Sports Interactive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sports Interactive is a computer games development company currently based in Islington, North London and owned by international software giant, Sega. It is the developer of the popular games Football Manager, NHL Eastside Hockey Manager and Championship Manager Quiz, and is the former developer of Championship Manager.
Each release of Championship Manager has traditionally been one of the fastest selling PC games in the UK with Championship Manager 4 the fastest of all time.
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 12th 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.
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.
In 2004, Sports Interactive announced the purchase of Markus Heinsohn's Out of the Park Baseball.
On April 4, 2006 it was announced that Sega Holdings Europe Ltd, holding company for Sports Interactive's publishers Sega, had acquired Sports Interactive. It is yet to be seen what the effects of this will be upon Sports Interactive.
