"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."

"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," said Ray Muzyka, chief executive officer of BioWare.

With the combination of BioWare and the hottest selling gaming platform today (the DS), this could be what SEGA needs to bring gamers back to Sonic. The game is quite a bit away (2008) and a final title for the game has yet to be determined.

UPDATE: The news of BioWare taking on the Sonic RPG project definitely came as a surprise. Community members at the BioWare forums were told who in BioWare was working on the SEGA title.

From Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator, at the official BioWare forums: "Well, we do have a lot of guys and gals working on Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but there is a tight group of talented, experienced BioWarians working on our Sonic title as well. The team is lead by Mark Darrah who has been with BioWare for over a decade and worked on BG, BG2, NwN and Jade Empire."

Read the full press release below.

Full press release:

SEGA ANNOUNCES BIOWARE WILL CREATE SONIC ROLE PLAYING GAME FOR THE NINTENDO DS

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (June 21, 2007) -- 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 GateT 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.

Write Comment
Name:	Guest
Title:
BBCode:
Comment:

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!