GameCube Classic Eternal Darkness Was Delayed in Part Due to 9/11

To this day, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem stands as one of the Nintendo GameCube’s most critically acclaimed games, earning a 9.6 out of 10 from IGN back in 2002. For all its critical success, many wonder if it was held back by not being a launch window title for the GameCube, as was originally planned. The world may never know, but on this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered, former Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack shed some light on the decision to delay the game in the wake of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

“After 9/11, there was a lot of talk about a 'new Crusade,' there was anthrax going through the mail, and anything with Middle Eastern content, people were like, 'Kill this game,’" Dyack said. “So we had to rewrite it and just remove all that stuff. There was nothing negative towards anyone. It was just a historical perspective about a fantasy game. So we would have made launch of the GameCube. We were on target, but we had to rewrite several stories in the game.”

Eternal Darkness originally featured an area set in the Arab world and included a playable character named Joseph De Molay, who was a member of the Crusades. The historical context worried Dyack and fellow writer Ken McCulloch that the game could spark hostility in a world with already tense relations between Western and Middle Eastern people.

You can hear Dyack explain how it all went down on the full episode of this month’s IGN Unfiltered, where you’ll also hear Dyack reflect on Silicon Knights' early days with Legacy of Kain, plus what he learned from industry icons like Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima.

IGN Unfiltered is a monthly show where editor Ryan McCaffrey sits down with some of the video game world’s biggest names to learn what made them who they are as creatives. Past guests include big names like Ubisoft’s co-founder Yves Guillemot, Uncharted’s Amy Hennig, Halo boss Bonnie Ross, and many more. Check out all our past episodes here.

Joseph Knoop is a freelance writer for IGN, and he's been losing his mind for four years straight. Get sane with him on Twitter @JosephKnoop.

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