SEGA signs Silicon Knights for next-gen title

By Tom Bramwell Published 23 March, 2005

Silicon Knights is working on a new franchise for next-gen consoles and SEGA will publish it.

SEGA has announced an agreement "to acquire and publish next-generation game content" from Silicon Knights - perhaps putting to bed persistent rumours surrounding the Canadian developer's future work.

The companies will collaborate on a new franchise for next-generation consoles, they said this afternoon, although details have not been discussed. "Next-generation consoles" could include any of Xbox 2, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution.

"The partnership brings SEGA more Western-developed content in preparation for high-growth opportunities presented by next-generation hardware platforms," SEGA said in a statement.

It's certainly another example of SEGA's increased emphasis on the Western market - after partnerships with Warner Bros. on Matrix Online, which launched in the States this week, and the recent acquisition of Total War developer The Creative Assembly.

"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, 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," he added.

Silicon Knights is a developer of undeniable pedigree, whose recent GameCube projects have been massively popular with critics and fans. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is widely regarded as one of the most progressive and inventive "survival horror" titles of our time, while Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes - a remake of the PlayStation classic Metal Gear Solid - is a benchmark for remakes and considered by many fans of the series to be the definitive version of the work.

SEGA will be hoping for similar things from Silicon Knights, which has been linked to various possible projects on various platforms over past months, when it comes to the next-generation of console hardware.

The publisher is taking a very active interest in the next-generation of formats, and recently announced that it would publish Monolith Productions' Condemned (preview), with an Xbox 2 version expected first.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 7 years ago

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  • Fozzie_bear #1 7 years ago

    Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is widely regarded as one of the most progressive and inventive "survival horror" titles of our time

    Everyone loves this. Apart from me. The controls i could take, but the combat was tedious, the puzzles so simple they barely even merited the tag. Just a slow, tedious, over rated pile of plop imho.

  • Thamuhacha #2 7 years ago

    >everyone loves this. Apart from me.

    And me. Controls drove me mad.

  • toy_brain #3 7 years ago

    Wowzer, Sega sure are getting aggressive when it comes to aquiring development studios.
    I'm guessing they are trying to go head-to-head with EA in terms of size and brand-recognition. I remember they did try and compete with EA-Sports a while back, but eventually had to admit defeat.
    Looks like they havent given up entirely though.....

    Well, good luck to 'em.

  • Blerk #4 7 years ago

    Peej didn't like it either, Fozzie.

    However, you are both utterly wrong. It's very good indeed, although not a patch on the various Silent Hills and Project Zeroes.

    Anyway, good news! Maybe now they'll be able to work on something original and interesting, rather than wasting their talents porting five year old Playstation titles. I very much look forward to seeing what they can do.

  • Tricky #5 7 years ago

    a remake of the PlayStation classic Metal Gear Solid - is a benchmark for remakes and considered by many fans of the series to be the definitive version of the work.

    Well graphically yeah, but some of the music and voice changes annoyed the hell out of me - especially the music when you died; it was much better on the PS1 version and Campbell screaming "Snake... Snake? SNAAAAAAAAKE!" was brilliant.

    /basks in rose-tinted glow of yesteryears

  • mal #6 7 years ago

    Peej didn't like it either, Fozzie.

    I didn't like it either. That's why I offloaded it to peej in exchange for Midway Classics 1, which, conversely, he hated but I rather liked.

    Well, not conversely - but you know what I mean.

  • kalel #7 7 years ago

    I loved Eternal Darkness, in fact I think it was better than the Silent Hills IMO, but not better than Project Zero. I'd absolutely love a next gen sequel.

    Twin Snakes was a bit meh IMO.

  • Blerk #8 7 years ago

    I think ED's main problem for me was that it was a bit confused about what it wanted to be. The 'horror-based' parts (in the house which formed the hub of the game) were fantastic, but many of the actual levels were more like a boggo-standard 3rd person adventure and not particularly horrific at all. I'd have liked the entire game to be set in the house.

  • Kami #9 7 years ago

    I liked the 3rd-Person adventure bits as well - it's better than having the story rammed into you via books and text. To actually experience the timeline was very interesting... the crap going on in the house was creepy, but the story progression kept things progressing nicely.

    I absolutely loved Eternal Darkness. Not as good as some games out now, but sufficiently different enough to warrant a place in my heart... the story was excellent and pulled me along all the way to the end. I don't think there are any games out there which tell their story in quite the same way as Eternal Darkness does... much to its credit.

    It wasn't "scary", the monsters weren't very well done... but it's a compelling game. Definately a "Love-it-or-hate-it" kinda game... but for me, amongst the usual standard stuff at the time, yeah. It was different and compelling enough to be one of my top 5 'Cube games.

  • Blerk #10 7 years ago

    Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the whole game a lot and I would also put it in my Cube top 5. But I just felt they could've gone that little bit further - some of the levels were a bit on the bland side compared to the hub.