Sumo Group Limited is a British video game

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

based in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. It was formed in December 2017 as the

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

for

Sumo Digital Sumo Digital Ltd. is a British video game developer based in Sheffield and the principal subsidiary of Sumo Group since 2017. The company was founded in 2003 by four former members of the management team of Infogrames Studios. History Sumo D ...

and Atomhawk, followed by its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

later that month. After purchasing a minority stake in Sumo Group in November 2019,

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

wholly acquired the company in January 2022.

History

Carl Cavers, Paul Porter, Darren Mills and James North-Hearn, four former members of the defunct

Infogrames Studios Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited, was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in ...

, established the developer

in 2003. It was bought by

Foundation 9 Entertainment Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game company based in Irvine, California. The company was formed in March 2005 through the merger of video game developers Backbone Entertainment and The Collective (company), The Collectiv ...

in March 2008 before Cavers, Porter, Mills and Chris Stockwell completed a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

of the studio in November 2014.

Ian Livingstone Sir Ian Livingstone (born 29 December 1949) is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of the '' Fighting Fantasy'' series of role-playing gamebooks, and the author of many books within that ...

served as chairman from 2015 to 2022. In December 2017, Sumo Group was formed in December 2017 as the

for Sumo Digital and its Atomhawk

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

. Sumo Group had its

on the

's (LSE) AIM market later that month. In November 2019, the Chinese conglomerate

acquired 15 million shares of Sumo Group, representing a 10% stake. Sumo Group acquired

Pipeworks Studios Pipeworks Studios is an American video game developer based in Eugene, Oregon. The company was founded in November 1999 by Dan White and Dan Duncalf and works to provide full development, co-development, and live operations to video game publis ...

in October 2020 and opened a publishing label, Secret Mode, in March 2021. In July that year, Tencent and Sumo Group agreed that Tencent would, through its

Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited, wholly acquire the company for per share (143.3% of the shares' previous closing price of ), totalling . At the time, Tencent was Sumo Group's second-largest shareholder at 8.75%. In September 2021, Sumo Group acquired Auroch Digital, a

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

-based developer, . Tencent's acquisition was approved by the

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, ) is an inter-agency committee in the United States government that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S. economy. CFIUS, led by the U.S ...

in December 2021, followed by the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...

on 13 January 2022. Sumo Group was consequently delisted from the LSE on 17 January and became a subsidiary of Tencent through the latter's Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited holding subsidiary. On July 21, 2022, Sumo Group sold Pipeworks Studios to ''

RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java (programming language), Java progr ...

'' developer

Jagex Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-play ...

for an undisclosed sum. In September 2023, it was announced Sumo Group had acquired the

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...

-based game development studio, Midoki. On June 11, 2024, the company announced it would be laying off up to 15% of its workforce and shutting down Timbre Games. On March 3, 2025, Secret Mode was sold to Emona Capital to operate as a fully independent games publisher.

Subsidiaries

* Auroch Digital * Secret Mode (divested in 2025) *

** Atomhawk *** Atomhawk Advance *** Atomhawk Canada *** Atomhawk Gateshead ** Sumo India *** Sumo Bangalore *** Sumo Pune ** Midoki ** Lab42 ** PixelAnt Games *** PixelAnt Czech *** PixelAnt Wroclaw ** Red Kite Games ** Sumo Leamington ** Sumo Newcastle ** Sumo Nottingham ** Sumo Sheffield ** Sumo Warrington **

The Chinese Room The Chinese Room (formerly Thechineseroom) is a British video game developer based in Brighton that is best known for exploration games. The company originated as a mod team for ''Half-Life 2'', based at the University of Portsmouth in 2007, ...

** Timbre Games (closed in 2024)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2017 establishments in England 2017 initial public offerings 2022 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 2017 British subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Sheffield Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Holding companies established in 2017 Holding companies of the United Kingdom Tencent acquisitions Tencent divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2017 Video game companies of the United Kingdom