Dyack: I'm not stepping down

The Silicon Knights president claims Internet reports of his imminent departure have been greatly exaggerated.

The rumour mill was in overdrive today that Silicon Knights founder and president Denis Dyack was thinking of resigning as president to concentrate on the more creative side of his job.

The rumour started after GameDaily.Biz printed an article titled "Denis Dyack to Step Down as Silicon Knights President" based on an interview in which Dyack was quoted as saying, "I've been involved in a lot of IP creation within Silicon Knights and as the company grows, I have to look at whether I want to continue to be president and director, and I'm leaning towards staying creative... So in the end, as the company grows, for my role I'll probably hire someone to be my boss and help run the company."

The news then spread to various other gaming Web sites, including Joystiq ("Dyack May Step Down as Head of Silicon Knights"), and Kotaku ("Silicon Knights: Dyack Stepping Down?").

However, Dyack has told GameSpot that he has no intention of quitting as president. He said, "I was as surprised to see this as everyone else. I am not stepping down."

Denis Dyack founded Silicon Knights in 1992 in the small town of St. Catherines in Ontario, Canada. Games developed by Silicon Knights include Cyber Empires, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Its epic role-playing game Too Human, which has been some 10 years in the making, was recently dated for August. For more on Too Human, check out GameSpot's recent video Q&A with Dyack.

27 Comments

  • namdar

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 3:29 pm PT

    I live in St.Catharines I used to know one of their system admins, several years ago before 360 was even thought of. Used to play counterstrike with the lot of them. Their sound guy is creepy looking

  • svaargod

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 5:50 am PT

    they worked on Too human for 10 years... -.- holy $hit...

  • fennec_fox

    Posted Jun 8, 2008 8:02 am PT

    Not entirely on topic, but the future of this company right now hinges on a commercial success of Too Human... Almost all of the company assets are resouces are tied up on this game. In the recent newspaper article it was said that SK considers TH to ba a "make or break" title - they have MS, SEGA and other big labels holding back their decision on new projects untill it will be clear how TS fared. In highly competitive gaming industry, you are only as good as your last game...

  • Pedro7_2000

    Posted May 19, 2008 8:28 am PT

    Why does news surrounding SK always seem so controversial?

  • sieg6529

    Posted May 16, 2008 8:26 am PT

    how could they not mention Legacy of Kain???

  • BlackKnightOfH8

    Posted May 16, 2008 2:20 am PT

    What ever happened with their lawsuit against Epic games where they were asking for all the profits Epic made from Gears of War?

  • lamprey263

    Posted May 15, 2008 6:45 pm PT

    maybe SK purposefully put false info out on the web just so people don't forget who they are, and then they get their name out again just by denying the rumor... if that's the case, then that's sad

  • Flat_Line_____

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:37 pm PT

    andyrae11 He probably smokes too much pot with his employees thats why the game has been in development for years. If hes going to step down from something, then step off the pot. Its time to grow up and work like a man.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    He is a stoner that makes video games? Well.... He might actually know what gamers really want in a game then, heh. Too Human might just be friggin awsome.

  • Pete5506

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:23 pm PT

    Why put up false info

  • ctg867

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:19 pm PT

    Well if you can't deliver 4 player online co-op, and 2 player split screen, you might as well step down.

    Lol. Just kidding. Not happy about those two things, but as long as Too Human does decent, he has incentive to stay around. Let's see how it turns out.

  • Night_Frost

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:04 pm PT

    If Dyack stands down, the 'knights' part in Silicon Knights will be gone, he really knows his stuff and those who watched the interviews on Too Human and other Silicon games show that he really knows how to bring good narrative to a game and how to make the game very interesting.

    Though it's amazing how people get the wrong idea so quickly

  • subrosian

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:29 pm PT

    As someone who works on the business side of software, I have to say, this just confirms that Dyack is one of the most brilliant minds in the business. Dyack's not saying he wants to leave his role with the company, what he's saying is that Silicon Knights is doing so well that he will need help in the future.

