In a surprise press release this afternoon, Sierra Studios announced that it has acquired the publishing rights to Click Entertainment's Diablo-esque, Throne of Darkness. Prior to this revelation, Throne of Darkness was presumably going to be published by Acclaim Entertainment. We spoke with Click president Doron Gartner to clear up the confusion and learned that Acclaim backed out of the publishing agreement, in order to focus more on console games. Since then, Click has met with a number of prospective publishers before settling on Sierra.

　　"We signed with Studios because we share a common goal - to make games that are innovative, fun, extremely polished, and totally accessible," said Gartner. "With Throne, our goal is to create a tremendous new single-player and multiplayer RPG experience."

　　Throne of Darkness is an overhead action/RPG along the same vein as Diablo, but it takes place in feudal Japan. Comparisons to Diablo can't help but be drawn, since both Click Entertainment founders, Gartner and his partner Ben Haas, worked on the development of the game while at Blizzard. Click promises that Throne of Darkness will have a much more in-depth experience than Diablo had. Throne of Darkness will be available late next year.