Silicon Knights ends Nintendo exclusivity deal

Today, Silicon Knights President and Founder Denis Dyack surprised the game industry by revealing that his company has ended its exclusivity deal with Nintendo.

For the past four years, the Canadian studio had an agreement to develop games solely for the Japanese giant's GameCube console. The deal produced two acclaimed titles--the 2002 horror adventure Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (this year's Metal Gear Solid remake).

Now, it appears that the honeymoon is over. "We decided it was best to go our own separate ways," Dyack told GameSpot. While he classified the deal as "contractually over," the Silicon Knights founder wouldn't go into the reasons for the deal's demise. "We're not disclosing them," he said.

While the news had some GameCubers panicking another developer's abandonment of the Nintendo console, Dyack did leave the door open for future collaborations with Nintendo. "The relationship is still good--very positive," he said.

Nintendo echoed that polite sentiment in a statement to GameSpot. "Nintendo respects the creative work of Silicon Knights, and the parties have left the door open to work on future projects that meet the creative vision of both companies," said a company representative. "[We] have reached an agreement to allow Silicon Knights to pursue its vision of video game entertainment with other companies."

As for Silicon Knights' next project, Dyack would not say whether it would be for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, or Xbox--or a combination of the three. "It's not clear what direction we're going in," he said. There was also no comment as to whether or not Silicon Knights would resurrect Too Human, the PlayStation title it abandoned in late 1999. Dyack has previously made public his hopes of resurrecting the ambitious sci-fi RPG, which was far along in development, for a current-generation console.