D3Publisher of America and Digital Extremes' Dark Sector (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) has gone gold. Pretty soon fans of this game across North America will see if all the hype that has been building for this title is well deserved. If you want to find out more about this (like when it's expected to ship to the retail stores), head on over to the full article.

A recent press release by D3Publisher of America has announced that they have just entered an agreement with Vicious Cycle Software, where the makers of the Vicious Engine for consoles, handhelds and PC platforms shall become a subsidiary of D3PA after the agreement pulls through.

 

D3Publisher was signed up as Vicious Cycle Software's publisher for Dead Head Fred for the PSP, but it appears that D3Publisher wishes to extend their relations with the North Carolina-based developer studio for a much longer time. And Vicious Cycle will be marked their first true internal developer studio as soon as the share acquisition agreement is successfully concluded.

"Having worked with D3PA for the past few years, we know the company shares our passion for creative excellence and our commitment to quality," said Eric Peterson, president of Vicious Cycle Software. He added that they are excited to be part of the D3Publisher family and providing their skills and talents to D3PA's game portfolio.

Details of the agreement seems to affect nothing throughout the management of Vicious Cycle, as the current leadership will not be changed nor shall the studio be moved from North Carolina. That said, financial figures pertaining to the acquisition have not been revealed, however.

Vicious Cycle Software, founded back in 2000 by former MicroProse game developers, is a developer for titles for a broad range of customers, including educational titles for children and action games for the mobile gamers. Their works include titles that were released on the Sony PS2, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube. They have recently focused a development effort toward the Windows platforms.

However, since the release of their Vicious Engine middleware solution, they have delivered a cross-platform edge for games on both the next-gen and current-gen consoles. The Vicious Engine was conceptualized back in 2005, but recent improvements to the software allowed the engine to be the first to extend toward the Wii and the PSP.

D3Publisher of America Inc and D3Publisher of Europe, Ltd. (D3PE), a publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, today announced that it has signed the next hot title from the co-creators behind the award-winning Epic Games' Unreal franchise. Ranked as one of the top independent interactive entertainment development studios in the world, Canadian-based Digital Extremes is currently in full production on Dark Sector being developed for next generation console platforms and personal computers. A third-person shooter, Dark Sector is anticipated for a worldwide release in Q3 2007 and has already garnered tremendous buzz among the gaming community and mass media as the next-gen game to watch.

"Our focus at D3Publisher continues to be acquiring good, mass-market appeal licensed properties, and the acquisition of IP from selected developers designed for next generation machines," stated Yoji Takenaka, executive vice president and COO for D3PA. "The opportunity to work with the world renowned design team that James Schmalz has assembled at Digital Extremes is just too good to pass up. They have an outstanding reputation for gorgeous graphics, polished gameplay and high quality production values. We are very proud to be working with them on Dark Sector."

Founded in 1993 by James Schmalz, Digital Extremes has become one of the world's top interactive entertainment development studios. Digital Extremes partnered with Epic Games to co-create Epic Games' Unreal and its counterpart Unreal Tournament, which has garnered critical acclaim globally and numerous awards including the coveted Game of the Year award from top media outlets Computer Gaming World, CNET, Gamespy and Gamespot. To date, the scope of games in the award-winning Unreal franchise, including Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Unreal Championship have sold more than 9 million units worldwide.

"We are very fortunate based on our previous successes to be in a position of being selective with our business partners," commented James Schmalz, Digital Extremes founder. "D3Publisher impressed us with their commitment to publishing high quality next-generation games that exceed gamers' expectations, which we certainly expect to do with Dark Sector. We consider this game to be the culmination of the experience we have garnered over the years in creating cutting-edge entertainment and we are pleased to be working with them to bring Dark Sector to gamers around the world."

A modern-day superhero saga, Dark Sector is a third-person shooter where players assume the role of the protagonist, Hayden Tenno who gains the ability to morph into dramatically different combat forms. Set in the crumbling infrastructure of a fictional Soviet-bloc country in the near future, the game features both single and multi-player action, with players working their way through a world where bio-weapons are no longer science experiments, but a hellish nightmare let loose on an unsuspecting populace.

Digital Extremes ranks as one of the world's top independent development studios in the interactive entertainment industry. The Canadian based developer is best known for its co-creation of Epic Games' Unreal, the multi-million unit selling franchise which includes the award-winning PC series Unreal and Unreal Tournament as well as Xbox hit Unreal Championship. Digital Extremes is currently in production on its next-generation title, Dark Sector using its proprietary next-gen technology, the Sector Engine.