Sega Rounds Up Silicon Knights

Publisher continues to line-up Western talent to create games for the next generation.

After a four-year exclusivity deal with Nintendo that saw the release of two widely acclaimed games, Canadian developer Silicon Knights has announced that it will be creating games for that other Japanese gaming giant - Sega.

Hideo Kojima worked closely with Silicon Knights to
recreate his original steal masterpiece

The new deal specifically aligns the two companies to work together on games for an unspecified next-generation console. No details for the game have been released, nor has a release window been nailed down.

The announcement of the deal with Silicon Knights is the latest move by Sega to prepare itself for the upcoming new consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo by securing more Western-developed games.

Faced with a declining market for traditional console games in Japan and a burgeoning demand in North America and Europe, Japanese publishers have had to reposition themselves to best exploit a very different market from just five years ago.

Eternal Darkess was proof that the company is able to
do good work on original ideas as well.

"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."

Sega currently finds itself in a particularly difficult spot. In 1999, the company launched the Dreamcast, which, despite an arsenal of excellent games, failed to avoid the spectre of the looming PlayStation 2. Sega has since abandoned its hardware and merged with Japanese arcade giant Sammy.

Ontario-based Silicon Knights has already been making games for over a decade. But it was with the release of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes for GameCube that the company started to really make a name for itself.

Company president Denis Dyack has rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest games creators around and this deal sees the designer more determined than ever to offer gamers something special.

"Silicon Knights believes that the next-generation systems will be the catalyst propelling video games as the dominant form of entertainment in this century," said Dyack.

"We are very excited to collaborate with Sega on a next-generation project because we share a vision - to take the medium of games to new heights and move people as never before."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games