody not working with him at the moment said anything in defense of what occurred there, whether his behavior or their own work? As an example, even people who didn't seem to get on great with Ken Levine have not tossed him under the bus in the face of the implosion of Irrational - why is this situation different?

The only way he gets to repair his reputation as a quality game maker is to ship quality games, not argue about the sourced and investigated piece via a YouTube video or take a fluff piece interview with a third-rate site and an interviewer who clearly is beside himself to be acknowledged by anyone in the industry at all.

 

[Messofanego]

I like how much he loves IGN.
"That one outlet that talked about us in a positive way is really good! That other outlet that didn't, really is among the bad ones though!"

IGN doesn't do much journalism so they were a perfect venue to promote their failed Kickstarter

 

[Cheerilee]

Okay Kotaku found 8 of them who were willing to anonymously attest to a lot of allegations about their ex-boss, and then slink away.

Dyack had 8 of them who were willing to stand with him in a new company and work with him again directing them creatively to make a new game.

What if those are both the same 8 people?

Spoiler

Then Kotaku accepts the word of pedophiles against the word of Dyack, confirmed.

 

[Imbarkus]

The only way he gets to repair his reputation as a quality game maker is to ship quality games, not argue about the sourced and investigated piece via a YouTube video or take a fluff piece interview with a third-rate site and an interviewer who clearly is beside himself to be acknowledged by anyone in the industry at all.

Public opinion determines funding, from VC, publishers, as well as the public, look at the way Square Enix and whomever is backing Igarashi and the Yokka-Laylee guys are using Kickstarter--as a public opinion focus group. Still, I think he echoed your point near the end of the interview.

And I do remember a Kotaku Ken Levine "office politics" article that came out at the time, and was gentler but still less than complimentary, and Leigh Alexander's rumination on the subject that is now relevant.

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

I don't believe that anyone anywhere enjoyed Too Human. As a concept, it was flawed.

 

[RexNovis]

The only person claiming any of this is untrue is Denis himself, whose previous project also spiraled over budget and out of control many, many times; who tried to bring a lawsuit against Epic, destroying what was left of his company in the process by stealing Epic's property and lying about it; had a very public egotistical breakdown on this very site...even Blood Omen had its share of controversy behind it. The man has no track record, no credibility, and that is his own fault.
I'm sure he had friends in SK; but again, why has literally nobody not working with him at the moment said anything in defense of what occurred there, whether his behavior or their own work? As an example, even people who didn't seem to get on great with Ken Levine have not tossed him under the bus in the face of the implosion of Irrational - why is this situation different?

This. I'm generally not one to insult but the man is a cancer. His incredible ego prevents him from ever acknowledging he is at fault for anything that befalls him or his work. Couple this with the fact that he is a habitual liar and he gets 0 sympathy from me. EVER.

 

[BGMNTS]

How did this guy create Eternal Darkness?

 

[SmackAttack]

Up next: 'Randy Pitchford on what really happened to Aliens: Colonial Marines'

I have a pretty good guess on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6cn0mLJVZY

 

[Verger]

The only person claiming any of this is untrue is Denis himself.

To be fair, almost all the Precursor Staff echoed Denis' statements and said that nothing of that sort that the Kotaku article accused him of ever occurred there. I'm pretty sure I remember one of them stating that this couldn't have happened (especially the misappropriation of funds) because they were the ones in charge of those allocations. In any case you can bet very few at a studio know what funds are going where.

Also why didn't Activision ever comment if such malfeasance occurred? Considering how they went after Zampella and West for their actions I doubt they'd have stayed quiet for something this bad. Not to mention Denis says that in reality, Activision/Marvel never gave them the funds to begin with that they needed.

I guess I want to know why people are so quick to pass judgement on some very serious accusations without any evidence whatsoever?

 

[BHK3]

How did this guy create Eternal Darkness?

Broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[Imbarkus]

This. I'm generally not one to insult but the man is a cancer. His incredible ego prevents him from ever acknowledging he is at fault for anything that befalls him or his work. Couple this with the fact that he is a habitual liar and he gets 0 sympathy from me. EVER.

People who bothered to listen to the podcasts and direct interviews of the man at the time of the Kickstarter remember a more contrite individual who admitted up front to being terrible at PR and straight-up apologized for X-Men Destiny.

 

[daegan]

Public opinion determines funding, from VC, publishers, as well as the public, look at the way Square Enix and whomever is backing Igarashi and the Yokka-Laylee guys are using Kickstarter--as a public opinion focus group. Still, I think he echoed your point near the end of the interview.

