Nintendo completely owns Eternal Darkness; SK still working on legal issues

I

IceDoesntHelp

Banned
- when employees were laid off, they had the option of purchasing art
- Denis Dyack did not buy any
- others now at Precursor Games did
- Silicon Knights retained very little of the material from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
- that property is owned entirely by Nintendo
- employees could "take computers"
- Epic Games pursued legal action against the developer to insure that transferred PCs had been wiped clean before deaccessioning occurred
- Silicon Knights is now "mostly working on legal issues"
- "more than one" still working at the company
Source
 
IceDoesntHelp said:
- when employees were laid off, they had the option of purchasing art
- Denis Dyack did not buy any
- others now at Precursor Games did
- Silicon Knights retained very little of the material from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
- that property is owned entirely by Nintendo
- employees could "take computers"
- Epic Games pursued legal action against the developer to insure that transferred PCs had been wiped clean before deaccessioning occurred
- Silicon Knights is now "mostly working on legal issues"
- "more than one" still working at the company
Source
Click to expand...

DOA



BOO!
 
This whole situation is so surreal... I kind of wish it was higher profile so someone would think it worthwhile fodder for a book. I'd love to read an expose by, say, David Kushner on the whole saga, from Blood Omen to Epic to Precursor.
 
More than one? More than one what? Person? Considering Dyack's wife worked there, if it's two staff, I think I can guess the two.
 
Interesting. So Nintendo does fully own the Eternal Darkness IP. Why couldn't Denis Dyack just tell us that years ago? What was so complex about it ?
 
Cool.

Please use it.

Fatal Frame and Eternal Darkness make a nice supplement to Nintendo's stable of IPs and I've always had a liking of the idea that Nintendo have an IP for each genre... until reality (and my looooooove of platformers).
 
Yup, this pretty much confirms what I expected. Precursor is in no position to really make this game, and the kickstart campaign was just to fund something that they could develope enough along to pitch back to Nintendo to publish. Shadow of the Eternals is never coming out.
 
Borman said:
The former employees can let me know when they want to share some of the n64 version of ED :D
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I'd be more interested to see if they ever had any Too Human GCN prototypes around myself.

Or PSX, I'm not picky. The old game looked good.
 
BD1 said:
Yup, this pretty much confirms what I expected. Precursos is in no position to really make this game, and the kickstart campaign was just to fund something that they could develope enough along to pitch back to Nintendo to publish. Shadow of the Eternals is never coming out.
Click to expand...

This. If this finally clears up Nintendo's ownership of the IP there is no way Shadow of the Eternals can go forward without Nintendo actually being on board. If they were there is no way in hell this kickstarter and other crowd funding would be taking place. Even if this game is just going to be inspired by ED then they have no right to be using some of the footage that was made as a pitch to do ED2, especially the sanity effects as Nintendo does have the patent on that and that's straight out of ED.

If Nintendo does indeed own the entire thing I wonder if we could get a HD version or eShop re-release if they start putting up GameCube games. Never owned a copy of the game and don't want to spent close to $100 for a new copy.
 
BD1 said:
Yup, this pretty much confirms what I expected. Precursor is in no position to really make this game, and the kickstart campaign was just to fund something that they could develope enough along to pitch back to Nintendo to publish. Shadow of the Eternals is never coming out.
Click to expand...

Poor people putting money towards it :/
 
BD1 said:
Yup, this pretty much confirms what I expected. Precursor is in no position to really make this game, and the kickstart campaign was just to fund something that they could develope enough along to pitch back to Nintendo to publish. Shadow of the Eternals is never coming out.
Click to expand...

So if what your thinking is true, this will be what the game looks like in a year or two.

- Renamed to Eternal Darkness 2
- PC version cancelled, now Wii U exclusive
- Has the full effects of Eternal Darkness 1
 
I had no idea nintendo owned ED. I wonder why they never made use of it before. It's the type of game that would draw more people to their system.
 
How can people not know Nintendo owned ED? It's right there in the credits:
We5wfsS.jpg
 
Alcotholic said:
I had no idea nintendo owned ED. I wonder why they never made use of it before. It's the type of game that would draw more people to their system.
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It's nothing more than a niche IP at best. Nintendo may be interested now though considering the need for more IPs like this on Wii U. Also Nintendo has a patent on the Sanity System so how in the hell was this kickstarter going to work anyway?
 
