Just last week the Japanese publisher thrashed out a partnership deal with US developer, Obsidian Entertainment. Now Sega has pounced again, this time buying Sports Interactive, the Islington studio behind Football Manager - and, of course, the creator of Championship Manager. When SI and Eidos parted company a couple of years ago, Sega leapt in to offer the developer a five-year publishing deal, but shifting 1.5 million copies of the first two Football Manager titles has clearly heightened the publisher's interest.
Having also bought Creative Assembly recently, Sega is rapidly turning into the Roman Abramovich of Western games development. It is perhaps the company's most sensible business endeavour since pulling out of the crippling console manufacturing game after the failure of Dreamcast (sniff). According to the press release, Naoya Tsurumi, CEO of SEGA Europe and SEGA of America, commented:
"Football Manager is an extremely successful brand for SEGA and one of the most significant titles for our European line-up. 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] have our strategic planning up and running"?! Sega fans have been waiting fifteen years to hear that said with any conviction!
Football Manager 2006 is coming to Xbox 360 and PSP on April 13.
