UK game maker Sumo Digital has told staff it will refocus exclusively on “development services for partners”, rather than continuing to create its own IP.
This decision will “unavoidably… have an impact on our studios and people,” a statement from the company noted today.
“We are committed to minimising this impact as much as possible, exploring all options to retain talent, and supporting those affected with transparency, care and compassion,” it added.
Headquarted in Sheffield, Sumo Digital has grown considerably since its founding in 2003, with development offices in Nottingham, Newcastle, Leamington Spa and Warrington, and also abroad in India.
The company additionally owns several other studios, including the Brighton-based The Chinese Room, developer of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Still Wakes the Deep.
In 2021, Chinese megacorp Tencent announced it had bought parent company Sumo Group in a deal worth around £919m.
Today’s news seems set to mark the second round of layoffs at the company in under a year, after 15 percent of its staff were let go in June 2024, and Canadian indie studio Timbre Games was divested.
Sumo Digital has long been a work-for-hire studio that has quietly helped develop some of video gaming’s biggest blockbusters, with contributions to IO Interactive’s recent Hitman trilogy, Xbox’s Forza Horizon 4 and 5, Activison’s Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warner Bros’ Hogwarts Legacy.
It has also worked on a long list of games as lead developer, including Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for PlayStation.
More recently, Sumo had begun working on its own IP, including puzzle platformer Snake Pass, and indie titles such as DeathSprint 66 and Critter Cafe that it released through its own publishing label, Secret Mode.
Sumo’s statement says the company has now been forced to balance “creative ambitions and the commercial realities to ensure the long-term stability and success of our business”.
The company continued by saying it hoped the decision would strengthen its position as “a premium development partner” going forwards.
“Whether collaborating on new or established games, co-developing games, providing specialist engineering, or porting services; we are confident in our teams’ exceptional talent and our ability to thrive in this next chapter,” the company concluded.