Xseed picks up Samurai Shodown Sen

At last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Ignition Entertainment showed off Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, an Xbox 360-exclusive 3D installment of the long-running SNK fighting series. The game dropped off the radar shortly after the show, but it has resurfaced with a new name, publisher, and release window.

Xseed Games today announced that it has obtained the North American publishing rights to the game, which it will release as Samurai Shodown Sen. An Ignition Entertainment representative would not say why or when the company's involvement in the project ended.

Samurai Shodown Sen features two dozen fighters (13 of them returning from previous Shodown games), online multiplayer, and a "healthy" amount of gore. It marks the third time SNK has developed a 3D version of its sword-swinging fighter series. The previous two attempts, 1997's Samurai Shodown 64 arcade game and its sequel, Warrior's Rage, were critically unsuccessful.

Samurai Shodown Sen is set for North American release this spring. For more on the game back when it was still called Edge of Destiny, check out GameSpot's hands-on coverage from E3.