Last October CCP Games made the shock announcement that it was moving away from virtual reality (VR) development having created popular titles like EVE: Valkyrie, Gunjack and Sparc. As part of that process the company planned to sell off CCP Games Newcastle, the team that was instrumental in some of those titles creation. Now British developer Sumo Digital has announced the acquisition of CCP Games Newcastle for an undisclosed sum.
In a press release the company has said that 34 staff have transferred to Sumo Digital, with Owen O’Brien as Studio Director, and they’ll remain in Newcastle. This means that Sumo Digital has now expanded operations to three UK studios – located in Sheffield, Nottingham, and Newcastle – with a fourth branch based in Pune, India.
“As we continue to expand this was a great opportunity to bring an experienced, talented and tight-knit team on board,” said Paul Porter, Managing Director of Sumo Digital in a statement.
”Sumo Digital is a great home for the team in Newcastle,” added Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “As we say goodbye to our former colleagues we know that they will do great things there, and we can’t wait to see what they do next.”
EVE: Valkyrie was a launch title for Oculus Rift back in 2016, with the studio expanding support to HTC Vive and PlayStation VR to include cross-platform gameplay. Since then, the videogame has seen numerous updates to expand the universe and gameplay options available.
With the new acquisition it’s now unclear if EVE: Valkyrie or any of the other VR titles CCP Games Newcastle was involved with will see continued support by Sumo Digital. CCP Games’ most recent release was Sparc, another cross-platform multiplayer which launched on PlayStation VR in August and then Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in November. With such online focused experiences many players will want to know how elements like the servers will continue to be run. Whether that’ll stay in the hands of CCP Games or not.
Currently those details are unknown but as VRFocus learns more about the studio purchase and how Sumo Digital plans to utilise the Newcastle studio’s VR expertise we’ll let you know.
via Mint VR