Alcotholic said:
I had no idea nintendo owned ED. I wonder why they never made use of it before. It's the type of game that would draw more people to their system.
Click to expand...

well it does seem at one point nintendo may have been interested in an SK developed ED2 but the legal problems killed any chance of it
 
Effect said:
This. If this finally clears up Nintendo's ownership of the IP there is now way Shadow of the Eternals can go forward without Nintendo actually being on board. If they were there is no way in hell this kickstarter and other crowd funding would be taking place. Even if this game is just going to be inspired by ED then they have no right to be using some of the footage that was made as a pitch to do ED2, especially the sanity effects as Nintendo does have the patent on that and that's straight out of ED.

If Nintendo does indeed own the entire thing I wonder if we could get a HD version or eShop re-release if they start putting up GameCube games. Never owned a copy of the game and don't want to spent close to $100 for a new copy.
Click to expand...

They can change the footage just enough, and alter the sanity effect, call it something else make it work differently than before, which even in a true sequel is probably what would have happened. There's no legal reason they can't make the game, but I agree it I ably won't be made and if it somehow is, it will be a cheap half assed version that doesn't spend the majority of the crowd funding they receive.
 
Damo Yoshi said:
Cool.

Please use it.

Fatal Frame and Eternal Darkness make a nice supplement to Nintendo's stable of IPs and I've always had a liking of the idea that Nintendo have an IP for each genre... until reality (and my looooooove of platformers).
Click to expand...

Just that Fatal Frame is not an IP owned by Nintendo ;)


IceDoesntHelp said:
IIRC Dennis has said that it was to complicated to tell who owns, or that SK and Nintendo both owned it.
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Well, Nintendo owns part of SK, perhaps that was what he's referring to.
 
Effect said:
If Nintendo does indeed own the entire thing I wonder if we could get a HD version or eShop re-release if they start putting up GameCube games. Never owned a copy of the game and don't want to spent close to $100 for a new copy.
Click to expand...

That's weird, is the game rare in the US or something? If it's any help, try importing a copy - it's dirt cheap here in the UK.
 
This is definitely crazy, but I've gotten the sense throughout this campaign that Precursor is trying to prove to Nintendo that ED is still viable. Kind of like what Rob Thomas did with Veronica Mars? If they can hit their stated goal, maybe it becomes a true Eternal Darkness sequel with Nintendo's support? They've been so cagey in every interview about who owns what, what they're allowed to use... what if that changes based on how much money they raise? Maybe that's why they're being so evasive?

Or maybe they're just treading as close to IP they don't own for nostalgia's sake and I'm just nuts. Meh. The whole thing still fascinates me to no end, but not enough to give them any money.
 
What if one of the characters in the next eternal darkness game is a developer working on the next eternal darkness game.
 
Cerebral Assassin said:
I thought it had disappeared off their last financial report(or am I mistaken?).
Click to expand...

not sure i haven't read the most recent ones in as much detail, seems unlikely though they'd sell the stake though seeing as it was basically worthless for the last few years and dyack's hardly in a position to buy anything, i guess if not listed by name its possibly because its not actually bringing any money whatsoever into nintendo
 
This whole thing seems like a very long, drawn-out death. I'm not sure how SK still exists. If Shadow of the Eternals doesn't happen, then what is Precursor going to do?
 
Kazerei said:
This whole thing seems like a very long, drawn-out death. I'm not sure how SK still exists. If Shadow of the Eternals doesn't happen, then what is Precursor going to do?
Click to expand...

Good question. They may have to just do indie games via kickstarter, or get on their knees and beg for a publisher.
 
Kandinsky said:
Didn't they get that IP a couple of years ago or am I confusing things? lol
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They funded 2 games in the series and thus they co-own those titles. Tecmo is still free to re-release all other Fatal Frame titles and develop new ones on their own and on the platforms they want to. Just a few weeks ago, they put FF1 and FF2 on PSN.
 
Kazerei said:
This whole thing seems like a very long, drawn-out death. I'm not sure how SK still exists. If Shadow of the Eternals doesn't happen, then what is Precursor going to do?
Click to expand...

i'd imagine sk only still exist as they dont have enough money to declare bankruptcy and liquidate
 
Shiggy said:
Just that Fatal Frame is not an IP owned by Nintendo ;)
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I thought they ended up buying it out right in the last few years?

Ein Bear said:
That's weird, is the game rare in the US or something? If it's any help, try importing a copy - it's dirt cheap here in the UK.
Click to expand...

I likely could fine a used copy but I would want to the disc to be clean and without scratches and to get the manual.
 
Shiggy said:
They funded 2 games in the series and thus they co-own those titles. Tecmo is still free to re-release all other Fatal Frame titles and develop new ones on their own and on the platforms they want to. Just a few weeks ago, they put FF1 and FF2 on PSN.
Click to expand...
Oh thanks, nice to know this is not the case.
 
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