LO1 - Sumo digital business report

Sumo digital is a gaming company based in Sheffield in South Yorkshire which was set up following the closure of Gremlin graphics in 2003 as the majority of workers moved over to Sumo. They have 260 people spread across their office in Sheffield, not including those working in their Art studio in India. They have developed over 50 games and won multiple awards for those they've had a hand in, their most successful being little big planet 3 which they won 3 separate awards for after spending 4 years on the project. [1]

Hierarchy
The CEO Carl Cavers joined in 1995 and doubles up as the UK development director and co-founder of Sumo. It was in 2003 that he became a co-founder alongside Paul Porter and Darren Mills; Mills is also the director of Sumo India! Other recognisable members are: Ash Bennett, the technical director (helps with technical problems anybody in his area is facing within their work), he had his first 'big' role when becoming lead programmer of the PS1 game 'Loaded'. Sean Millard is the creative director and has been designing games since 1999 but returned to Sheffield in 1999 to work for Gremlin (joining Sumo Digital upon Gremlin's closure). [1] Under the creative director there will be: concept artists, character artists(make 3D character models), environment artists (create levels), graphic artists, level designer and VFX artists. The development directors are: Gary Edwards, Steven Zalud and Gary Moore. [1] Possible other occupations focusing on the technical aspect within Sumo digital are: mission designers, AI programmers, render programmers, network programmers and physics programmers; as well as a QA test team which report any bugs within the game.

Gametypes
Sumo digital create multiple game types which they classify under: 

• Arcade action 
• Driving 
• Arcade sports 
• Platformers 
• Licensed IP 
• Original products [1] 

Platforms
These games span across a multitude of platforms as Sumo have developed games for the majority. whilst Dead space ignition is only for the xbox arcade and playstation network, Disney infinity and F1 2011 can be found on both the old and new generation consoles including the WiiU and DS. Virtua tennis was brought out over 2 decades ago and was created for: the dreamcast, game boy advance, the arcade and microsoft windows. They have created games across most consoles, even older platforms as they have been developing video games for a long time as both Gremlin and Sumo.  [2]

Development software and Platform technology
When developing games such as Virtua tennis they will use software such as Maya, 3D studio max and Unity, Unity was used for the creation of Scorched. Photoshop is used to create the texture and graphics. Sumo also use their own software- the Sumo engine- when working on particular games as well as separate engines that have been developed for the specific title that they are currently working on, Forza is one of these titles. 
For instance, when participating in the creation of Forza in they used the Forza engine to develop the game. [2] They were tasked with reformatting Forza horizon on the Xbox One so that it was suitable for the 360, a very time consuming task for Sumo! The majority of games they worked on were known to have run on the unreal engine, a popular choice amongst games developers. 

Regulatory bodies
Sumo’s main regulatory body is ESRB, or the Entertainment Software Rating Board which is used by the vast majority of gaming companies. 
They are also regulated by Pegi whom control the companies that stock and sell their games- because of the restrictions put in by Pegi all their games are age rated for the consumers, for instance little big planet 3 is an E-meaning it’s for everyone [3].



1) Sumo Digital (2015) Who we are
http://www.sumo-digital.com/#who-we-are
Mon 28th September 2015

2) Sumo Digital (2015) Gaming archive
http://www.sumo-digital.com/games
Mon 28th September 2015

3) Sumo Digital (2015) Little big planet 3
http://www.sumo-digital.com
Mon 28th September 2015