Sega Scores Exclusive Rights To Marvel's Iron Man

Officials from Sega have announced a new global licensing agreement with Marvel Entertainment that gives Sega the exclusive rights to develop and distribute video game titles across all platforms based on Marvel's Iron Man property. The first Iron Man project produced under the license agreement will be based on Marvel Studios' forthcoming Iron Man feature film, which stars Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard, and is directed by Jon Favreau. The movie, the first to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment, will be released on May 2, 2008. The deal also includes the possibility of titles based on the Iron Man comic book itself. In addition, according to a statement made by Sega regarding the new deal, the agreement represents the first step in a strategic partnership between the two companies that will result in at least one additional Marvel hero featured on next-gen platforms. The agreement marks the latest of many such deals by Marvel concerning games based on its comic book and feature film properties. The global character based-entertainment and licensing company also recently confirmed a number of other titles in development with other developers and publishers, such as Spider-Man Trilogy from Activision and Take Two's Ghost Rider, which is also based on an upcoming movie staring Nicolas Cage. "Marvel is recognized as one of the world's leaders in the entertainment industry and Sega is excited to be publishing the next-gen interactive entertainment based on Iron Man, the first Marvel Studios project being brought to the widescreen," said Sega of America's president and COO Simon Jeffery. "The Iron Man history is filled with compelling and intriguing characters and stories and with the power of the next-gen systems, Sega will be bringing these characters to life like never before."