Sumo Digital is a family of exceptional talent, having built
our reputation as an award-winning games developer for nearly 20 years.
Having
worked on over 90 titles in that time, we’ve continued to strengthen our roots
as a leading name in the industry – one that can produce incredible games, and ensure
its people are at the heart of what we do.
There are many things you may already know about us and our
history over the past couple of decades, but there are probably some other
pieces of information you may not have heard of before.
Well, you’ve come to the right place. So, buckle up as we
take you through five things you need to know about Sumo Digital.
A studio near you
You may have heard of Sumo Digital before, our HQ (and
biggest studio) is situated in Sheffield, but you may not know that we have
fantastic studios situated across the UK… and around the world!
In the UK, we have our Sumo city studios in Nottingham, Warrington,
Leamington, and Newcastle alongside Sheffield, as well as our branded studios
including The Chinese Room (Brighton), Red Kite Games (Leeds), and Lab42 Games
(Leamington). But that’s not all!
Look further afield and you’ll find PixelAnt Games, based in Poland, while Sumo India works its magic over in South Asia
with studios in Pune and Bangalore.
From collabs to full-time development
Did you know that Sumo Digital as a whole was originally set up as a co-development studio? Working with external partners on game projects – much like our Sumo Pune and Sumo Bangalore studios currently do to this day.
After delivering our promise to external developers with
high-quality co-developed projects, we were able to build the level of expertise
required to work on our own franchise IPs – something that we continue to do to
this very day.
A game for the ‘hiss-tory’ books
The vast majority of our games have come from the collective
minds of our people, but there’s one particular hit that was actually the
result of a single person. Have you heard of Snake Pass? Well, the puzzle
platformer that we launched back in 2017 was from the mind of Sebastiaan Liese,
Principal Game Designer here at Sumo Digital.
Seb was one of the studio’s talented folks who presented a
game idea at an internal Game Jam competition – he had been attempting to learn
to program in Unreal Engine and initially created a rope but forgot to attach
it to anything.
The way the rope flopped to the ground reminded him of a
snake and, with a little bit of encouragement from his friends at the studio,
he finetuned his initial ideas and created a demo of the game we know and love
today.
Award-winning mentality
Our studios across Sumo Digital strive to not only produce
the best games around but also create the best work environments for its
people. And that’s certainly been recognised as we’ve scooped a number of awards
over the years for our projects and the people who make them.
Some of the many accolades along the way have included
Develop: Star Awards’ ‘Best Studio’, GI Biz’s ‘Best Places to Work’, and being
honoured with TIGA’s ‘Best Large Independent Studio’ award. We pride ourselves
on diversity and equality, and we’ve been thrilled to have also won awards as
part of events such as MCV/DEVELOP’s Women in Games and ShePlaysGames, as well
as being featured in the ‘Best Companies’ list for the last two years.
We’ve also scooped top marks and received numerous
nominations on our games at prestigious ceremonies such as the BAFTA Game
Awards.
Working on some major game titles
Sumo Digital has developed some fantastic video games over
the years within its studios (and remotely of course), from our debut game Outrun
2 to well-received titles such as Spyder, Team Sonic Racing, Hotshot Racing,
and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. But did you also know that we’ve co-developed
some big releases with third-party developers and publishers?
Some of the bigger titles that you might be aware of include
action shooter Crackdown 3, the acclaimed open-world racer Forza Horizon 5, and
FPS Call of Duty: Vanguard. There’s still lots more to come, as we’re currently
working with other studios on highly anticipated releases such as Hogwarts
Legacy and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Does Sumo Digital sound like the kind of place you’d really
like to work at? Of course it does!
Check out our career
opportunities right now and join the team.
