Update: Sumo Digital Managing Director Paul Porter told UploadVR: “Sumo is interested in all platforms for interactive entertainment, including VR. Although we’re not yet announcing what the Newcastle studio is working on, their proven skills and experience in VR is a great addition for Sumo.”
Original Story: Two months after CCP Games scaled back its VR efforts, the developer’s Newcastle-based team has found a new home.
CCP Games Newcastle, best known for its flagship multiplayer VR title, EVE: Valkyrie, has been acquired by Sumo Digital for an undisclosed sum, GamesIndustry.biz reports. A total of 34 staff are transferring over to Sumo in the deal (it’s unclear how large the current team size is), and they’ll remain in Newcastle. They become the fourth branch of Sumo Digital, with two other teams based in the UK and another in India.
Sumo Digital has a long history of working with major publishers on everything from smartphone ports of popular titles to even creating sequels to some of the biggest series in the industry such as LittleBigPlanet 3 and the upcoming Crackdown 3. Recently, the developer released its very own title, Snake Pass. It’s not yet known if Sumo plans to develop VR content with its new team, though we’ve reached out to ask the company. The team might not be able to work on Valkyrie anymore, but it’s still hugely experienced within the VR industry.
CCP Games Newcastle could be considered one of if not the first VR-focused developers in the world. Valkyrie, which puts players in the cockpit of ships first seen in CCP’s ever-popular EVE Online MMO, was first revealed in 2013, nearly three years before the launch of the Oculus Rift headset it released on. Since launch in March 2016, the game has seen numerous expansion updates and arrived on both the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR (PSVR) with cross-play support. In its most recent update, the game added support for traditional displays, too. We’ve also reached out to CCP’s main branch to ask what the future of Valkyrie looks like.
CCP announced it was pulling out of VR back in October, closing down its Atlanta-based studio that developed the recently-released Sparc.
