Sumo Digital set to Out Run the Competition

The Sheffield-based company that developed this year's Christmas gaming hit, OutRun2, is set to continue taking the industry by storm with advice and support from Business Link South Yorkshire.

OutRun2 is the latest video game published by Sega for the Microsoft XBox, launched to rave reviews in October and set to be a bestseller for Christmas. Sumo Digital is receiving support from Business Link South Yorkshire's High Growth Start-Up Programme funded by Yorkshire Forward and the European Union. Hot on the heels of the success of the OutRun2 launch, the company is developing a new software product that could change the way people exercise at the gym forever.

"Instead of busy executives riding exercise bikes to nowhere, Sumo's new software will make the trip more exciting," explained David Patterson, Creative and Digital Business Adviser for Business Link South Yorkshire. "Still sat on a static bike in your local gym, you could be riding through images of open countryside, mountain bike tracks, or the Scottish Highlands.

"This is just one of many possible applications for this software that has been developed by using computer gaming technologies and has been well received within the fitness industry."

Sumo Digital is an innovative, dynamic company, founded by a highly experienced team who previously managed and worked at such prestigious gaming companies as Infogrames Studios Ltd and Gremlin Interactive. They are at the cutting edge of computer gaming software and currently employ 20 people.

Since starting just over a year ago Sumo has built an impressive list of clients including THQ, and Microsoft. The company is also applying its games technology to other areas and working on exercise software for Trixter Plc that will be released with new generation Indoor Cycling Hardware.

"Business Link South Yorkshire's High Growth Start-Up programme supplied us with one-to-one enabling support in the best methods of developing our business, including long-term planning, visioning and access to financial advice," said James North-Hearn Chief Executive of Sumo Digital. "This help has been incredibly valuable in assisting us to take our business to the next level."

The company is also a member of Game Republic, an independent trade alliance that supports the development of computer game software in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• Attached is a photo of James North-Hearn (foreground), Chief Executive of Sumo Digital, and David Patterson (background), Creative and Digital Business Adviser, Business Link South Yorkshire

• For more information on this News Release, please contact Jon Neal on 01302 640151

"Helping to make South Yorkshire the best place in the UK to set up and grow a business"