    It takes a smart guy to realize when you're going to get pulled in too many directions at once - Dyack is in a position now that Bill Gates was in a few decades ago. Bill Gates wanted to stay focused on developing Microsoft's products, so he hired Steve Ballmer to act as the Accounting / Finance "go to" for Microsoft.

    Obviously Dyack is now in that position - he wants an Accounting / Finance / Management kind of person to help deal with the day-to-day tasks, handle the payroll, manage the books, keep the taxes dealt with, chat it up with producers, that sort of thing, so that he can be free to make the best games possible. That's simply great news. One of the things that may come of this is that Silicon Knights may be able to take on more projects at once - if Dyack has to think less about the business management aspects of SK, then he can devote more time to the game creation aspects.

  • dlind70

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:00 pm PT

    He was speaking in a future tense concerning that quote about IP and business partner. Unfortunately you can't get emotions across on the internet. As soon as someone even hints at something, you'll get some knuckleheads quoting an out-of-context "CONFIRMED"

  • aboghannam

    Posted May 15, 2008 11:35 am PT

    He's one of the best creative minds in the industry.

  • mykel77

    Posted May 15, 2008 11:17 am PT

    eternal darkness 2!!! come on dennis get with it.

  • AlphaZ3r0

    Posted May 15, 2008 11:01 am PT

    They should merge with Rare, that should cut down their production times to about 6 years per game.

  • andyrae11 posted May 15, 2008 10:16 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    andyrae11

    Posted May 15, 2008 10:16 am PT (hide)

    He probably smokes too much pot with his employees thats why the game has been in development for years. If hes going to step down from something, then step off the pot. Its time to grow up and work like a man.

  • Lazyimperial

    Posted May 15, 2008 10:09 am PT

    I truthfully wasn't that interested in Too Human until I heard about the possible Eternal Darkness 2 rumors. With ten years of time and millions of dollars invested, SK can't afford to have Too Human have a substandard performance, and neither can I. Must have Eternal Darkness 2, so I guess buying Too Human is a necessity. Pitch in, show support, and all that. Worth the price if it contributes at all to the Eternal Darkness franchise being revived.

  • drangel_jam

    Posted May 15, 2008 9:27 am PT

    People will write down anything to get more hits.

  • EXxile

    Posted May 15, 2008 9:17 am PT

    I wish the best for Silicon Knights. I think they're a great company and I think Dennis Dyack has ran it great, and would hate to see him step down. I hope that Too Human is very successful so that we can see more games from them as well as an Eternal Darkness sequel.

  • jknight5422

    Posted May 15, 2008 9:17 am PT

    Sounds like Dyack needs to lay off the crack pipe before giving interviews.

  • Skullcandy

    Posted May 15, 2008 8:46 am PT

    He's French Canadian, what do you want?

  • ag1002

    Posted May 15, 2008 8:25 am PT

    "I was as surprised to see this as everyone else. I am not stepping down."

    Why was he surprised that people thought he was stepping down after reading this, "I'm leaning towards staying creative…So in the end, as the company grows, for my role I'll probably hire someone to be my boss and help run the company."?

  • fishnpeas1

    Posted May 15, 2008 8:12 am PT

    Hopefully there will be huge success with Too Human, and then then can work on Eternal Darkness 2 Please!!

  • gamecubepad

    Posted May 15, 2008 8:10 am PT

    Too Human looks awesome. A couple of years ago it was looking kinda half-ass, but now it's one of my most anticipated games. Dyack seems like a really random guy. He did sound like he was going to step down at some point, but I guess creative people don't mean half the stuff they say while wondering out loud to themselves.

  • Dolacide

    Posted May 15, 2008 8:07 am PT

    Thank goodness, Too Human will be great.

  • MatthewNintendo

    Posted May 15, 2008 8:03 am PT

    I hope too human turns out to be great. I've loved silicon knights since eternal darkness, that was such a great game.

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