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SEGA Europe Ltd and Creative Assembly have released details of the studio’s expansion, with the addition of a sixty-developer strong Bulgaria-based development team, following the acquisition of Crytek Black Sea. This facility, newly-named as Creative Assembly Sofia, seals Creative Assembly’s place as one of the largest and most prominent games developers in Europe and a major contributor to the growing UK games industry.
Over the last year, Creative Assembly’s headcount has risen by 37% and is now over 500-people strong. This latest announcement follows the opening of the studio’s third UK site at the end of 2016, adding an 88% increase in development space to its creative footprint, totalling over 70,000 square feet with in-house development facilities including a 45-camera motion-capture studio and dedicated audio suites.
Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly, said; “Now in our 30th year of games development, with an army of multi-million selling titles to our name and a history of world-renowned partnerships, Creative Assembly is proof of the UK games industry’s potential for global success. Due to this success we are further expanding our UK base and developing additional projects overseas, whilst pursuing top talent from across the globe to join us, all in support of our commitment to creating high-quality, authentic gaming experiences.
Our continued growth allows us to be dynamic with our future projects, constantly seeking new opportunities and reaching a wider audience with our games.”
Jurgen Post, President and COO of SEGA Europe Ltd., said; “The acquisition of Crytek Black Sea further enhances SEGA Europe’s development capabilities and strengthens our ability to output diverse and engaging content for our IP. Creative Assembly Sofia will
be working exclusively on content for Creative Assembly and will prove an invaluable asset given the multitude of unannounced titles currently in the works. This acquisition represents another step in the right direction for the growth of our global business, underlining our commitment to add value to our existing studios and our continued support for the UK games industry.”
The UK games market is thriving, with games generating £2.96bn in 2016, 1.3 times the size of the video market (£2.25bn) and 2.6 times the size of music (£1.6bn)[i]. UK games rank among the most popular in the world[ii], with Creative Assembly’s Total War™ series seeing a franchise record-breaking monthly average of 1.2m global players in 2017.
Creative Assembly is well known for its development of AAA interactive entertainment and world-class partnerships including SEGA (the studio’s parent company), Games Workshop (on Total War: WARHAMMER), Twentieth Century Fox (on Alien: Isolation) and, with Microsoft and 343 Industries (on Halo Wars 2). Most recently, Creative Assembly also announced its strategic partnership with market leader in the free-to-play space, Wargaming, which will see Total War: ARENA published worldwide.
The studio is working on a number of unannounced projects for 2017, with further additions to this slate now being developed by the Creative Assembly Sofia team.
[i] Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) www.eraltd.org/news-events/press-releases/2017/entertainment-sales-reached-63bn-in-2016/
[ii] The UK Video Games Industry: An Export Success Story, TIGA, June 2011
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