September 12^th, 2005 (11:48pm) - SEGA has announced that it will be partnering with esteemed RTS developer Petroglyph to create an original RTS franchise for the PC. Most of Petroglyph is comprised of employees of the historic Westwood Studios, which had been the development studio behind some landmark PC games including the Command & Conquer series and Blade Runner. Petroglyph is also currently in development with the highly anticipated Star Wars: Empire at War.

Under the terms of the agreement, Petroglyph will collaborate with SEGA on creating a modern military/sci-fi theme RTS franchise exclusively for SEGA. SEGA will manage all marketing and distribution activities and work hand in hand with Petroglyph to supervise ongoing game development. Both companies will announce product and release details at a later date.

"Sega is moving aggressively toward a leadership position in the RTS category and the team at Petroglyph is behind some of the finest games in the genre," said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America. "We continue to rebuild Sega as a leading publisher by collaborating with only the very best developers in North America and Europe."

"Coincidentally, this deal marks the ten year anniversary of the blockbuster RTS series which most of the Petroglyph team worked on during our time at Westwood Studios," said Michael Legg, President of Petroglyph. "We are extremely excited about our partnership with Sega, as it will enable us to advance the RTS genre while creating fun and exciting experiences for gamers worldwide."

This agreement, along with recent partnerships with developers Silicon Knights, Secret Level, Monolith Productions (project: Condemned), Pseudo Interactive (project: Full Auto); and the acquisition of esteemed developer, The Creative Assembly (project: Spartan: Total Warrior) continues to highlight Sega’s emphasis on the Western market.