Revamping Local Dynamics: Sumo Neighborhood’s Unique Approach to Community Collaboration
By The UK’s sports studio giant Sumo Digital has announced it will no longer create its own franchises and will focus exclusively on collaborative development.
The company revealed this news in a business update, stating that it must reconcile its creative goals with the challenging “business realities” to ensure long-term viability.
It indicated that its studios and workforce will be affected by this shift but declined to provide further significant details.
This announcement comes six months after Sumo, which is part of the Chinese conglomerate Tencent, reduced its staff by 15 percent and closed its Canadian studio, Timbre Games.
“We are dedicated to minimizing this impact as much as possible, exploring all avenues to retain talent, and providing support to those affected with transparency, care, and compassion,” the business update stated.
“This will bolster our position as a premier development partner, utilizing our expertise to contribute to and craft exceptional games for our clients. Whether it’s collaborating on new or existing titles, co-developing games, offering specialized engineering, or porting services; we are confident in our teams’ remarkable talent and our ability to succeed in this next phase.”
Sumo Digital has created a variety of original titles, including Sackboy: A Big Adventure, DeathSprint 66, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Serene Awakens the Deep, and Team Sonic Racing.
Sumo Digital’s collaborative and support history
It has also acted as a support studio on major franchises like Forza Horizon, Hitman, and Call of Duty.
Sumo positions itself as one of the UK’s largest providers of end-to-end creative development and co-development services. Currently, it employs 1,500 staff spread across 18 studios in the UK, Canada, India, and the United States—including Sumo Digital, The Chinese Room, Crimson Kite Games, Atomhawk, and Auroch Digital.
In 2021, the company was acquired by Tencent for $1.27 billion through its subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited.
At that time, Sumo CEO Carl Cavers mentioned that Tencent has a track record of supporting management teams and their existing strategies, including the “acceleration” of new franchise development.
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Game Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist with over a decade of experience in the gaming industry. His articles have appeared in prominent print and digital outlets including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, GamesIndustry.biz, and PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has reported on significant industry events such as GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has served on the judging panel for The Develop Awards several times and has appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.