Shadow of the Eternals Kills Kickstarter In a Bid to Buy Time

Darkness has continued to stagnate.

Once again, the ‘spiritual successor’ of GameCube cult classic Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem manages to throw a new curve ball into the long-frothing mass of fan confusion.

Shadow of the Eternals by Precursor Games has been limping along trying to gain enough of a fan following to warrant the public crowdfunding of the enormously expensive venture. As of this writing, with 14 days left, the combined Kickstarter and Paypal crowdfunding campaign has made $284,497 (about 19% of their $1.5 million goal).

I guess if you thought about it, this might not have come as much of a surprise.

We’re shutting it down… kinda…

Today, Paul Caporicci and the Precursor team posted a new message on the game’s Kickstarter announcing that they would ‘temporarily’ take down both of the Shadow of the Eternals crowdfunding campaigns.

The reasons why are vague. Extremely vague. And from the implications of ‘temporary’, it doesn’t sound like it’s because Nintendo started to thrust dollar bills at the screen demanding that Precursor take their money. As posted on their Kickstarter:

“Since we announced this Kickstarter campaign we have seen more support from our community than we ever hoped for. Along with this support has come a host of a new exciting opportunities that will make the game better than we envisioned. As a result, we have chosen to temporarily take down the Shadow of the Eternals crowdfunding campaigns on both Kickstarter and our own website on Thursday, June 6.

This doesn’t mean we’re going away – far from it. We’ll be relaunching the Kickstarter in just a few short weeks with a reveal of these exciting new developments.”

Oh. Okay.

Well I can see why the company would want to take things back to the drawing board, since the prospects are grim that 14 days will magically net them over $1.2 million.

Well, what else can they do?

Many wary fans hold the presence of Denis Dyack, founder of Silicon Knights, and current chief creative officer at Precursor Games to blame for the industry and player public’s lack of interest in funding the project. Held chiefly to blame for Silicon Knights’ fall from celebrated studio to industry laughingstock, Dyack’s name featuring prominently on the project probably hurts more than it helps.

I’m sure it’s possible that the drawing board might involve Dyack’s name chucked into the trash. But I doubt it.

No, if you ask me, it will involve a great deal of excitement and hyperbole, all the while trying to snatch enough time (while holding onto waning public interest) to “retool our campaign and continue development” in order to find some new way of selling essentially the same thing. The step back from Kickstarter and crowdfunding is only to stave off the inevitable failure that was doomed to come in 14 days, by announcing it as a voluntary withdrawal. They weren’t fired; they resigned, honest.

Now, perhaps I’m being cynical.

It could be true. There really could be exciting new developments that will be a huge game-changer for Precursor and the oft-discussed Shadow of the Eternals. I can certainly hold out hope for it.

But it doesn’t sound like a fat cheque. And that’s what Precursor needs right now more than anything.

They’ll be back to their internet panhandling soon enough. I’ll keep you posted if, in fact, there is any new significant change to the project.