Sumo Digital has made a bold decision by announcing that it will no longer work on individual titles. This developer company, known for its collaborative efforts with other studios, surprised gamers with this unexpected announcement.
The gaming industry has undergone several ups and downs in these last few years. A lot of studios have suffered from hard times, and Sumo Digital is among them. Last summer, this company went through a massive transformation and laid off 15% of its staff members. This job cut resulted in it losing nearly 250 people. However, that was several months back, and in the meantime, things were kind of settled down overall.
Anyway, the partnership program has always been one of the most integral parts of this studio, and it has lent its hands to multiple renowned games, and some of which are kind of unbeatable in their genre. For example, in Hogwarts Legacy, Sumo Digital worked together with Avalanche Software.
Aside from that, several Forza Horizon and Hitman series games have Sumo’s contribution. To take a different view, it has worked in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as well.
The point is, while supporting other studios is one of the biggest services that Sumo Digital used to provide, it has some of its original IPs to work on as well. For example, games like Snake Pass, Spyder, etc. are some of the most popular IPs this studio used to deliver.
On Tuesday, things changed to a great extent when an official statement from the parent company Sumo Group stated, “After careful consideration, we have made the strategic decision to focus Sumo Digital exclusively on development services for partners—our core strength and the foundation of our success.”
The announcement states that this decision was made to balance creative ambitions and the commercial realities to stay in the race with more stability. Additionally, the announcement mentioned that the decision will have some unavoidable consequences for the employees, but it is important to transform this studio into a “premium development partner” for others. So, the primary target of Sumo Digital in the future will be to collaborate with renowned studios and help them create impressive titles.
This decision arrived just a few days ago. So, its exact impact hasn’t yet been clearly seen. Now that Sumo Digital has stopped creating original IPs, this will be a major blow for those who love some of its original IPs, as no more Snake Pass or Spyder games will arrive.
More than that, if this rule is implemented in the subsidiary studios as well, then Still Wakes the Deep won’t come anymore. If players remember, this was one of the finest indie horror titles released on Xbox Game Pass last year.
Its sales were attractive, and fans have been looking forward to getting some similar games from The Chinese Room, the developer of this game. Now, whether it's fortunate or unfortunate, The Chinese Room is a subsidiary studio of Sumo Digital.
Well, it’s not sure if this rule is applicable for the subsidiary studios as well or not, but if it is applicable to them, then there’s no hope of getting another part of Still Wakes the Deep. Anyway, the history of Sumo Digital is great as a collaborative studio. So, it will be exciting to see what project it will work on in the future, and probably, those will earn it more stability in this evolving industry landscape. Additionally, working as a partner with big studios will help it survive without further layoffs.