Sumo Digital was founded in 2003 by Carl Cavers, Paul Porter, Darren Mills and James North-Hearn. The first of these three are all former members of Gremlin Interactive, which shut down in 1999. Carl Cavers is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Paul Porter is the COO (Chief Operating Officer) and Darren Mills is the Executive Art Director. They have acquired more board members since 2003 - these are Chris Stockwell, who is Chief Financial Officer, Ash Bennett, who is Technical Director and Sean Millard, who is Creative Director. The three Development Directors are Gary Edwards, Steven Zalud and Gary Moore. (Sumo Digital (2015) [online] http://www.sumo-digital.com) There are also two Non-Executive Directors, James Hall and Phil Frame, who joined the company from its merge with NorthEdge.
The company has over 270 employees, and they have two branches. Their main one is in the heart of Sheffield which has 220 of the employees where a lot of the development happens, but they also have a dedicated art branch in India. Darren Mills, the Executive Art Director, spends a lot of his time here as part of his job.
Platform Technology
Sumo Digital develops for almost every platform available, including phones, consoles and computers. In terms of phones, they develop for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, in terms of computers they develop for Windows and Mac, and in terms of consoles, they have developed for PSP, PS Vita, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSN, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox One, DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and even arcade machines. Of course, some of these consoles are outdated so they now only develop for the most recent versions, like PS Vita, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS and Wii U (Sumo Digital (2015) [online] http://www.sumo-digital.com/games). They have a license to develop on every major platform.
Game Types
The majority of their games are sports games, racing games or platformers. Sumo Digital themselves state on their website, "everything from driving games to platformers" (http//www.sumo-digital.com/#game-wrap). An example of one of their racing games is Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (2010), an example of one of their sports games is New International Track and Field (2008) and an example of one of their platform games is Little Big Planet 3 (2014).
Although most of their games fall into the above categories, on occasions, Sumo Digital have made games from different genres, such as Disney Infinity and Dead Space Ignition (http://www.sumo-digital.com/games).
Games on Multi-platform
Sumo Digital’s first five games were single-platform, and it took until 2006 for their first multi-platform to be released, OutRun 2006. 21 of their 39 games developed to date are multi-platform. Their biggest multi-platform releases are Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (2010), Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012) and Disney Infinity (2015), all of which are available on 6 platforms (IGN (2015) [online] http://uk.ign.com/companies/sumo-digital). They are licensed to develop on any major platform.
Regulatory Bodies
Sumo Digital is regulated by PEGI in Europe and ESRB in the US. Almost all of their games range from a 3+ to a 12+, an exception being Dead Space Ignition which is rated 18+ as it contains extreme violence and strong language. This really is a different kind of game to what Sumo Digital usually make, as their games are usually family-friendly and are often rated no higher than a 7+ (Sumo Digital (2015) [online] http://www.sumo-digital.com/games).Development Software
Sumo Digital program using C and C++, with a "minimum of 5 years' experience required" to work there. One of the engines they are currently using for video games is Unreal 4 (Sumo Digital (2015) [online] https://careers-sumo-digital.icims.com/jobs/1014/lead-programmer/job). The software they use for art is Maya, Max, Photoshop, Zbrush and Mudbox. (https://careers-sumo-digital.icims.com/jobs/1012/junior-game-artists---sumo-india/job). Their artists also use in-house state-of-the-art tablets to help design things such as characters and environments.
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