Silicon Knights gets Unreal

Ontario-based Silicon Knights announced today that it has signed an agreement to use Epic Games' Unreal 3 engine in all of its next-generation games. Silicon Knights is the developer of the GameCube titles Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

Silicon Knights will be using the Unreal 3 engine for its first game since its split with Nintendo. In April 2004, the developer left its exclusivity deal with the Japanese gaming giant to pursue other avenues. In March, Sega announced that it had reached a deal with Silicon Knights to publish next-generation content from the developer. Silicon Knights has not released any information on any game it currently has in development.

The Unreal engine, in its two previous iterations, has been at the heart of dozens of games, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, America's Army, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It is built and maintained by North Carolina-based developer Epic Games, which will be using the engine to power its recently announced PC game Unreal Tournament 2007.