Information bout Sumo –
Sumo are an independent development studio, which are set in 2 locations being Sheffield and the India. The company was first created in 2003 by some employees from a company called gremlin interactive.
Their headquarters in Sheffield currently has 220 people with most of them being development staff, Their other location in India however employs 40 people and is mainly the companies art studio. however they are deciding to expand their Indian location to also include development staff.
Sumo operate with a specific system, they happen to have four main directors within the company that must each be responsible for their own team, this works well as the duties and responsibilities are on the whole team and not just one person.
Game Types –
Sumo make games for a range of different companies, which means that they make a lot of genres of games. For example they have developed games for genres which include Arcade, Sport, Adventure, Racing and many more.
Most game companies specialize in a certain genre or console, Sumo brand themselves on being flexible and having the skills and knowledge to develop for all types on console. That being said they typically make racing games and have a talent for doing this, they have been employed by a lot of companies to make these. This makes Sumo very approachable by other companies when making racing games as they are so reputable for them.
Platform Technology –
Sumo have developed games for a number of companies such a, THQ,Disney and Konami, Sega. Their biggest client, Sega have employed them for over 12 games from 2004-2013. These titles have ranged from outrun 2 and Sega: All star racing. They have made games for Sega on multiple platforms such as IOS and Android to PS3. Sumo are experienced in coding for every type of popular console that is currently on the market, they specialize on the Playstation and in particular in doing racing games.
Sumo have the ability to code on platforms that are not yet available to the public yet so that games are ready for the release of the console. This is so that when they are employed by a company to make a game for a next generation console they are able to for it to be released on the console launch date.
Multiple Platforms –
Sumo Digital happen to develop their games for numerous platforms and technologies. The platforms that they develop for depends on the contract that has been given to them by a company. If they have to develop the games for multiple consoles they will design and develop their own engines for the games to run from in order to provide better functionality. Sometimes Sumo has to make a game for a company that already has that game developed on another console, they will use the existing code to cross it over to another platform.
Sometimes sacrfices heav to be made to certain features when Sumo develop a game for multiple platforms, for example the Xbox one and PS4 have superior graphics to the other consoles so Sumo have to downgrade graphics on the other platforms they are developing for. Some platforms that they develop for have special features that they have to be knowledgeable about every platform. The Wii U has an accelerometer in the remotes as an additional feature so it works well in Sumos favour to be able to develop to platform specific features.
Regulatory Bodies –
The main regulatory body for the majority of game developers including Sumo is PEGI. In 2012 it was made compulsory by law for all games to have a PEGI rating. These ratings are age categories and go from – 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18. These are suggested for what age people should be in order to play these games. In order for a game to be rated it will be judged off a certain criteria, this includes – Violence, Sex, Drug-use, Discrimination, Gambling, Bad-Language, Gambling, Online play and Fear. The PEGI rating also judges if a game is Ok to be used in online play.
In regards to Sumo they have fallen under all the PEGI ratings with their games so far, they make sure none of their games are offensive or approach mature subjects, keeping their games young person friendly except for their 18+ game Driver 76.
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