Critically acclaimed developer ends exclusivity agreement with Nintendo.Reports broke today of Silicon Knights ending their second-party exclusive development deal with Nintendo. The story first ran on IGNcube, and PGC has confirmed the information with Denis Dyack, President of Silicon Knights.
Dyack confirmed that his company is no longer an exclusive developer for Nintendo, but he could not offer much further information.
"Our relationship with Nintendo is still strong, and it's possible that we may develop games for Nintendo in the future. This was a positive split, and we continue to have a great respect for Iwata-san (President of NCL) and the other people at Nintendo."
The real cause of the split is still shrouded in secrecy, however. Dyack could not comment on whether Silicon Knights is now an indepenent developer or if the company has aligned itself with one of Nintendo's competitors, or even if Nintendo currently maintains the investment stake it made in Silicon Knights back in 2000.
"Right now, because of the proprietary nature of game development, we can't say much."
Nintendo of America offered a similarly agreeable, vague description of today's events:
"Nintendo and Silicon Knights have reached an agreement allowing Silicon Knights to pursue its vision of videogame entertainment with other companies. 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."
Planet GameCube will be following this story closely, although official details of the developer's future are not expected for some time.