Getting growth right: The future of game industry acquisitions and consolidation | Playable Futures
Carl Cavers
Thursday 16th June 2022
Under Sumo Group, a family of companies including Sumo Digital, Atomhawk and Auroch Digital has been gathered. Sumo Digital now has 11 studios based across the UK, and further afield in places such as India's eastern city Pune and Wrocław, Poland. Sumo Group also counts an indie publishing arm as part of its family, having established Secret Mode a little over a year ago - shortly before it opened development studio Timbre in Canada that same year.
Sumo has taken the reins of established IPs, is a co-developer, a porting specialist and a creator of its own properties. The team have worked on titles such as Sonic, Outrun, LittleBigPlanet, Disney, Doctor Who, Hitman, Forza and Broken Sword. Alongside internal creations such as Snake Pass.
The Group has grown to becoming a large, multi-team operation. But to Sumo Group CEO and Sumo Digital co-founder Carl Cavers, expansion isn't only about size.
As acquisitions, mergers and consolidation become more commonplace within the games industry, getting company growth right will increasingly define what future-facing game companies can be.
Consolidation, of course, has been a key talking point across the games industry after an explosive start to 2022. Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal in January, just days after Take-Two bought up Zynga for a reported $12.7 billion. As the industry grows however, so does the opportunity for a new era of more thoughtful acquisitions and expansions that help smaller teams and local hubs realise their true potential, whilst ensuring that the games industry continues to become a better place.
Growing a games business should never be about rushing for short-term gains. The best type of growth
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
