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Sega Studios San Francisco

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Sega Studios San Francisco
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo game development
PredecessorSecret Level, Inc.
FoundedDecember 1999; 26 years ago (1999-12)
FounderJeremy Gordon, Otavio Good, Josh Adams
DefunctApril 2, 2010 (2010-04-02)
FateClosed by parent company Sega
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jeremy Gordon (Studio Director and CTO until 2009), Otavio Good, Josh Adams, David Dienstbier, Darren Stubbington, Constantine Hantzopoulos
ProductsVideo games including Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Golden Axe: Beast Rider
Number of employees
Nearly 200 (at peak)
ParentSega

Sega Studios San Francisco, previously known as Secret Level, Inc., was a video game development company situated in San Francisco, California. It was established in December 1999 by Jeremy Gordon, Otavio Good, and Josh Adams.

History

Prior to being acquired by Sega, Secret Level operated as a modest-sized studio recognized for its expertise in game creation, tools development, and technology innovation. The company undertook various contract projects involving both art and programming, alongside producing commercial tools designed for game user interfaces and menu systems. It sustained a longstanding collaboration with Epic Games to facilitate the deployment of the Unreal Engine across multiple gaming platforms. Their portfolio included titles developed for Dreamcast, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360.

Initially, the company was divided into three separate legal entities—Secret Level Games, Tools, and Technology—to diversify revenue sources; these were eventually consolidated into a single entity. Jeremy Gordon, one of the founders, held the positions of Studio Director and CTO throughout the period from 1999 until 2009.

The studio’s debut release was Unreal Tournament for the Sega Dreamcast, essentially a port from PC enhanced with additional content tailored for console players. This title received critical praise and secured an IGN Editor's Choice Award. The success of this project solidified their partnership with Epic Games, enabling further support for Unreal Engine on PlayStation 2 and GameCube platforms. In 2002, Secret Level created the initial Unreal export tools compatible with Autodesk Maya.

In 2000, Secret Level Tools introduced Strobe: Flash for Games SDK, a user interface solution adopted by several LucasArts games. This collaboration paved the way for ports of Star Wars: Starfighter to Xbox in 2001. The Xbox version, titled Star Wars: Starfighter: Special Edition, featured additional content including new ships. This was succeeded by Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, which incorporated extra levels such as one set on Coruscant.

The company’s first proprietary title was Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds released in 2003 under Atari’s publishing. This three-dimensional adaptation of the renowned trading card game significantly expanded Secret Level’s art department.

In early 2004, Secret Level produced America's Army: Rise of a Soldier for Ubisoft, an Xbox adaptation that added narrative elements and new levels to the U.S. Army’s tactical FPS recruitment tool. The game featured a single-player campaign inspired by Major Jason Amerine’s experiences in Afghanistan. While this project led to growth in the design team, performance challenges resulted in cancellation of its PlayStation 2 version.

From 2004 through 2006, Secret Level completed more than six smaller-scale contract projects focused on art or engineering services. Additionally, the company joined the Khronos Group in May 2004.

Later in 2004, Secret Level handled the Xbox port of Karaoke Revolution for Konami, introducing a vocal analysis feature that contributed to earning an IGN Editor's Choice Award.

In September 2004, the studio moved to larger premises at 123 Townsend Street within San Francisco.

In March 2005, Secret Level became Ageia’s inaugural development partner for NovodeX solutions, with its art team creating demonstration content for the physics engine.

Mid-2005 saw founder Josh Adams leave to join Epic Games. That same year, Secret Level launched Sidecar, an SDK designed for authoring game user interfaces. Working alongside Orange Design, they completed UI development for X-Men: The Official Movie Game, which launched in March 2006.

Beginning in summer 2005, Secret Level commenced production on Golden Axe for Sega while also developing a new game engine. Sega was impressed by both the progress and technological advancements, prompting them to proceed with acquiring the studio.

Sega Acquisition

On April 3, 2006, Secret Level, Inc. was purchased by Sega for $15 million, marking Sega's inaugural acquisition in North America as part of its strategy to strengthen presence in Western markets. Subsequent to the acquisition, Vice President of Operations Angus Chassels departed to explore new opportunities and eventually became the University of Colorado’s first full-time Entrepreneur in Residence.

