SEGA of America, Inc., SEGA Europe, Ltd., and Canada-based developer studio BioWare Corp. today announced a partnership to create a new video game based on the classic SEGA flagship icon Sonic The Hedgehog. The exact name of the game is undetermined, and it will ship in 2008.
"BioWare is one of the hottest names in RPG development in the world," said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. "Everyone at SEGA has huge confidence that Sonic is in the safest of hands, and that BioWare can create the ultimate handheld RPG experience for gamers of all ages."
BioWare is the award-winning independent developer that has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, the 2003 Game of the Year, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the 2005 RPG of the Year, Jade Empire. BioWare is currently developing one of the most anticipated next-generation titles of 2007, Mass Effect.
"We're thrilled to be working with SEGA on Sonic, one of the industry's most enduring and compelling icons," said Greg Zeschuk, president of BioWare. "As huge fans of Sonic ourselves, we're committed to delivering a truly amazing story-driven experience within the Sonic universe, focusing on capturing the character's broad appeal and placing him in a completely original adventure," added Ray Muzyka, chief executive officer of BioWare.
The relationship with BioWare reinforces SEGA's increased emphasis on Western content development for Western audiences. In the past few years SEGA has announced partnerships with developers Bizarre Creations, Gas Powered Games, Monolith Productions, Obsidian Entertainment, Planet Moon Studios, Pseudo Interactive and Silicon Knights. SEGA has also acquired development studios The Creative Assembly, Secret Level and Sports Interactive.
I am a huge fan of the Sonic Adventure games, hopefully this will rock.. i'm actually kind of not worried about it, because I know the story will have to be great -- KOTOR's story is awesome/has a lot of depth to it.. This should turn out really well.
Not a big fan of Sonic, but with Bioware on board, I am pretty excited.rifton
Hah for me it's just the opposite. I'm excited about the idea ofa Sonic RPG, but I'm a little leery of BioWare developing it. I wasn't a huge fan of Neverwinter or KOTOR.
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