Sports Interactive

Last updated

Sports Interactive Limited
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Founded1994;30 years ago (1994)
Founders
Headquarters
London
,
England
Key people
Products
Number of employees
285 [1]  (2024)
Parent Sega (2006–present)
Website sigames.com

Sports Interactive Limited is a British video game developer based in London, best known for the Football Manager series. Founded by brothers Oliver and Paul Collyer in July 1994, the studio was acquired by Japanese video game publisher Sega in 2006 and became part of Sega Europe. [3] In addition to its work on Football Manager, the studio has also created a number of other sports-management simulations, including NHL Eastside Hockey Manager and Championship Manager Quiz , and is the former developer of Championship Manager .

Contents

History

Founded by Paul Collyer and Oliver Collyer, the company is commonly abbreviated to "SI" amongst fans of their games.[ citation needed ]

In 2003, Sports Interactive split with former publisher Eidos Interactive and signed a deal with Sega to continue their flagship sports franchise under the new name, Football Manager . After the split, both parties kept their intellectual property. Sports Interactive kept the base code, the game database and programming of the game, whilst Eidos kept the rights to the Championship Manager franchise.[ citation needed ]

On 28 June 2012, Miles Jacobson and Ian Livingstone revealed why they split from Eidos Interactive and joined Sega. In a chat with GameHorizon, Jacobson thought that Beautiful Game Studios was brought in to take over Championship Manager, whilst Livingstone thought that Eidos Interactive brought Beautiful Game Studios to protect the firm in case Sports Interactive jumped ship. Jacobson commented, saying, "I'm sure there are two sides to this story, at the time we felt there was a lack of respect that we did for our work from Eidos. There seemed to be an attitude at the time in the industry that anyone could make games." He continued by saying, "Eidos wanted more control. We wanted more control. We were asking for high royalties. Eidos set up Beautiful Game Studios nine months before Championship Manager 4 was due to come out. They told me that BGS were making a platform game. I thought our number was up." [4]

He then further elaborated by saying, "I went for a curry with the CEO of Sega in Japan and Europe, and he made me an offer on a napkin, I kept telling them we were not for sale. I told them they would have to double the offer for me to even discuss it with Paul and Oliver Collyer." [4]

On 4 April 2006, it was announced that Sega Holdings Europe Ltd, holding company for Sports Interactive's publisher's Sega, had acquired Sports Interactive. When Sega acquired the company, it had 34 employees. [2]

In 2018, Sports Interactive relocated from Old Street in Islington to the Here East development in Stratford. Now occupying half of the first floor in the Press Centre, the studio now has 285 permanent employees in addition to more than 1,400 researchers worldwide for its Football Manager games.

The studio is closely linked with War Child and since 2006 has donated a percentage of each game sale directly to the charity. To date, this initiative has raised a total of more than £1.5m. [5]

The studio has begun developing partnerships with leading football clubs and other organisations in recent years. These include Manchester City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Brentford FC, Burnley FC, Venezia FC and Stormzy's project Merky FC. [6]

Games

Accolades

The Collyers were appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to the video game industry. [8] Miles Jacobson was appointed an OBE [9] the following year.

In 2021, Sports Interactive were won a 'Best Places to Work' Award at the GamesIndustry.Biz Best Places to Work Awards. They won the same accolade again in 2023. [10]

In 2022, the studio won the MCV/Develop Legend Award at the 2022 MCV/Develop Awards. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Championship Manager</i> Video game series

Championship Manager is a series of football-management simulation video games, the first of which was released in 1992.

Football Manager is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager. However, following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, triggered by the "fiasco" release of CM4 in 2003, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights to Eidos Interactive, but retained the game engine and data and re-branded the game Football Manager with their new publisher Sega.

The UEFA Champions League video game license has been used by five different companies. Debuted in 1996, the series has only had five games published so far, and after being in the hands of Krisalis Software, Silicon Dreams Studio and Konami, the license now lies in the hands of EA and Sega.

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager is an ice hockey management simulation game developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. It was the first commercial release in the Eastside Hockey Manager series started by the freeware game Eastside Hockey Manager.

