Developer The Chinese Room has cut ties with parent company Sumo Digital, regaining its independence in the process following a management buyout.
The company is currently working on Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2, and is also developing two new IPs. As an independent studio, The Chinese Room is now operating under director Ed Daly, and prior to the buyout was likely to be turned into a support studio by Sumo Digital. The deal was facilitated by venture capital firm, Hiro Capital.
Speaking on the news, Daly commented:
This management buyout allows us to scratch the creative itch of continuing to work on new, original intellectual property, but also to partner with other studios on other projects when they fit in with our vision. This is what we are doing and we want to carry on doing it, so we’re happy to carry on in this vein.
Hiro Capital partner Spike Laurie added:
The Chinese Room is a huge British success story that has rightly been recognised as a unique creative force capable of competing on the world stage. From hiring British people to making games set in the UK, they’ve been one of our foremost creative studios and now they are once again in charge of their own destiny while remaining British.
The Chinese Room was acquired by Sumo Digital back in August 2018, and is best known for developing the titles Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
The Chinese Room is based in Brighton, UK and had its origins as a mod team working on Half-Life based out of Portsmouth in 2007. Its most recent title is Still Wakes the Deep, a psychological horror game set on an damaged oil platform in the North Sea during the 1970s. Dan Pinchbeck, the co-founder of The Chinese Room, pitched the game as ‘The Thing set on an oil rig,’ and the game received eight nominations at the 21st British Academy Games Awards.