Shadow of the Eternals, the proposed spiritual successor to 2002’s Eternal Darkness, fell well short of its Kickstarter funding goal for a second time. Despite a more modest target of $US750,000, the project attracted less than half that amount, or $US323,950.
Shadow of the Eternals was to be made by Precursor Games, a studio formed from the remnants of Silicon Knights, developers of Eternal Darkness. Precursor opened its first Kickstarter back in may with a $US1.35 million goal but shut it down two weeks before deadline when it had gathered less than 10 per cent of the target.
Precursor promised to relaunch its Kickstarter and did so at the end of July, but this one, too, never gathered steam, despite bringing aboard David Hayter, the longtime voice of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series. Precursor, in an update on the project’s Kickstarter page, said it will take a one week break before returning to upgrade its forum software to keep the community engaged.
“It is unfortunate that we were unable to crowd-fund this project at this time, but we have not given up,” Precursor said. “We intend to pursue other avenues with the ultimate goal of having our games come to fruition.”
Precursor and this project have met with controversy repeatedly during the two attempts to fund it. The fact Precursor was formed by former employees of Silicon Knights drew attention from Epic Games, which sued the studio and 2007 bomb Too Human into oblivion in 2012, and wanted to be sure no Silicon Knights game assets had made the jump with employees.
Denis Dyack, the combative creative director formerly of Silicon Knights and currently with Precursor, complained in a since-removed video that this story about the development of 2011 disaster X-Men Destiny was damaging Precursor’s ability to raise money for the project. Then came the first cancellation, which Precursor framed as a “suspension.” The project relaunched July 25, but not before a Precursor developer was arrested on child pornography charges (Precursor immediately fired him).
Thank you pledges! [Kickstarter]
Comments
2 responses to “Second Kickstarter For Eternal Darkness Sequel Ends Far Short Of Goal”
I was a proud backer! ALL HAIL DYACK!
” The project relaunched July 25, but not before a Precursor developer was arrested on child pornography charges (Precursor immediately fired him).”
Was he found guilty? That’s a pretty big thing to casually mention (especially if you’re trying to imply that affected the kickstarter). Oh wait, not journalists, sorry I forgot…
The first crowd-fund wasn’t a kickstarter coz they’re not in the US, I thought…