Silicon Knights 'temporarily' lays off 26 employees

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 6th 2008 at 5:30PM }

Silicon Knights announced today that it has laid off 26 employees in the wake of the completion of Too Human and heading into "several new and exciting games." The press release notes that it is common for development teams to grow during a single project and "whittle down" once the project is complete. According to the release, Silicon Knights had undergone "four years of unprecedented growth" in which the company reached over 180 people before the cutback. The layoffs are purportedly temporary with company head Denis Dyack stating, "These 26 individuals are hard-working and valued team members that we hope to bring back as we ramp up on our future projects."

While the press release states that "All the company's directors and leads are still at Silicon Knights and working on its next projects," a Joystiq tipster said that the 26 cut employees included "a few long-tenured ones."

Find the full press release after the break.

Silicon Knights PR statement:

"After any big game ships, there is always some attrition. Teams are lean and mean in the beginning, grow toward the end of the project, and then whittle down once the project is finished. To that end, Silicon Knights temporary [sic] laid-off 26 employees today while they ramp up on other projects. All the company's directors and leads are still at Silicon Knights and working on its next projects.

"The slight cutback comes after four years of unprecedented growth for the St. Catharines', Ontario (Canada) company, during which its headcount had expanded to more than 180 employees.

"Denis Dyack, President and founder of the company, stated, 'Silicon Knights is currently working on several new and exciting games that will be announced to the public in the coming months. In addition to those projects, Silicon Knights continues to develop and promote other new and original ideas, which will become the innovative games of tomorrow. These 26 individuals are hard-working and valued team members that we hope to bring back as we ramp up on our future projects.'"

Tags: business, silicon-knights

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Urza @ Oct 6th 2008 7:17PM

So they're starting "several new and exciting games" but they don't need the people they fired for those SEVERAL GAMES.

This is like everything else out of Silicon Knights the last 5 years... complete B.S.

RedSonRising @ Oct 6th 2008 7:26PM

hmm, i just finished the game over the weekend and id like to know what 180 ppl were doing at SK before Tool Human shipped.. the controls and gameplay were stale, repetitive and completely unintuitive, the plot was forgettable at best and thats being very generous..

id rather everyone employed by SK stayed there so they dont infect any other games i might like.. honestly im still pissy Tool Human still has a 'launch' page on this site..

Feedback @ Oct 7th 2008 1:56AM

Here was me thinking they'd need all the help they can get to work on the second and third parts of Too Human.

Urza @ Oct 7th 2008 2:41AM

Well everyone except Denis Dyack. The guy did more blogging about why we shouldn't be down on his company's game then he did Quality Assurance on the game.

Boff @ Oct 7th 2008 6:02AM

As one of the very few who seemed to have actually enjoyed TH, I hope this isn't a sign of things going downhill at Silicon Knights...

The statement does sound a bit contradictory though, as pointed out by #1.

Maybe they're several new and exciting XBLA games?

RedSonRising @ Oct 7th 2008 12:31PM

things started going down hill when they started working on Tool Human.. and yeah Boff, you are one of the few ppl that enjoy playing that game.. at best its a rental but i wouldnt recommend it to anyone im still friends with..

im less interested in TH and more concerned with the "2" next to my name; last week it was a 14 but i have no idea what it means or why it dropped..

AoE @ Oct 7th 2008 6:11PM

No, it's not a sign of things going downhill at SK.. that was in 2004 when Nintendo ended their publishing agreement with SK. Unless you mean perhaps that this is a continued sign of things continuing to go downhill at SK? In which case... yes, yes it is.