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SI Games On SEGA Feature

Chris Leyton

04/04/2006

TVG has a chance to ask Sports Interactive's MD more on today's agreement with SEGA...

SEGA continues to reinforce its position as a global publisher, revaluating plans to target each territory effectively rather then applying one global strategy to suit all. After the previous acquisition of Total War's The Creative Assembly, SEGA today exhibited the policy with the purchase of football management specialists and one of the UK's most passionately supported independent developer, Sports Interactive.

TVG had an opportunity to pose a few questions to Sports Interactive's MD, Miles Jacobson, on the agreement, the future possibilities and what he thought of SEGA's Lets Make a Soccer Team.

Sports Interactive has remained fiercely independent for the last twelve years, so why was the decision taken now to become part of a larger corporation like SEGA?

When you are working with a company and you don't see a time when you'd ever want to leave, and that company offers the opportunity to relieve certain day to day pressures that come from running a business, whilst leaving us to continue to make great games, and have the ability to use technology from others that you admire, you'd be insane to turn down that choice.

The fact is that, with Sega, we've found our natural home. So this just consolidates the relationship.

We're constantly told of spiralling development costs ahead of the next-generation; with one next-gen title due for release shortly, will the amalgamation with SEGA provide an increased scope to adjust to next-gen development?

Our next gen team is only 2 people!

There isn't a set reason behind the acquisition - it made sense for Sega, and it made sense for us, with no good reasons for not going through with it.

"13 weeks at no.1 is all well and good, but we want 52 weeks a year!"

Will this agreement provide the canvas for SI to deviate away from the core Football Manager business; how important are titles such as NHL Eastside Hockey Manager and Out of the Park Baseball?

EHM and OotP are both very important to us, particularly in our quest to crack other markets, like the USA & Germany. But we really aren't looking to change things - any games or products that are announced this year have been in the plans for some time, and would have happened with or without the new deal. We've been bought as an ongoing concern, were completely financially stable before, but it gives us a lot more scope for the future, whilst working with amazingly talented people at Sega.

Is there a greater emphasis on SI to succeed outside of the UK and Europe these days?

Not from anyone apart from ourselves. We want to be entertaining as many people as possible around the world, but that has always been the case. We are far from reaching the points that we want to be at in Europe or the UK. 13 weeks at no.1 is all well and good, but we want 52 weeks a year!

What would you say to the naysayer who look to such acquisitions with contempt and suggest the quality of the games will deteriorate?

I'd say that they don't know us very well - no one is leaving SI and we are carrying on as normal. The deal will not affect the development side of things at all.

Does partnering with SEGA provide any additional development scope for SI; perhaps working on one of their franchises or perhaps a Football Manager: Total War spin-off - ok maybe not, but what about collaborations with other SEGA studios?

We are very interested in tech collaborations, but have enough on our plate with the games we are already making. As a team of sports management specialists, we'll stick to what we know best. Sega are the parent of many great development studios, and we can learn a lot from them. We hope they can learn some things from us too!

"Sega understand developers and development."

Football Manager has adopted a yearly moniker; will you continue to make significant improvements in light of the Champ Man model which saw seasonal updates sandwiched between the main iterations?

We are planning annual releases, and the plan is to have a similar amount of new features for each iteration (which was over 40 last year). Some will be big, some will be small, some seen as innovation, some as natural progression, but I can't see a time where we re-write everything like we did with CM4. That was a mistake.

SEGA Europe has recently confirmed the release of Lets Make a Soccer Team!; what are your views on this and do you think it can enjoy any success outside of Japan?

I have only seen the game briefly, and it was in Japanese, which I can't read or understand. I think it'll be going for a different demographic than us, and that's fine - there is room for both types of game, and the "middle ground" of the arcade/sim games. We'll stick to being a simulation, as it's what we do best.

Will the acquisition result in any fundamental changes to the team, in terms of numbers and overall makeup?

We believe in organic growth, and Sega support that for our studio. If we need more people, we know that we can take them on, but we're currently advertising for a couple of coders which we were advertising for before the deal, and would have taken them on with or without this deal. It really is business as usual.

Finally, are you confident of SI's future under SEGA's wing; what are your opinions on the publisher since its resurrection after pulling out of the hardware business; what does SEGA bring to SI?

Sega understand developers and development. They make our job easier and help the developers sell more games.

If I wasn't confident of the future, I wouldn't be staying - we're all very excited about the future and look forward to the new chapter of SI's history.

TVG would like to thank Miles Jacobson and SEGA Europe's Lynn Daniel for providing the opportunity to answer our questions on today's announcement; look out for on Football Manager's Xbox 360 debut soon...