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SEGA Europe has announced that it has acquired Sports Interactive, the famed development studio behind the Football Manager series. Before becoming Football Manager, the team worked on the famous Championship Manager series, and is also responsible for NHL: Eastside Hockey Manager and Out of the Park Baseball.
“Football Manager is an extremely successful brand for SEGA and one of the most significant titles for our European line-up,” commented Naoya Tsurumi – CEO: SEGA Europe Ltd. & SEGA of America, Inc. “This acquisition illustrates that we are achieving our objectives and have our strategic planning up and running. Although we still have a lot more to do, we feel that this is yet another huge step towards strengthening our standing within the European market.”
This publishing giant has made significant strides to strengthen its internal studios, with Sports Interactive joining the likes of the now SEGA owned ‘Rome: Total War’ developers The Creative Assembly.
“We acquired Sports Interactive because SEGA has the utmost respect for the Collyer’s, Miles Jacobson and the Sports Interactive team for what they have achieved. The company is built up of highly talented individuals that have and continue to produce award-winning titles,” commented Mike Hayes, President & COO of SEGA Europe Ltd. “Our objective, as with The Creative Assembly, is to work with the team and build upon their successes as we strive to produce the highest quality games for our consumers.”
“From our first meeting with SEGA, it felt like “home”- they really understand development and it’s an honour to get to work with the overwhelming pool of talent from both the development and publishing side,” added Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive. “The partner was right for the next chapter in Sports Interactive’s history, with more releases from the studio this year than ever before. Myself, Ov, Paul and the SI team are all really excited about the future.”
The first titles to be released post-deal will be Football Manager 2006 for the Xbox 360 and Football Manager Handheld for the PSP, both due on April 13.
In other acquisition news, Secret Level, Inc has also become a SEGA owned studio. Secret Level isn’t a well publicised development studio, but the company is well-known within the industry for developing cutting-edge technology.
“SEGA’s incredible library of IP and global publishing muscle will enable us to realize our full technical and creative potential,” said Jeremy Gordon, President of Secret Level, Inc. “It’s become clear that a combined SEGA and Secret Level are greater than the sum of our parts.”
