Sumo Digital Makes Strategic Shift: Layoffs Loom as Company Alters IP Development Focus
By The UK video game developer Sumo Digital has informed its team that it will concentrate entirely on “development services for partners,” rather than continuing to create its own intellectual properties.
This choice will “inevitably… affect our studios and personnel,” stated a statement from the company released today.
“We are dedicated to minimizing this impact as much as possible, considering all options to retain talent, and providing support to those affected with transparency, care, and compassion,” it further explained.
Based in Sheffield, Sumo Digital has expanded significantly since its establishment in 2003, with development offices located in Nottingham, Newcastle, Leamington Spa, and Warrington, as well as an additional office in India.
The company also owns several other studios, including The Chinese Room based in Brighton, known for developing Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Still Wakes the Deep.
In 2021, Chinese tech giant Tencent announced it had acquired parent company Sumo Group in a deal valued at approximately £919 million.
Today’s news appears to indicate the second round of layoffs at the company within a year, following a 15 percent reduction in staff in June 2024, along with the divestment of Canadian indie studio Timbre Games.
Sumo Digital has traditionally operated as a support studio that has discreetly contributed to some of the gaming industry’s biggest titles, providing assistance on IO Interactive‘s recent Hitman trilogy, Xbox’s Forza Horizon 4 and 5, Activision’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, and Warner Bros’ Hogwarts Legacy.
Additionally, it has led development on a wide range of games, including Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for PlayStation.
More recently, Sumo had started developing its own intellectual properties, including a puzzle platformer.