And I do remember a Kotaku Ken Levine "office politics" article that came out at the time, and was gentler but still less than complimentary, and Leigh Alexander's rumination on the subject that is now relevant.

Right - it was less than complimentary because that was clearly the reality of the situation. Troubled projects don't come out of nowhere. Great art can come from contentious situations as well, yes, and the original Bioshock seemingly was one of those. It's important to remember how much Levine was being built up as an auteur by the hype machine around Bioshock Infinite prior to the game's launch.

You only need look at Too Human, XMD, and the Epic lawsuit to know something was very gravely wrong at SK, just like you only need to look at what Bioshock Infinite shipped as versus what it was pitched as for the years prior to know there were very serious issues there too.

To be fair, almost all the Precursor Staff echoed Denis' statements and said that nothing of that sort that the Kotaku article accused him of ever occurred there. I'm pretty sure I remember one of them stating that this couldn't have happened (especially the misappropriation of funds) because they were the ones in charge of those allocations. In any case you can bet very few at a studio know what funds are going where.

Also why didn't Activision ever comment if such malfeasance occurred? Considering how they went after Zampella and West for their actions I doubt they'd have stayed quiet for something this bad. Not to mention Denis says that in reality, Activision/Marvel never gave them the funds to begin with that they needed.

I guess I want to know why people are so quick to pass judgement on some very serious accusations without any evidence whatsoever?

If there is smoke, there tends to be fire; there is a whole lot of smoke in Dyack's direction. As for Activision, Zampella and West were internal and made their best-selling product of all time. XMD is something I'm sure they would rather forget happened.

 

[Rajack]

There can't be a character assassination if there's no character to begin with.

 

[CypherSignal]

Oh God, why. This industry is so fucked. Developers can't be this blind. I didn't think I could think worse of this man.

He's insanely wrong, and/or misconstruing (or misunderstanding) what "gamergate" proponents are for. By far, any dev that cares knows what's actually going on, and I haven't seen one that is For them aside from the two or three infamous ones. It's probably a hundred-to-one ratio, or maybe thousand-to-one.

 

[GearDraxon]

By far, any dev that cares knows what's actually going on, and I haven't seen one that is For them aside from the two or three infamous ones. It's probably a hundred-to-one ratio, or maybe thousand-to-one.

Moreover, the devs who have been publicly supportive of GG have all (as far as I've seen, at least) been pretty far on the conservative side, politically-speaking. That's fine: if they feel like there isn't a conservative source for game news and opinion, and they wish there were more, it's valid. I'd welcome it, to be honest: it'd show that games are maturing into an art form that attracts critique from all sides.

The issue is the framing of these sites/personalities as the "ethically honest" ones, thereby calling everyone else ethically-wanting, implicitly or explicitly. It smacks of the whole "family values" identifier: "if you don't agree, you're against families!"

This is all, of course, ignoring the fact that the core of the movement is really about making a group of peoples' lives miserable.

 

[charlequin]

Okay Kotaku found 8 of them who were willing to anonymously attest to a lot of allegations about their ex-boss, and then slink away.

Dyack had 8 of them who were willing to stand with him in a new company and work with him again directing them creatively to make a new game.

For or against!

Defending Dyack's behavior and management is already a joke, but this is a particularly absurd claim. It's not as if this is the first time anyone has ever done a corporate expose on the backs of a couple handfuls of long-time employee anonymous sources. It's a story that comports with other information we've gotten about life at SK, as well as with the series of public train wrecks the company has been involved with more or less continuously for the last decade. Weighing in on the other side is... Dyack's vague and entirely unsupported claim that he isn't at fault for anything, issued literally years after the original piece, and in conjunction with support for Gamergate that either means he is terminally delusional and unaware of reality or a willing participant of a destructive hate movement. The correct conclusion is obvious here.

How did this guy create Eternal Darkness?

According to the Kotaku piece, it was by having the game's direction heavily influenced by Nintendo producers.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

Surprised he didn't blame NeoGaf.

 

[BlastProcessing]

The saddest part to me as a Nintendo fanboy is that Nintendo needs Dyak, as much as Dyak needs nintendo. A Wiiu launch with ED2 would have been great

That assumes Dyack could deliver the ED2 that you want. What has he done in the last Decade that leads you to believe that that is likely?

The team that made Eternal Darkness is long gone.

 

[Flavius]

It's okay if I still kinda' feel bad for him, even if I don't believe him, right?

I feel much worse for the folks who lost their gigs, though.

 

[Imbarkus]

Defending Dyack's behavior and management is already a joke, but this is a particularly absurd claim... The correct conclusion is obvious here.

