Trivia / Too Human

• Budget-Busting Element: Too Human was, at the time of its release, estimated to have a budget of between $60-$100 million USD, due to the fact that development moved from the Playstation to the Nintendo Gamecube before ending up on the Xbox 360, and the shift in SKUs required development to restart from scratch. Developer Silicon Knights ended up trying to save money by not paying Epic Games's licensing fee for its Unreal Engine, a move which resulted in a legal battle that eventually led to the destruction of all unsold physical copies of the game and the shuttering of Silicon Knights.
• Creator Killer: Or at the very least Creator Crippler. The game's failure to catch on set up Silicon Knights for the eventual deathblow with X-Men: Destiny and the related lawsuit described above.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: The game had been in development on and off for nearly ten years, with Denis Dyack clearly meaning for it to be a grand, epic trilogy and Silicon Knights' biggest hit ever. Instead, it garnered middling reviews and sales, and the studio is best remembered for Eternal Darkness.
• Rereleased for Free: In 2019 on the Xbox digital storefront, with full compatibility for the Xbox One (and piggybacking on that, the Xbox Series X|S). A truly shocking moment, considering the game's litigious history.
• Saved from Development Hell: The game was first announced in 1999 for the PlayStation, with a trailer at E3 the same year. Development of the title then shifted to the Nintendo GameCube due to signing an exclusive partnership with Nintendo, though it was slowed due to the studio focusing most of their efforts on making Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. The game would finally settle on the Xbox 360, when Silicon Knights CEO Denis Dyack cut ties with Nintendo upon learning how underpowered the Wii would be, teaming up with Microsoft Studios instead.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: A rare self-inflicted version; Silicon Knights sued Epic Games over claims that it had intentionally withheld key data on its Unreal III Engine, effectively sabotaging Too Human in favor of their own game, Gears of War. Not only did the jury ultimately throw out Silicon Knights' claims, but found "overwhelming evidence" of Epic's counterclaims that Knights illegally used large parts of Unreal Engine III's code to make their own engine. This ended up costing Knights $9 million, forced them to destroy all unsold copies of Too Human, pulled the game from Xbox Live, and ultimately torpedoed the company, which was already reeling from several failed projects.
• Stillborn Franchise: This game was intended to be the first in a trilogy. However, the game had average reviews, and didn't sell very well. Silicon Knights losing its lawsuit with Epic Games killed the company, making the sequel impossible.
• What Could Have Been: The game's premise when development started in the 90s was very different from the final product. Intended for the PlayStation and released on a staggering five discs (later reduced to four),^note For comparison, the contemporary Final Fantasy VII was released on three discs the game would have taken place in the year 2450 AD in a Blade Runner-like Cyberpunk setting. The main character, John Franks, would be an undercover police officer who witnesses the murder of his partner at the hands of a cyborg, sending him into the world of corporate espionage. The game would encourage players to have Franks cybernetically modified to make him stronger, saying the player was "too human" to win otherwise, but the story would raise concerns about Franks losing his metaphorical soul because of this. The game also promised over 15 different weapons with six different types of ammo and four different targeting systems that could be mixed and matched according to preference. See the original pre-release info from 1999 here.

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