LO1 Sumo Digital Company Business Report

Unit 60- Games Industry

Games Company Research

Sumo Digital 

Structure

Sumo Digital was co-founded in 2003 by Carl Cavers (CEO), Paul Porter (COO) and Darren Mills (Executive Art Director and Director of Sumo India) in Sheffield, UK. Other current directors are Ash Bennett as technical director, Sean Millard as creative director and Gary Edwards, Steven Zalud and Gary Moore as development director. 

As of now they have 260 employed in Sheffield and the art studio in Pune, India. They are also a member of the non-profit trade association 'TIGA' which supports and represents the UK games industry. (Sumo Digital (2009) 'Who we are' 'http://www.sumo-digital.com/#who-we-are' [Accessed 28 September 2015]).

Platform Technology

Based on the last few years, they have created games mainly for the 7^th generation (i.e. PS3 and Xbox 360) even though the 8^th generation of consoles are quite mainstream at this time, they have produced 3 games for PS3, and 4 for the Xbox 360 (most being ported from the Xbox One). They have also notably done a few games for the Xbox One, PS4 and the Nintendo Wii U. They have done one game for PC which was also ported for the 7^th and 8^th generation consoles and most handheld devices (such as phones with Android and iOS and also PSVita and Nintendo’s 3DS). This shows that Sumo Digital have always made games for many different platforms and still do today.  
(Sumo Digital (2009) 'We make games' 'http://www.sumo-digital.com/#game-wrap' [Accessed 1 October 2015])

Game Types

Sumo Digital has mainly produced driving and racing games the past few years. One of them was a standalone expansion to another game they ported from Xbox One to 360 (Forza Horizon 2) called ‘Forza Horizon 2 presents Fast & Furious’. They also made a Kart racer expansion to the game Disney Infinity 3.0 (Which they did not make). A game that they made which wasn’t an expansion or a port from another console is ‘Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed’ which is the second installment to the ‘Sonic & All-Stars Racing’ series. They have made many other racing games in the past such as ‘Outrun 2’ (2004) and F1 2011 (2011). Sumo Digital have also created a lot of sports games in the past such as ‘Sega Superstar Tennis’ (2008) and ‘Virtua Tennis World Tour’ (2005). A recent sport game is an exclusive and ‘Xbox Fitness’ (2013). Finally, a recent platformer they released was ‘Little Big Planet 3’ and this was an adventure platform puzzle game, its predecessors were developed by another company (Even though Sumo Digital helped develop the cross-controller pack for Little Big Planet 2, so you could use the PSVita as a kind of tool on the game).
(Sumo Digital (2009) 'Archive' 'http://www.sumo-digital.com/games/#2015' [Accessed 2 October 2015])

Games on Multi-platforms

They have developed; OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows and Xbox, Virtua Tennis 3 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows, Arcade and Xbox 360, Sega Superstars Tennis for Nintendo Wii & DS, PlayStation 2 & 3, Xbox 360 and Mac OS, OutRun Online Arcade for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Virtua Tennis 2009 for  PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Windows and iOS, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii & DS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and mobile versions on IOS, Android and Blackberry), Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for PlayStation 3 and Vita, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U & 3DS, iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows) and their latest game which they helped developed is Disney Infinity 3.0 for  PlayStation 3 & 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Xbox 360, Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS.

Regulatory Bodies:

As do nearly every game have an age rating, where films are rated by BBFC, games are mostly rated by PEGI standing for Pan European Game Information. Sumo Digitals games have mostly been rated 3+ for games like Outrun 2006, Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed and Disney Infinite 3.0. They have also been rated by another company called ESRB standing for Entertainment Software Rating Board, which once gave their game Virtua Tennis an 'E' which means for 'Everyone'. But they mostly use PEGI now.