My opinions are a joke and I do not conform to the correct conclusion, I see.

Honestly I already knew the official management stance here on him. Just trying to provide a bit of diversity in viewpoint.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

The saddest part to me as a Nintendo fanboy is that Nintendo needs Dyak, as much as Dyak needs nintendo. A Wiiu launch with ED2 would have been great

The last thing Nintendo needs is Dyak.

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

Holy shit, now Dyack's a Gator, too? How the mighty have fallen.

 

[GoonerTRON]

Knack > Dyack

 

[Verger]

That assumes Dyack could deliver the ED2 that you want. What has he done in the last Decade that leads you to believe that that is likely?

The team that made Eternal Darkness is long gone.

Even he couldn't. I'd rather he at least try instead of just going on endlessly without any game in the series being made, or hell, any other games even close to Eternal Darkness being made (I sure don't know of any these past 12 years)

Because no chance Nintendo is going to ever use that IP. Whoever thinks that "oh, Retro must be working on it" is just kidding themselves since there's no way Nintendo will allow Retro to make a game that's not a surefire hit after the sad and depressing sales of Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze.

And yeah, at least for me, I would want Denis to write out the story of the sequel since there's no one else at Nintendo who can write.

 

[thegirlleastlikelyto]

Nintendo needs Dyak, as much as Dyak needs nintendo.

Did I just read that, or is this some kind of fever dream?

Rich uncle moneybags Nintendo needs Dyack, as much as this guy, and his feature interview on a web site I've never heard of, needs Nintendo?

 

[besada]

It's pretty sad when your shit is so wrecked you need to join GG just to get someone to pay attention to you. But, I'm sure, if he plays it right, he'll get nice boost from GGers who care less about gaming -- shock -- than they do about continually grinding their sad little axe. They can enshrine him, along with the few other devs who've courted them, in their pantheon of courageous developers willing to fight the power!

 

[BlastProcessing]

Even he couldn't. I'd rather he at least try instead of just going on endlessly without any game in the series being made, or hell, any other games even close to Eternal Darkness being made (I sure don't know of any these past 12 years)

Because no chance Nintendo is going to ever use that IP. Whoever thinks that "oh, Retro must be working on it" is just kidding themselves since there's no way Nintendo will allow Retro to make a game that's not a surefire hit after the sad and depressing sales of Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze.

And yeah, at least for me, I would want Denis to write out the story of the sequel since there's no one else at Nintendo who can write.

Who am I to stand between you and hope? Dream on, friend.

 

[dogpowerd]

Old "Dolla Bill" Dyack is at it again!

This guy is the video game equivalent of a snake oil salesman and no one should give him their hard earned money.

 

[The One and Done™]

Denis Dyack needs to address what happened to Denis Dyack.

 

[Nairume]

People who bothered to listen to the podcasts and direct interviews of the man at the time of the Kickstarter remember a more contrite individual who admitted up front to being terrible at PR and straight-up apologized for X-Men Destiny.

And people listening to the interview this very thread is about are seeing a man who has returned to his old ways of blaming everybody else for his failures.

It was engine trouble
It was journalists
It was Activision
It was Disney
It was Marvel
It was corporate buyouts
It was gamers
It was bad team members
It was licensing issues
It was feminists
It was GAF
It was technical issues out of his control
It was funding issues
It was politics
It was genius plans going wrong
It wasn't innocent virginal christ-like Denis Dyack, though. That's impossible.

 

[MrBS]

Oh Denis. I miss your madness. I hope he gets another chance to do PR for a new game.

Also about the author

Founder & Editor-in-Chief at Niche Gamer. Italian, but I love Asian culture. I also write about music, comedy, noodles and beer.

I wonder if he would considers himself and expert on these matters.

 

[charlequin]

My opinions are a joke and I do not conform to the correct conclusion, I see.

At a certain point you need to stop and look if you're riding a pony that's gone totally off the map. Tying yourself in knots to prove that Denis Dyack is a poor, misunderstood soul (and edging rather close to the border of our near-zero-tolerance for Gamergate apologism in the process) is sufficiently disconnected from reality that it's hard to take it seriously long enough to argue about. If you're going to take the outcome of Too Human (and especially his ridiculous GAF crusade about it), the disastrous crowdfunding attempts, the multiple verified-source reports on the events around XMD, and the pandering suck-up to GG and eliminate the possibility that he's responsible in any way, I don't think there's going to be a particularly worthwhile conversation to be had on the subject.

