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After a 16-year long second-party relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), the team behind the Ratchet & Clank series have announced their next big gaming franchise will be hitting the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.  Insomniac Games has been producing games exclusively for the PlayStation family of consoles since their very first title, the first-person shooter Disruptor, hit the PSOne back in 1996.

Under a new deal unveiled this morning with Electronic Arts, the publisher will bring an all-new Insomniac Games franchise to Microsoft's and Sony's current gaming platforms.  Published through EA's Partners program, the still unnamed title will be in production at the company's Burbank, California, studio.  Under the agreement Insomniac will retain ownership of the intellectual property.  No other information about the upcoming new franchise , including the genre or expected release date, has been reveal.

"Working with EA Partners allows us to extend the reach of our games to a multiplatform audience," said Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games. "We are excited and eager to introduce Insomniac to a new group of gamers while reinforcing to our loyal fans what makes our games special."

Insomniac Games has been responsible for creating some of the most distinguished Sony console brands including Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance.  Combined, these franchises has achieved sales of more than 35 million copies worldwide.

Rumours of the company's multiplatform desires surfaced during this year's Game Developer Conference when a "trusted source" told IGN that they intended on leaving their PS3 exclusivity to focus on multiple platforms.  As we know today, they've been speaking with publisher Electronic Arts, a company that Ted Price tells Joystiq as having the "same values when it comes to [their] creative approach" and "an amazing global reach."

David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners says of the deal: "This is an exciting day for all of us at EA Partners and for gamers everywhere.  Insomniac is renowned for their commitment to quality and their ability to create unique, exciting worlds for gamers to explore. We look forward to help them bring their next blockbuster franchise to the millions of diehard Insomniac fans on PlayStation and the soon to be millions of diehard Insomniac fans on Xbox 360."

With Sony having exclusive publishing agreements for both the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance franchises I wouldn't expect to see either of these universes land on the Xbox 360 anytime soon.

This move comes hot off the heels of former Microsoft-owned Bungie, makers of the renowned Halo franchise, also announcing their new mulitplatform focus after forging a ten year partnership with mega publisher Activision.

Reacting to the multiplatform news, a SCE rep told CVG that the company will continue to build upon their long partnership with Insomniac Games and we can expect an unveiling of a new, exclusive property in the near future.  It has been rumoured that Insomniac is hard at work on one more Ratchet game and as many as two new entries to the Resistance franchise.

To assuage the fears of diehard Sony fans that the end of PlayStation exclusivity was coming, the company President took to their corporate blog to write a personal note explaining the deal with EA.  In Price's letter one of the reason he cites for the partnership is to allow the company more development time to iterate and polish their games.   Over the last 16 years the company has roughly followed an annual development cycle for their games.  That's about to change as Price announced that all future Insomniac titles will benefit from longer developer cycles, which should translate into more polished games.

Echoing the SCE reps comments from earlier today, Price mentions in his letter that Insomniac will continue to develop additional projects exclusively for the PS3.