Officials from Sega of America and Sega of Europe have announced an agreement to 'acquire and publish next generation game content" from developers Silicon Knights. The Canadian developer is best known for its work on GameCube titles
Eternal Darkness and
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, as well as the original
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain.
The developer was at one time referred to as a 'second party' Nintendo developer, implying that it had an unofficial status as exclusive developer for the GameCube format. However, this relationship ended shortly after the release of
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, for reasons that neither side have been willing to explain.
Nothing has been heard of the company or its future plans since then, and Sega is only saying that they are collaborating on creating a new franchise for next generation consoles. Sega will manage all marketing and distribution activities, and work in hand with Silicon Knights to supervise ongoing game development. However, the new deal does not preclude Silicon Knights from developing other titles for different publishers.
"We intend to establish Sega as a leading publisher on the next generation of game hardware and only the highest possible quality of Western-developed content will get us there," said Simon Jeffery, president and COO of Sega of America. "Silicon Knights has a rich history of developing great games that push hardware technology, so we expect this relationship will result in a powerful, new, and highly commercial franchise."
This is just the latest in a number of signings of Western developers for Sega, which include a partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive for
The Matrix Online, Sports Interactive for the
Football Manager series, Monolith Productions for
Condemned and the acquisition of
Total War creators The Creative Assembly. All of these moves are aimed at increasing Sega’s presence in the West, through publishing specifically Western created and orientated products.