 

[Imbarkus]

Though I don't find any conversation worthwhile if only one correct viewpoint is allowed, I accept without protest censure on this subject.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

I'd go crazy to if me and my company were once the shining beacon of Canada's interest in game development only to fuck it all up and have my reputation be destroyed and cursed. Note to self: NEVER LEAVE NINTENDO.

I bought X-Men Destiny at full price expecting some amazing shit. I should of kept my copy now that it's got some infamous history.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Though I don't find any conversation worthwhile if only one correct viewpoint is allowed, I accept without protest censure on this subject.

You can have differing opinions. You just need to show your work and accept criticism.

Spoiler

By saying you aren't protesting you are explicitly protesting.

 

[Jessmo111]

Did I just read that, or is this some kind of fever dream?

Rich uncle moneybags Nintendo needs Dyack, as much as this guy, and his feature interview on a web site I've never heard of, needs Nintendo?

Its more like, needs Dyaks properties, needs ED.
The point I was making was that there is something that is missing from Nintendo since alot of the decent 2nd parties left over not believing in the wii and the company's direction. You have to give post wii eternal darkness Dyak Some credit. Nintendo. Lost a constant flow of top tier M rated games during this exodus. Sk, Rare, F5, lost the security, and guidance of Nintendo. I don't mean Nintendo needs them to survive, they need talent ( even imperfect talent) to fill gaps between Zelda Mario metroid.

 

[Jessmo111]

Throw in ED2, perfect dark, killer instint, rogue squadren, and all of a sudden the Wiius library and console place look alot different.

 

[Jessmo111]

I mean, am I rewriting history? Was ED silicone knights garbage? Has nostalgia gotten the best of me? Ill gladly admit if Im wrong.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Public opinion determines funding, from VC, publishers, as well as the public

Seems like a really bad time to openly support Gamergate, then.

 

[RexNovis]

For or against!.

Well that was a fascinating rabbit hole to crawl down. Is it said that I wasn't shocked by any of his posts in that thread? Cause yea about par for the course. Dyack is the textbook definition of a petulant manchild.

 

[Quadraphonic]

I'm calling bullshit.

There was more going on.

Part of the deal of Disney buying Marvel is that Disney would honor EVERY SINGLE EXISTING Marvel contract. Every last one. Even ones that went against Disney's core values, like, say an Iron Man 2 slot machine.

Granted, Disney Interactive competes with Activision, but that wouldn't be a reason for ATV to kill off the game right then and there. If anything it just got it more attention.

Disney still had Sega make Marvel games.
Activision was still putting out Spider-man games.

Denis is lying, as usual.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUUfY6CN8yw&spfreload=10

Spoiler

You never give me your money.

 

[thegirlleastlikelyto]

Its more like, needs Dyaks properties, needs ED.
The point I was making was that there is something that is missing from Nintendo since alot of the decent 2nd parties left over not believing in the wii and the company's direction.

I understood your point. I just don't get why you think Nintendo "needs" Dyak to create, at best, a semi-compotent niche title for them.

IYou have to give post wii eternal darkness Dyak Some credit. Nintendo. Lost a constant flow of top tier M rated games during this exodus. Sk, Rare, F5, lost the security, and guidance of Nintendo. I don't mean Nintendo needs them to survive, they need talent ( even imperfect talent) to fill gaps between Zelda Mario metroid.
[/QUOTE

I don't. Have to. Give. Dyak. Some credit.

I wasn't terribly impressed by Eternal Darkness, I don't think a flood of middling to substandard M-rated titles helps Nintendo in any appreciable way (ZombiiU comes to mind immediately).

they need talent ( even imperfect talent) to fill gaps between Zelda Mario metroid.

Yeah, I understood this is what you meant and yeah, I don't really think it holds up.

 

[SlipperyFishes]

Holy shit, now Dyack's a Gator, too? How the mighty have fallen.

Yeah. He's been accused of screen capping people like Susan Arendt and Brianna Wu on Facebook then posting to his company forums pro-GG thread (which is a psychotic thread).

 

[Neiteio]

I just wish Denis spelled his name with two n's.

 

[The Adder]

My response?

Bullshit, Dyack.

 

[CaviarMeths]

I'd go crazy to if me and my company were once the shining beacon of Canada's interest in game development only to fuck it all up and have my reputation be destroyed and cursed. Note to self: NEVER LEAVE NINTENDO.

I bought X-Men Destiny at full price expecting some amazing shit. I should of kept my copy now that it's got some infamous history.

Not to worry, there's other Canadian studios still doing some cool shit in the industry. BioWare, Eidos Montreal, Ubisoft Montreal, and even Next Level Games, for example.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

Yall should unban him and see what happens. Give dyack a second chance

 

[Ban Puncher]