<i>Championship Manager 5</i> 2005 video game

Championship Manager 5 is the fifth installment of the popular Championship Manager series of football management computer games. It is the first game in the series to be developed by Eidos, after the much publicised split between Eidos and Sports Interactive.

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<i>Eastside Hockey Manager</i> Video game series

Eastside Hockey Manager, commonly known as EHM or NHL EHM is a video game series about managing an ice hockey team. The series started out as a popular freeware game and later evolved into the commercial NHL Eastside Hockey Manager games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega.

<i>Championship Manager 2007</i> 2006 video game

Championship Manager 2007 is a football manager simulation video game developed by Beautiful Game Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows on October 13, 2006, and for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360 on March 16, 2007. It was brought to Mac OS X on May 16, 2007 by Virtual Programming.

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<i>Football Manager 2008</i> 2007 video game

Football Manager 2008 is the principal title of the 2008 edition of the football management simulation game series Football Manager. FM08 is the fourth game in the Football Manager series. It was developed by Sports Interactive, and published by Sega. There are over 5,000 playable teams from more than 50 countries. The demo for Football Manager 2008 was released on 30 September 2007.

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<i>Football Manager 2011</i> 2010 video game

Football Manager 2011 is a football manager simulation video game. It was released for Windows and Mac OS X on 5 November 2010. It was also released for PlayStation Portable on 26 November 2010. A version for iOS was released on 16 December 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miles Jacobson</span>

Miles Jacobson OBE is studio director of Sports Interactive, the team behind the Football Manager series of video games, and creators of the original Championship Manager.

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Infinite Dreams Inc. or Infinite Dreams is a game development studio in Gliwice, Poland. Founded in 1997, the company develops games for a range of digital platforms such as iOS, Android, macOS, Windows Phone and Symbian. The studio is best known for its Sky Force series. Games developed by Infinite Dreams have been downloaded over 25,000,000 times worldwide.

<i>Football Manager 2018</i> 2017 football management simulation video game

Football Manager 2018 is a 2017 football management simulation video game developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega which was released worldwide on 10 November 2017 for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. The Nintendo Switch version by Lab42 was released later, on 13 April 2018. For the first time in the series, all three versions of the game, FM 18 for PC, Mac and Linux, FM Touch 2018 for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, and Football Manager Mobile 2018 for iOS and Android were all released on the same day.

<i>Football Manager 2020</i> 2019 video game

Football Manager 2020 is a 2019 football-management simulation video game developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega as a successor to Football Manager 2019. It was released worldwide on 18 November 2019.

<i>Football Manager 2021</i> 2020 video game

Football Manager 2021 is a football-management simulation video game developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. It was released worldwide for iOS, Android, macOS and Windows on 24 November 2020. The streamlined version of the game titled Football Manager 2021 Touch was released on 1 December 2020 for the same platforms, and for Nintendo Switch on 15 December 2020. The similar version titled Xbox Edition was released on 1 December 2020 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Windows 10 via the Microsoft Store. It was the first game in the series to appear on an Xbox platform since Football Manager 2008.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Studio". Sports Interactive. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  2. 1 2 Dring, Christopher (26 February 2018). "New look Sports Interactive names Disney veteran Matt Carroll as COO". Gamesindustry.biz . Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  3. ↑ "The Final Boss". MCV . No. 942. Future Publishing. December 2018. p. 70.
  4. 1 2 Hall, Lee (28 June 2012). "Sports Interactive details split from Eidos after nine years of silence". Edge Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012.
  5. ↑ "Sports Interactive - Our network and partners - War Child". www.warchild.org.uk. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  6. ↑ "News | Sports Interactive". www.sigames.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  7. ↑ "Eastside Hockey Manager is back!". Sports Interactive. 27 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "No. 59282". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2009. p. 14.
  9. ↑ "Football Manager 2011 interview: Miles Jacobson". The Telegraph. 15 February 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  10. ↑ Contributor, GamesIndustry biz Staff (27 September 2023). "Here are the winners of the UK Best Places To Work Awards 2023". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 26 March 2024.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ Wallace, Chris (13 May 2022). "Announcing the winners of the 2022 MCV/DEVELOP Awards!". MCV. ISSN   1469-4832 . Retrieved 26 March 2024.
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