Sports Interactive
Subsidiary | |
Industry | Video game industry |
Founded | 1994 |
Founder |
Paul Collyer Oliver Collyer MBEs |
Headquarters | Islington, London, United Kingdom |
Products |
Football Manager series Championship Manager series NHL Eastside Hockey Manager series |
Owner | Sega Sammy Holdings |
Number of employees | +70 [1] |
Parent | Sega Games Co., Ltd. |
Website | sigames.com |
Sports Interactive Ltd. is a British video game development company, who is best known for the Football Manager series. Based in Old Street, Central London, the studio is wholly owned by the Japanese video game company, Sega. 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.
History
Founded by Paul Collyer and Oliver Collyer, the company is commonly abbreviated to "SI" amongst fans of their games. In 2003, it was announced Sports Interactive would no longer develop games under the brand Championship Manager as this was owned by publisher Eidos Interactive. Instead on 12 February 2004 it was announced that Sports Interactive had signed a publishing deal with Sega and would produce its new football management games under the self-owned brand of Football Manager.
AFC Wimbledon & Watford sponsorship
Sports Interactive have had a relationship with AFC Wimbledon since the club's formation: Championship Manager 01-02 contains a pro-AFC Wimbledon message occasionally visible at start-up (along with a similarly rare but now rather dated "Save Chip!" message), and they are currently AFC Wimbledon's main sponsors, with their logo appearing on the team strip. A similar deal now exists with Watford FC.
In 2004, Sports Interactive announced a deal to help develop Markus Heinsohn's Out of the Park Baseball.[2]
Sega
On April 4, 2006 it was announced that Sega Holdings Europe Ltd, holding company for Sports Interactive's publishers Sega, had acquired Sports Interactive.
On January 1, 2007 Sports Interactive announced that they were beginning work on a new game. The only detail revealed has stated that the game will be football-based, this is Football Manager Handheld 06 and so on
Football Manager Live
On April 20, 2007, Sports Interactive announced the release of a "brand new massively multiplayer online football management game" entitled Football Manager Live[3] similar to that of Football Manager 2007, but, as the name suggests, played completely online by up to 1000 people within any "gameworld" of which there will be multiple. The game was originally announced to be released in March 2008 but the game was actually released January 23, 2009.[4] The game uses a database comprising over 330,000 football players and 10 playable leagues. In addition, game players can talk to one another via in-game chats.
Games
- Championship Manager
- Football Manager
- Football Manager 2005 (4 November 2004 for PC/Mac)
- Football Manager 2006 (21 October 2005 for PC/Mac & April for PSP/Xbox 360)
- Football Manager 2007 (20 October 2006 for PC/Mac & PSP)
- Football Manager 2008 (October 2007 for PC/Mac & PSP and March 2008 for Xbox 360)
- Football Manager 2009 (14 November 2008 for PC/Mac & PSP)
- Football Manager Live (23 January 2009)
- Football Manager 2010 (30 October 2009 for PC/Mac & PSP and April for iPhone)
- Football Manager 2011 (5 November 2010 for PC/Mac, December for PSP & iPhone and April for iPad)
- Football Manager 2012 (21 October 2011 for PC/Mac, PSP, December for iPhone & iPad and April for Android)
- Football Manager 2013 (November 2, 2012 for PC/Mac/PSP, iOS, Android)
- Football Manager 2014 (31 October 2013 for PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android/Vita)
- Football Manager 2015 (7 November 2014 for PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android/Vita)
- Football Manager 2016 (13 November 2015 for PC/Mac/Linux)
- Eastside Hockey Manager
- NHL Eastside Hockey Manager (2 July 2004)
- NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 (27 May 2005)
- NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 (North American version) (27 September 2005)
- NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 (22 September 2006)
- Out of the Park Baseball Manager
- Out of the Park Baseball Manager 2006 (31 May 2006)
- Out of the Park Baseball Manager 2007 (23 March 2007)
Accolades
In 2010 co-founders of Sports Interactive Paul Collyer and Oliver Collyer were appointed as Members of the Order of the British Empire for their services to the computer game industry.
In 2011 Studio Director of Sports Interactive Miles Jacobson was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire again for service to the computer game industry.
Staff
- Paul Collyer (Chairman)
- Oliver Collyer (Chairman)
- Miles Jacobson (Studio Director)
- Grant Appleyard (Senior Producer)
- Marc Duffy (Product Manager)
- Svein Kvernoey (Technical Director)
- Marc Vaughan (Head of Handheld Development)
- Paul Hecker (Producer)
- Bardi Golriz (Producer)
- Neil Dejyothin (Producer)
- Jean Sunwoo (Producer & Translator)
- Mark Nutt (Handheld Producer)
- Craig Hunter (Artist)
- Chris Rice (Artist)
- Ronnie Ochero (Artist)
- Mark Smith (Animator)
- Philip Rolfe (Media)
- Mark Woodger (Head of Research & Localisation)
- Dean Gripton (Head Researcher - England)
- Pete Sottrel (Research)
- Simon Tipple (Research)
- Stephen Davidson (Research)
- David Siddall (Research)
- Kevin Turner (Programmer)
- Niall Redmond (Programmer)
- David Crammond (Programmer)
- Dave Owens (Programmer)
- Graeme Kelly (Programmer)
- Risto (Riz) Remes (Programmer)
- Ed Lambert (Programmer)
- Richard Jones (Programmer)
- Martin Smith (Programmer)
- Nick Habershon (Programmer)
- John Schofield (Programmer)
- Okwaeze Otusi (Programmer)
- David Soley (Programmer)
- Keith Flannery (Programmer)
- Neil Brock (Community Administrator)
- Stuart Warren (QA Manager)
- Ben Kenney (QA)
- Olly Kenney (QA)
- Glenn Wakefield (QA)
- Ant Farley (QA)
- Michael Burling (QA)
- Lucas Weatherby (QA)
- Stuart Coleman (QA)
- Alari Naylor (QA)
- Paul Dejyothin (IT Team)
- Navdeep Dhanjal (IT Team)
- Alex Bell (Office Manager)
- Alan Granger (Digital marketing)