After joining Sega, Secret Level experienced rapid expansion, growing its workforce to nearly 200 employees and being renamed Sega Studios San Francisco. The studio was responsible for producing significant titles such as Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Golden Axe: Beast Rider for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. This swift scaling nearly doubled staff numbers within a year, which affected hiring processes and had an impact on the quality of the final products.

In 2009, founders Jeremy Gordon and Otavio Good left the company. The management team was bolstered by the addition of David Dienstbier and Darren Stubbington from Acclaim Studios Austin, both bringing expertise from their work on the Turok series.

The game Iron Man, released in May 2008, targeted PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 audiences, while versions for Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Windows were developed by Artificial Mind and Movement. Launched in October 2008, Golden Axe: Beast Rider faced critical disappointment, receiving notably low scores such as a 3.2/10 from IGN, illustrating struggles in execution despite leveraging a well-known franchise.

Project producer Michael Boccieri later provided a postmortem analysis that pointed to development challenges as key factors behind Golden Axe: Beast Rider's disappointing performance.

Closure of Sega Studios San Francisco

Following the poor commercial reception of these titles, Sega restructured the studio in 2009 under Constantine Hantzopoulos’ leadership, reducing its independence with the goal of improving project outcomes. This reorganization was intended to enhance results for upcoming releases including Iron Man 2 and a proposed sequel to Beast Rider.

On April 2, 2010, coinciding with the launch of Iron Man 2, Sega announced the shutdown of Sega Studios San Francisco. No further information was provided regarding the fate of the planned Beast Rider follow-up, leading to widespread speculation that it had been canceled due to previous underperformance.

In an interview, Sega West president Mike Hayes commented on the closure, emphasizing strategic adjustments made in response to disappointing financial returns from these projects.

Contract Work

In 2002, Secret Level developed a voice over IP system designed for USB headsets bundled with SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs.

Electronic Arts approached the company in 2004 to handle a PlayStation 2 port of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, but this effort was ultimately canceled over concerns about quality standards.

In 2005, Sony commissioned Secret Level to create a game concept inspired by Doug Chiang’s book Robota. Although artwork and a level using Unreal Engine 3 were produced, the project was discontinued before completion.

That same year, Secret Level contributed architectural visualizations for a Four Seasons penthouse in San Francisco utilizing Unreal Engine technology.

Additionally, they developed content and levels for Stottler Henke Associates’ U.S. Navy training simulator Informant, employing Lithtech's Jupiter Engine.

The company was also contracted to port X-Men: The Official Movie Game to PSP; however, this project was canceled after being deemed unfeasible.

Technological Innovations

Strobe

Strobe was a hardware-accelerated Macromedia Flash 5 renderer created primarily for enabling Flash animations on game consoles' user interfaces. Developed between early 2000 and mid-2001 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox at a smooth 60 frames per second, it was ultimately shelved due to licensing complications when Macromedia withdrew support. Nevertheless, Strobe was implemented in PS2 and Xbox editions of Star Wars: Starfighter.

Unreal Engine Integration

Secret Level pioneered bringing Unreal Engine 1 to Dreamcast and Unreal Engine 2 to PlayStation 2 and GameCube platforms. The studio also offered developer assistance via the Unreal Developer Network (UDN). Prominent games utilizing this technology included XIII and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. The last official build supporting PS2 and GameCube was Unreal Engine 2 build 927 (April 2002), after which developers incorporated new features independently.

Pangaea Engine

Pangaea was a joint engine development initiative between Lucasarts and Secret Level aimed at creating expansive environments for an MMO RPG titled Proteus, intended as a successor to Star Wars Galaxies. Development ceased in 2004 following Lucasarts’ restructuring under Jim Ward. Elements from Pangaea influenced Lucasarts’ Riders engine used in titles like Golden Axe: Beast Rider and Iron Man.

Sidecar Toolset

Sidecar functioned as an independent UI authoring toolset with an SDK utilized both internally at Secret Level and by external developers on projects such as Z-Axis’s X-Men: The Official Movie Game.

Published Titles

External links

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