Sega extends Unreal deal

Last May, Sega joined a handful of other Japanese publishers, including Square Enix and Capcom, as a licensee of Epic Games' epically popular Unreal Engine 3. As part of its original agreement, Sega said that it would be implementing Epic's game engine into several projects currently being developed in North America.

Although the publisher was cagey on which projects specifically would be the object of the deal, current Sega games being developed in the New World include Obsidian's Aliens role-playing game and Alpha Protocol, Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines, and Silicon Knights' unnamed project, which has been the subject of a lawsuit between the Canadian studio and Epic for its disputed use of Unreal Engine 3.

Today, Sega said that it would be extending its original Unreal deal to include one more game. Details on the unannounced title are slim, and Sega has stated only that the game will be a multiplatform effort and that further details will be revealed on an undetermined date.

Epic has received substantial support for its game engine in recent years. During this year's Game Developers Conference, the game maker drew especially large crowds thanks to a tech demo for the latest build of the engine, which featured new "fracture" animations, surface deformations, crowd generation, and a slightly revolting cube of meat. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 has powered a variety of games, including the company's own Gears of War and Unreal Tournament III, BioWare's Mass Effect, and Midway's Hour of Victory.