SEGA Announces Double Acquisition News

SEGA Europe has today announced the acquisition of Sports Interactive, the team behind Football Manager, following in the footsteps of Total War creators The Creative Assembly, which joined the SEGA family last month.

Financial details haven't been disclosed, but the deal means that SEGA now owns one of the most popular brands in recent years, and the second fastest selling PC game of all time, Football Manager. The first titles to be released under the new deal will be Football Manager 2006 on Xbox 360 and Football Manager Handheld for PSP on April 13th 2006, with the development studio also continuing to work on NHL: Eastside Hockey Manager and Out of the Park Baseball.

"Football Manager is an extremely successful brand for SEGA and one of the most significant titles for our European line-up," commented Naoya Tsurumi - CEO: SEGA Europe Ltd. & SEGA of America, Inc. "This acquisition illustrates that we are achieving our objectives and have our strategic planning up and running. Although we still have a lot more to do, we feel that this is yet another huge step towards strengthening our standing within the European market."

"We acquired Sports Interactive because SEGA has the utmost respect for the Collyer's, Miles Jacobson and the Sports Interactive team for what they have achieved. The company is built up of highly talented individuals that have and continue to produce award-winning titles", commented Mike Hayes, President & COO of SEGA Europe Ltd. "Our objective, as with The Creative Assembly, is to work with the team and build upon their successes as we strive to produce the highest quality games for our consumers".

Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive adds, "From our first meeting with SEGA, it felt like "home"- they really understand development and it's an honour to get to work with the overwhelming pool of talent from both the development and publishing side. The partner was right for the next chapter in Sports Interactive's history, with more releases from the studio this year than ever before. Myself, Ov, Paul and the SI team are all really excited about the future."

SEGA has also announced the acquisition of America's Army developer Secret Level, who've been in a partnership with the publisher over the past twelve months. The San Francisco-based developer in the past has worked with Epic on Unreal Technology for Consoles, and was also responsible for bringing Unreal Tournament to SEGA's Dreamcast.

Jeremy Gordon, President of Secret Level, Inc., "SEGA's incredible library of IP and global publishing muscle will enable us to realize our full technical and creative potential. It's become clear that a combined SEGA and Secret Level are greater than the sum of our parts."

We'll have more news shortly...