Sports Interactive

Sports Interactive
Type Subsidiary
Industry Interactive entertainment
Founded 1994
Founder(s) Paul and Oliver Collyer MBEs
Headquarters Islington, London, United Kingdom
Key people Miles Jacobson OBE (Studio Director)
Products Football Manager series
Football Manager Live
Employees 66 [1]
Parent Sega
Website www.sigames.com

Sports Interactive Limited is a computer games development company currently based in Old Street, Central London and owned by the Japanese software and video game company 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/Football Manager has traditionally been one of the fastest selling PC games in the UK with Championship Manager 4 the fastest of all time.

Contents

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

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 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, however what aspect of the game to be captured has yet to be disclosed.

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

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

References

External links